May 23
2013 Outstanding Research Associate Award
Jeff Echols, Biological Sciences Instructor and Director of Lab Operations, recently received MSU's Office of Regulatory Compliance and Safety Outstanding Research Associate Award.

The award honors Mr. Echols' relentless and outstanding safety efforts to ensure Harned Hall is a safe place for students, faculty, and staff.

May 22
Biological Sciences - Preparing Future Leaders
Ashley Helton, a 2009 Mississippi State graduate in Biological Sciences, was recently selected as Valedictorian for the Southern College of Optometry's Spring 2013 graduating class.

Southern College of Optometry, located in Memphis, Tennessee, ranks as one of the nation’s leading institutions of optometric education.

May 3
2013 Outstanding Graduate Student Mentor Award
Dr. Gary Ervin, Professor of Biological Sciences, recently received the 2013 Outstanding Graduate Student Mentor Award. The award, sponsored by the MSU Alumni Association and Office of the Graduate School, is made to a member of the MSU faculty based on well-documented examples of the highest dedication to graduate students while serving as an outstanding mentor.

A mentor can be a major advisor or a member of a graduate committee, but being an outstanding mentor is much more than simply advising. A mentor provides wisdom, technical knowledge, assistance, support, encouragement, empathy and respect throughout, and most probably beyond, your graduate career. A graduate student reaps exceptional benefits from the mentor’s support, skills, wisdom and coaching. Mentoring also brings to a graduate student an understanding how his/her distinctive skills and ambitions fit into the opportunities offered by a graduate education. The mentor emphasizes the importance of scholarship, and university life and offers guidance in career choices.

May 3
Dr. Donaldson Receives 2013 National Pork Board Swine Industry Award
Dr. Janet Donaldson, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, recently received the 2013 National Pork Board Swine Industry Award for Innovation. The research that garnered this prestigious award was entitled "Novel Use of Lipid-Producing Bacteria to Increase Circulating Triglycerides in Swine."

Identification of Pictured (left to right):

Mr. Brandon Cox, National Pork Board SE Representative; Dr. Donaldson; Dr. Wayne Green, President of the Southern Section of American Society for Animal Science.

April 30
BURP 2013 Downer Research Awards
The Biological Undergraduate Research Program held it's 6th annual Research Symposium on April 12, 2013, in Harned Hall. Twenty poster entries and presentations were judged by a panel of MSU Faculty and graduate students and the top three were selected for Downer Undergraduate Research Awards.

The students receiving awards were Connor Dennison, First Place (Dr. Donna Gordon's lab); Kelly Callahan, Second Place (Dr. Justin Thornton's lab); and Rushil Randive, Third Place (Dr. James Stewart's lab). In addition, Dr. Donna Gordon, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, received the First Place Mentor Award.

The students each received an engraved plaque, a cash award, and Connor also received an engraved cowbell--GO RESEARCH DAWGS!

April 24
Dr.Ervin Receives Henry Family Research Fund Award
Dr. Gary Ervin, Professor of Biological Sciences, is the recipient of a Spring 2013 Henry Family Research Fund award. The award of $5,000 will be used to fund research using microscopic algae to study processes of community assembly and invasion in aquatic ecosystems.

March 20
Hanna Dorman Receives Research Prize
Congratulations to Hanna Dorman, recipient of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists Honors and Awards Committee 2013 Undergraduate Research Prize.

Hanna is a Biological Sciences Masters student (Botany concentration) under the direction of Dr. Lisa Wallace. The undergraduate research evaluated for this award was also conducted in Dr. Wallace's lab.

The committee ranked applicants on the basis of their innovative research, its importance to science, as well as the evidence of independent work and excellence in results and methodology.

March 18
Dr. Richard Webby Receives Dr. Lewis Brown Lectureship Award
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February 28
2013-14 Scholarship Awards
CONGRATULATIONS to the Recipients of the Department of Biological Sciences Scholarship Awards for 2013-2014

Ramsey & Elaine O’Neal Scholarship
Jerry Leonard Rodgers, Hannah Lynn Hults,
Haley Nicole Jenkins, Frances Belle Carter
John C. Longest Pre-Med Scholarship
Caitlin Renee Henley
Harned Memorial Scholar-Microbiology
Jacob Morgan Stout
Coy E. Patton Memorial Scholarship
Andrew James Harper
Scott Ferguson Memorial Fund
Samuel Anton Twedt
Mildred Watkins Brand Pre-Med Scholarship
Dejanae Dilworth