Students Showcase Original Research at National Conference

Pictured: Dr. Ashley Beck, Joel Moore, and Tiffany Altermatt at the conference venue (Oregon Convention Center).

Over the winter break in early January, Associate Professor of Genetics Dr. Ashley Beck traveled to Portland, Oregon, with two undergraduate students to present at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting. Together with collaborators from the University of Portland and Gonzaga University, Dr. Beck and her team shared their findings regarding the impacts of urbanization on ecosystem and wildlife health. The project involved intensive fieldwork live-trapping Western deer mice and collecting habitat data across a variety of urban and rural parks in Spokane, Washington. Students then analyzed samples in Carroll’s labs using Nanopore GridION sequencing to characterize the microbiome and analyze potential relationships with other factors that influence ecosystem health.

Dr. Beck was awarded National Science Foundation funding through the Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) initiative, which provided the means to travel and present at this national meeting. Two of her summer research students – Tiffany Altermatt and Joel Moore – presented posters on their own analysis into the dataset collected last summer, entitled “Investigating the relationship between soil microbiome diversity and immune function in deer mice” and “Urbanization effects on soil microbiome, plant diversity, and deer mouse population density.” Their posters joined the ranks of numerous other posters presented by both undergraduate and graduate students. Dr. Beck also delivered a talk entitled “Investigating short-term dynamics of gut microbiome composition in the Western deer mouse,” which has been invited for publication in the society journal, Integrative & Comparative Biology.

This project represents a unique opportunity for students to get involved in high-impact, externally funded research and learn the value of teamwork in a collaborative, multi-institutional framework.

SICB was an excellent opportunity to network with like-minded peers, but also to invoke questions that I had never considered before. Presenting at SICB helped me to strengthen my analytical abilities and my communication skills, allowing me to more effectively convey information to different audiences.
~ Tiffany Altermatt, junior, Newman Lake, WA, Biology and Anthrozoology major

While at the Oregon Convention Center for the conference, faculty and students had the opportunity to attend a variety of sessions and talks regarding ecology and evolution and the technology and methods used to investigate different research questions in a variety of different systems from bighorn sheep to microorganisms, highlighting the many scales of biology and the intersecting disciplines involved in research. Participants also had plentiful opportunities to network with others in both academia and industry. This year’s conference theme was “Science has a voice… Inquiry has a place… You have a home… at SICB,” emphasizing involvement and belonging in science for everyone.

“SICB was a great experience as an undergraduate being able to connect with post-grad and post-doc students. It was enlightening to see how the world of academia continues after graduation.”
~ Joel Moore, junior, Spokane Valley, WA, Biology major

Carroll's small size, individualized faculty mentorship, and focus on high-caliber undergraduate research, including recognition by federal grant awards, provides these extraordinary opportunities for our undergraduate students at a level that is uncommon for many colleges and universities.