Biology Department at James Madison University

Join us on Thursday and Friday this week for the 34th annual Biosymposium!

We Can Now Track Individual Monarch Butterflies. It’s a Revelation. (Gift Article) Scientists used tiny new sensors to follow the insects on journeys that take thousands of miles to their winter colonies in Mexico.

Please join us this Friday, April 4, 2025, 12:40-1:30pm in Bioscience 1007 or on Zoom, for the second round of first-year graduate student proposal seminars:

Chelsea Rodrigues (Advisor: David Hembry): Assessment of symbiosis between Phyllanthus (Phyllanthaceae) and Epicephala (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) in the Caribbean

Mikayla Creek (Advisor: David Hembry): Testing for Codivergence in a Parasitic Plant-Insect Interaction: Leafflower (Nellica polygonoides) and Leafflower Moth (Epicephala)

Kylie Bailey (Advisor: Dana Moseley): Brood X Cicada Impacts on Avian Communities and Soundscapes

Please join us this Friday, March 28th at 12:40 in Bioscience 1007 or on Zoom for first-year graduate student thesis proposals:

Helen St. John (Advisor: Lee Brown): Impacts of radio telemetry tags on monarch butterfly movement, behavior, and survival

Ian Barry (Advisor: Lauren Sarringhaus): Automating the Quantification of Terrestrial Quadrupedal Locomotion in Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) with Machine Learning

Carly Anderson (Advisor: Kelsey Reider): Wild Andean Camelids as Drivers of Ecosystem Shift Following Rapid Glacier Retreat

This past weekend was the premier of The Americas documentary on NBC. It is a 10-part series that took 5 years, 180 expeditions, and is the most expensive project in NBC history.

JMU Biology's Dr. Kelsey Reider was involved in The Andes episode as a scientific expert, and in 2022 spent a month filming in the remote high Andes with a BBC crew. She also worked on the story and the script with the BBC producers. From Dr. Reider, "My contributions to this episode might be one of the most impactful science education activities of my career since it will reach millions of viewers."

Check out NBC's The Americas documentary to learn more about our amazing planet!

Everything To Know about The Americas on NBC Get all the information on The Americas, NBC's upcoming 10-part nature docuseries narrated by Tom Hanks.

Congratulations to Associate Professor in the Department of Biology Dr. George Vidal, in collaboration with director Dr. Kerry Cresawn and the JMU Center for STEM Education and Outreach, who recently hosted the 7th annual JMU Brain Bee. The event brought high school students from Virginia, DC and Maryland to experience the JMU campus, many for the first time. Participants met JMU undergraduates studying neuroscience, explored hands-on neurophysiology demos with Biology Professor Dr. Corey Cleland, and even held human brains. Congratulations to all on a wonderful event!

Please join us on Friday, February 28th at 12:40 p.m. in Bioscience 1007 for a presentation from Dr. James P. Nataro, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Virginia, on the topic of "Escherichia coli in the gastrointestinal tract: The question is the answer."

This Saturday February 22nd, wife Lori and I (Dr. Herrick) are walking (in the cold!) to help raise money for our local homeless shelter Open Doors (https://www.valleyopendoors.org). If you can donate $25 dollars to the cause that would be much appreciated, both by us and especially by those who will benefit from it.

We're halfway to our goal of $500 and we hope you can help. Hey, Lori has MS and she's going to get out there and trudge two miles... in the cold!

Here is the link for our team: https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=5486280&Referrer=direct%2fnone

It’s cold out there! The Coldest Night of the Year is a winterrific family-friendly fundraising walk in support of local charities. Let’s change the tune for people experiencing hurt, hunger, and homelessness... because it’s cold out there.

Join us on Friday, October 25th at 12:40 p.m. on Zoom (see QR code below) for a presentation from Mariana Torrente of Brooklyn College - CUNY on "Histone Modifications in ALS/FTD: New Opportunities in Neurodegenerative Disease." See you then!

Please join us on Friday, October 11th at 12:40 p.m. in Bioscience 1007 for a presentation from Vincent R. Farallo from the University of Scranton on the topic of "Ecophysiology and the importance of biological scale." See you there!