FacultyIn the NewsResearchUncategorized

Conway lab research yields new insight on Danionella, an emerging model in the neurosciences

Research model featured on Developmental Dynamics cover

Developmental Dynamics, April 2021

A recently published paper by Kevin Conway, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Curator of Ichthyology, highlights the Danionella vertebrate model as an important resource for brain and nervous system research.

Species of Danionella, small freshwater fish, are among the smallest vertebrates in the world. The miniature size of Danionella is in part due to extreme cases of progenesis, a term used to describe development being cut short by early onset maturity.

Over time, progenesis has affected the skeleton of Danionella, resulting in the absence of 60 skeletal elements, including some of the roofing bones of the skull. The lack of a skull roof in Danionella combined with presence of a fully formed hearing and sound producing apparatus makes these organisms a useful model in neurophysiological studies.

Developmental Dynamics, a peer-reviewed scientific journal of developmental biology and one of three official journals of the American Association of Anatomists, featured Conway’s emerging vertebrate model of Danionella on the April 2021 cover.

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Graduate StudentIn the NewsResearchUncategorized

McCloy receives 2021 Ecological Society of America Graduate Student Policy Award

Texas A&M Ph.D. student joins 2021 GSPA cohort

Michael McCloy, a third-year Ph.D. student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Interdisciplinary Program at Texas A&M University and a Graduate Research Fellow with the Welder Wildlife Foundation, was one of 22 students to receive the 2021 Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Award.

This award allows graduate students to receive training in policy and communication prior to meeting with lawmakers. During the month of April, recipients will meet virtually to gain knowledge about the federal legislative process and science funding, to hear from ecologists working in federal agencies, and to meet with Members of Congress on Capitol Hill. The Congressional Visit Day provides GSPA recipients the opportunity to connect with policymakers and discuss the importance of federal funding and the need for research relief for biological and ecological sciences.

McCloy works in the avian ecology lab of Dr. Jacquelyn Grace and studies how bird communities respond to environmental disturbance. Specifically, his research investigates the resiliency of songbird communities following hurricanes along the Gulf Coast of the United States. His interest in science policy is motivated by a deep desire to develop sustainable, science-based policy and management initiatives that improve biodiversity conservation efforts and engage local communities. McCloy has a B.S. in Natural Resource Conservation and Management from Western Carolina University.

To learn more about the Ecological Society of America Graduate Student Policy Award and its 2021 recipients, read the press release announcement.

FacultyIn the NewsResearchUncategorized

Boutton, Wilcox named 2021 Ecology Society of America Fellows

Texas A&M Professors recognized for research contributions

Thomas Boutton, Ph.D., and Bradford Wilcox, Ph.D., were both recognized as 2021 Ecology Society of America (ESA) Fellows.

Thomas Boutton, Ph.D.

ESA Fellows are honored for their outstanding contributions to research in fields that advance or apply ecological knowledge in academics, government, non-profit organizations, and society.

Thomas Boutton, Ph.D., Regents Professor and Sid Kyle Endowed Chair in Biogeochemistry, was elected for outstanding scholarly contributions that have advanced understanding of the structure and function of grassland and savanna ecosystems, and for revealing how land cover and land-use changes in those systems have modified key biogeochemical processes in the carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles at multiple scales.

Bradford Wilcox, Ph.D.

Bradford Wilcox, Ph.D., Sid Kyle Endowed Professor in Arid and Semi-Arid Land Ecohydrology, was elected for his research elucidating causes and consequences of vegetation change on the ecohydrology of savannas and woodlands, including field studies conducted in North, Central and South America that have provided a deeper understanding of hydrological and other ecosystem changes during woody plant encroachment in semiarid regions.

To learn more about the ESA and its Fellows program, read the 2021 press release announcement.

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