In this day and age, one can rarely find a room in the Department of Biological Sciences that does not have a computer. Regular maintenance by expert personnel is essential. Fortunately we can always count on our computer support specialist team, Tim Leefeldt and Julie Stewart. Tim joined our department in Feb 2002. In addition to providing support for teaching labs, research labs, and office computers, some of his major projects include the redesign of the department's website, setup and maintenance of secure network shares, setup of a department kiosk to showcase seminars and awards, and support for the department's video conferencing rooms. In addition, Tim regularly trains faculty and staff in the use of computing resources and acts as a liaison between Biology and the rest of the UD technical support community. Julie is a new addition to our computer support specialist team.   Julie received her B.S. in psychology from Penn State University and worked for a few years with individuals with a rare genetic illness associated with chronic hunger called Prader-Willi. Seeking a career change, Julie trained in helpdesk support and took a desktop support position at DuPont. In Fall 2012, Julie joined our department and we are happy to have her on staff.   Julie currently works with Tim and focuses on supporting lab PCs, performing monthly updates and regular computer maintenance. We thank Tim for all of his hard work over the years and welcome Julie to the department.

The tragic and senseless Boston Marathon bombings in April occurred just as the "Experimental Biology 2013" meeting was set to open at the Boston Convention Center. The lockdown of the city no doubt affected travel plans for hundreds to thousands of scientists and students from around the world. For a group of UD undergraduate students and faculty it meant a quick change of plans and a return to campus, instead of leaving on a train from Wilmington Friday afternoon. However, by 7:00 am the next day, the group was on board train 160 and scheduled to arrive in Boston just in time for an undergraduate poster competition sponsored by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB). It is commendable that our students were able to rush to the convention center upon arrival, set up their posters and remain composed during the judging. We are proud to report that two students, Allison McCague (Biological Sciences) and Zachary March (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) won Honorable Mention Awards. This group of very talented research students also included Christine Dang, Megan Dumas, Kahina Ghanem, Nicholas Lombardi and Laura Powell from Biological Sciences, and Helen Schmidt and Monica Pirigyi from Chemistry and Biochemistry. The EB meetings draw tens of thousands of researchers from around the world. For our students, whose research and travel have been supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Undergraduate Science Education Program grant, this was a great opportunity to not only participate in poster competitions (both ASBMB and The American Physiological Society), but also to present their work in a topical scientific session and to meet and talk to scientists with similar research interests. The University's HHMI grants have sponsored undergraduate research and travel to the annual EB meeting every year since 2001.  Read more. . .  

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