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ASU Biology Students Win Research Awards

February 19, 2013

Two Angelo State University biology students won top prizes for their research presentations at the annual meeting of the Texas Society of Mammalogists (TSM) Feb. 15-17 at the Texas Tech University Center at Junction.

Senior Malorri Hughes won the Vernon Bailey Award and a $400 honorarium for best poster presentation in classical mammalogy at the organismal level for her project “Prevalence of the Sinus Roundworm, Skrjabingylus chitwoodorum, in Rabies-Negative Texas Skunks (Mephitis mephitis).”  Her faculty research mentor is Dr. Robert Dowler.

Also, graduate student Wesley Brashear won the Clyde Jones Award and a $400 honorarium for best poster presentation in studies pertaining to mammalian cytology, evolution and systematics.  His project on bat systematics is titled “Further Evidence for the Basal Divergence of Cheiromeles (Chiroptera: Molossidae).”  Dr. Loren Ammerman is the faculty research mentor for Brashear and his research partner, fellow graduate student Sarah Bartlett.

On a related note, ASU biology graduate Molly McDonough, now a Ph.D. student at Texas Tech University, won the Robert Packard Award for best overall research paper presentation.

Eighteen ASU undergraduate and graduate students attended the TSM meeting, including Krysta Demere, who presented a research poster titled “Investigation of Bat Populations and Activity in Northern Tom Green and Southwestern Coke Counties.”  Also attending were biology faculty Drs. Ammerman, Dowler, Mike Dixon and Terry Maxwell.