A-State Environmental Sciences Graduate Program

11/05/2025

Today, EVS PhD student Jen Terry (co-advised by Dr. Lori Neuman-Lee and Dr. Virginie Rolland) presented at the conference of the International Society of Wildlife Endocrinologists at the Saint Louis Zoo in St. Louis, MO. Jen presented “Immune-endocrine interactions in a wild freshwater turtle,” which discussed her work as a MS Biology (AState) and for her dissertation.

10/08/2025

EVS PhD Student Jen Terry and her advisors, Dr. Virginie Rolland and Dr. Lori Neuman-Lee recently published "Sex-specific immune component contribution to Escherichia coli killing ability in Trachemys scripta elegans" in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

With this publication, Jen was also featured as an Early Career Researcher:
https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/228/16/jeb251361/369013/ECR-Spotlight-Jennifer-Terry

10/01/2025

EVS PhD Student Alex Worm is the first author of "Repeated Successful Nest Sharing and Cooperation Between Western Kingbirds (Tyrannus verticalis) and a Female Western Kingbird×Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher (T. forficatus) Hybrid", published in Ecology and Evolution earlier this year.

Co-authors are Worm's advisors, Dr. Than Boves and Dr. Drew Sweet, along with Em Donohue, an A-State Molecular Biosciences PhD student.

PDF of the paper is linked!

09/24/2025

Zach Campbell (Gustafson Lab), Taylor Fiedor (Gustafson Lab), and Nora Hines (Sweet Lab) presented their research at the International Wildlife Congress in Lillehammer, Norway held this September 2025.

This research and travel was funded through NSF NRT and NSF BRC awards, and through the Beck College of Sciences & Mathematics MBS program.

09/17/2025

EVS PhD student, Jen Terry, and EVS faculty members, Dr. Virginie Rolland and Dr. Lori Neuman-Lee, recently published an article in Integrative and Comparative Biology. In "Characterizing Primary Immune Responses Against Three Antigens in a Reptile," Terry et al. examined turtle immune responses to bacterial, fungal, and viral antigens.

Link to corrected proof:
https://academic.oup.com/icb/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/icb/icaf053/8140839?fbclid=PAQ0xDSwKdvNRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABp2X4siZVsEiqH-pdtptCc5rIQWcodSFQxbf7NFgPH59XDUOzcNUnIgSRXp-x_aem_cvG6ffp1dSfuVZ_2w5eYGg&login=false

Synopsis. Emerging diseases threaten wildlife worldwide and understanding immune function in the context of the ecology of an organism is critical in predi

09/11/2025

EVS faculty member, Dr. Than Boves, recently published an article in Forest Ecology and Management. In "Assessing longer-term effectiveness of forest management guidelines on breeding habitat for cerulean warblers", Raybuck et al. found that Cerulean warbler density was negatively associated with increased midstory cover. This suggests that management strategies that prolong open woodland conditions may be needed to benefit cerulean warbler populations.

Link to the paper:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112725005134

Photo credit: All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

09/04/2025

Our EVS students and faculty were busy this past summer! The Ecotoxicology research group attended and presented their work at the Mid-South regional SETAC meeting this past May.

08/27/2025

Environmental Sciences doctoral students Nora Hines and Alex Worm recently presented posters on their research at the American Ornithological Society meeting in St. Louis, MO in August!