UW Stable Isotope Facility receives NSF award to analyze soil samples

UW Stable Isotope Facility (SIF), received an NSF award to analyze soil samples collected from all across the country. Professor David Williams (Head, Department of Botany) is the faculty director of SIF commented that "we will be analyzing soil samples for carbon and nitrogen isotopes".  This award recognizes SIF as one of "the elite facilities for stable isotope analysis in the US", according to Craig Cook, who is the facility director.

SIF Facility Director Craig Cook (left) speaks with
Professor Dan Yakir from the Weizmann Institute
in Israel who visited UW recently

 For more information about this award please visit UW News

Link to Dr. Williams' Lab webpage: http://www.uwyo.edu/dgw/home.html

"Mountains and Plains" - Book Release Celebration, Nov. 5, 2014

Book Release Celebration

"Mountains and Plains: The Ecology
of Wyoming Landscapes" 2nd edition

By Dennis Knight, George Jones, William Reiners and William Romme 

Wednesday, November 5, 2014. 5:00 - 8:00 pm
UW Berry Center (10th and Lewis Street)

Join in celebrating the book release of "Mountains and Plains: The Ecology of Wyoming Landscapes" 2nd edition by Dennis Knight, George Jones, William Reiners and William Romme. The second edition of this popular resource for land managers, teachers, scientists, students and enthusiasts is enhanced with color illustrations, additional chapters and new maps. Come celebrate the book release with a concert, presentation and comments by the authors, and book sale and signing.

 Celebration Activities include:

5:00 Welcome reception and concert, featuring cello and guitar by Julian Saporiti and Stephanie Flores.

6:00 Comments on the book by authors Dennis Knight, George Jones, William Reiners and William Romme.

7:00 Socializing, book sale and signing by the authors. Appetizers and beverages provided.

 

Dr. Ellen Currano joins as faculty in UW Botany Department

Ellen with a ~50 million year old fossil tree
stump in the Wind River Basin, Wyoming

Ellen Currano is our newest faculty member, with a joint appointment in Botany and Geology and Geophysics. She received a BS in geology and BA in biology from the University of Chicago and PhD in geosciences from Penn State.

The last two years of her graduate career were spent as a predoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Wyoming, she was an NSF postdoctoral fellow at Southern Methodist University and an assistant professor of geology at Miami University (OH).

Ellen is a paleobotanist who studies the response of ancient plants and insect herbivores to environmental perturbations. Her research focuses on the Early Paleogene (65-45 million years ago) of Wyoming and the Paleogene-Neogene transition (30-20 million years ago) in Ethiopia.

22 million year old leaf fossil from the Mush Valley of Ethiopia. Insects fed on this leaf
when it was alive, and the feeding damage is preserved in the fossil record.

Prospective graduate students interested in pursuing field-based paleobotanical research in Wyoming are encouraged to email her.