 |
Biology research
and internships
On campus
In addition to lab work for biology courses, students have several opportunities to work with faculty on research projects with potential to impact the scientific community and the world:
Dr. Ralph Davis, a former research scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, currently holds a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue his research on parasitic nematodes. Exceptional biology students are selected to assist Davis, a world renowned roundworm expert, in research that leads to drugs that combat dangerous parasites in developing countries.
Dr. Laurie Furlong and Dr. Todd Tracy and their students have been working on a long-term research project funded by grants from the Iowa Science Foundation that examines the impact of European Buckthorn on native forests, including the Northwestern College forest and the forest at Oak Grove county Park near Hawarden, Iowa. Dr. Tracy and his student also have been removing invasive Easter Red Cedars from the prairies at Oak Grove and the Nature Conservancy's Niobrara Preserve near Valentine, Neb.
Dr. Todd Tracy’s ecological science students and Terra Nova club members are participating in the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ IOWATER program, monitoring the water quality of northwest Iowa rivers and streams.
Dr. Laurie Furlong's plant ecology students have explored pollinator-plant relationships at the college's prairie restoration site as part of an ongoing investigation of how native plant species may be impacted by the loss of important pollinator species.
Off campus
Students can receive summer grants for collaborative work with faculty. Students have traveled to California with Dr. Furlong to participate in a long-term stream ecology study on Santa Cruz Island. They have also spent summers assisting Dr. Davis with his roundworm research.
In addition, numerous opportunities exist for science students to spend summers doing paid research at universities and laboratories across the U.S. Recent students have worked with research scientists at the universities of Iowa, Nebraska and North Carolina, as well as at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and Clark Atlanta University in Georgia. Their research in areas like cancer, neurobiology and proteins has been funded by the NIH and the National Science Foundation.
Ecology students have interned with the state of South Dakota, doing water testing, and with the O'Brien County Conservation Board.
|
|
|
|
 Biology |
|
|
|
|
