MSU Biology

Biology graduate student Anna Faust recently presented a poster of her ongoing thesis research at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in New Orleans. The title was “Is long-term heavy metal exposure correlated with condition and behavior of Boreal Treefrogs”. Anna received great feedback from other conference participants and was able to get to know many professionals working in her field of amphibian ecology.

The recent Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in New Orleans was attended by several MSU Biology folks, including current members and alums. All of our attendees gave presentations about their research! Current MSU Biology participants were Dr. Alicia Mathis and Anna Faust (grad student in the Mathis lab), who both made presentations about behavior of animals (fish and frog tadpoles, respectively) in polluted waters. MSU alum Abi Nagl (graduate from Mathis lab) presented her thesis research about salamander behavior; Abi is now a PhD student at Arkansas State University. MS alum Dr. Dylan Maag (graduate from Greene lab) presented a review of spatial ecology of pitvipers; Dr. Maag is currently on the faculty at West Texas A&M University. All greatly enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect. Once a Bear, always a Bear!

Meet Jordan Murray! Jordan graduated from Missouri State University this May and was a wonderful addition to the Biology Department. She is now working as an Environmental Program Analyst with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

A few photos from the Animal Behavior Society Conference 2026 featuring our undergraduate students presenting their research posters!

Congratulations to Dalton Brown, Sophie Bryan, Alex Keat, and Steven Kiracofe on representing the group so well. Dalton completed his project with Dr. Nadje Najar, while Sophie, Alex, and Steven worked with Dr. Kathleen Church. We're proud of all of their hard work and the excellent job they did presenting their research!

Dr. Kissoon-Charles lab students (Teressa, Ben and Sarah) attended the 2026 Aquatic Plant Management Society 66th Annual conference. Top phoho was taken of Teressa during her oral presentation. Bottom: taken during student filed trip where Teressa, Ben and Sarah mapped out invasive salt cedar at the wetlands.

Congratulations to Nicole Nalley!
Nicole, a former graduate student of Dr. Durham, is currently working at WashU Medicine in St. Louis as a Research Tech II studying the signaling networks that control lens development and how these processes contribute to congenital and degenerative eye diseases.

Congratualtions to Mikayla Scharnhorst!
Mikayla, a former graduate student of Dr. Durham, is working at DelRicht Research as a Clinical Research Coordinator.

Congrats on your new job! Donovan Aardema Faigh will be a Clinical Lab Specialist at Creative Testing Solutions, a nonprofit blood and plasma testing laboratory in St. Louis.

The Biology Department would like to congratulate Erin Manning on her position with bioMérieux. Erin was an exceptional student in biology and a former prep lab assistant in microbiology. She will be working on the quality control team at bioMériux. There she will work with VITEK screening cards, TECAN dispensary robots, and environmental testing.