The Lawrence Fellows Program, one year later
By Steven Blodgett
Lawrence Today magazine, Fall 2006
While
conducting her dissertation research on bats in Papua New Guinea
several years ago, biologist Deanna G. Pranke Byrnes (pictured, far right)
noticed something quite odd. Several
bat species she encountered appeared to be covered in olive-green fur — odd,
because mammal fur is normally found in various shades of brown, black, yellow,
or red, not green. As intriguing as that sighting was, the completion of her
dissertation and degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, took precedence
at the time, and the scientist put aside her curiosity for the moment, though
she did collect samples of the hair for future examination.
This past summer, two Lawrence biology students, Laura Muller, ’07 (left),
and Carisa Platt, ’08 (center), spent time in Science Hall comparing
samples of the olive-green fur with known strands of algae. Having discovered
that
the
green
hue is most likely produced by microscopic algae growing on and within the
individual hairs of the bats, Byrnes tasked her laboratory assistants with
tracking down exactly what kind of algae was involved.
Muller’s and Platt’s summer research experience was made possible,
both directly and indirectly, by the Lawrence Fellows program. Indirectly,
by bringing Deanna Byrnes to Lawrence for a two-year appointment as a Lawrence
Fellow in the Liberal Arts and Sciences and directly, by the program’s
encouragement of one-on-one learning opportunities between the fellows and
their students.
Great expectations
When the Lawrence Fellows program was first announced in 2005, aspirations
were high. The postdoctoral fellowships would help train the professoriate
of the future by providing young scholars with teaching opportunities and mentoring
and engaging them in collaborative faculty-student research at the undergraduate
level, facets of becoming a college teacher that were not being addressed in
research-focused graduate programs.
Lawrence students and Lawrence faculty would also benefit, as the fellows,
fresh from graduate school, shared the latest in scholarship and cutting-edge
research techniques being pursued at distinguished research universities. The
presence of the fellows, it was expected, would create new opportunities for
course development and teaching collaborations with current faculty, thereby
enhancing the educational offerings academic departments are able to provide
their students.
Now, one year later, with a new group of fellows arriving on campus, it is
fair to ask, “How well is the experiment working?”
While more sophisticated outcomes-research, funded by the Teagle
Foundation of New York, is being conducted to ascertain the impact of the fellows program,
we thought it would be interesting to take the pulse of the program at its
one-year anniversary by looking at the experiences of one particular scholar — biology
fellow Deanna Byrnes — and those she has touched in her first year at
Lawrence.
In search of color
“When I applied for the fellowship, I was finishing my Ph.D. at Madison
and had many options on the horizon as far as what I might do next,” Byrnes
recalls. “I considered the traditional science research postdoc, but
wasn’t sure I wanted to narrow my focus for the next three or four years
of my life to a single area of study.”
“I consider myself a generalist — I like to do ecology and evolution,
to work in the field and in the laboratory — but typical postdocs are
very specialized,” says Byrnes. “You work on a very discrete, specific
project, one normally funded by an outside source such as the National Science
Foundation or National Institutes of Health, to the exclusion of all else.”
With its commitment to a broad-based liberal education and its encouragement
of interdisciplinary connections, Byrnes found Lawrence to be the ideal match,
a place where she would be free to pursue her many diverse interests. “There
were times in graduate school when I felt as if I was the only one seeing color
in a world of black and white [a result of narrow research specialization],” she
recalls. “At Lawrence, I have found that others see color as well and
that it’s okay to step out of the cave.”
“Even after 12 months, I still am struck by the level of collegiality
among the faculty, how very cooperative and supportive everyone is in working
together
across departments. It is a whole different world from the research university
and you really can feel it — the expectation that biologists will talk
to historians,” Byrnes says.
Adding new perspectives
Byrnes’ faculty
mentor, associate professor of biology and the Raymond H. Herzog Professor
of Science Beth De Stasio, ’83 (pictured, far left), credits her with
having brought new perspectives in teaching and research to the biology department.
De Stasio, who team-taught the introductory course Principles of Biology with
Byrnes last fall, thinks mentor and fellow alike have learned from each other. “I’ve
picked up a couple tricks from her and I hope she has from me,” De Stasio
says.
Having worked in molecular systematics — the process of estimating evolutionary
relationships among organisms using molecular information — during her
graduate study at Madison, Byrnes developed her own course in the subject at
Lawrence. According to De Stasio, “none of us in the department really
know much about molecular systematics, so this was a new offering for our students.
“We hope to have Deanna do a professional workshop in molecular systematics
in the coming year,” De Stasio says. “By helping us, as colleagues,
learn more about the subject, we expect to be able to incorporate that into
our own courses after Deanna leaves.”
For Dana Raugi, ’06, having the opportunity to study molecular systematics
with Byrnes was a real coup. “Molecular systematics is really hot in
biology today,” Raugi says. “I was pleased to learn a new skill
that is not usually taught at small colleges and expect to get a lot of reactions
along the lines of ‘how did you learn that?’ when I get to graduate
school.”
Raugi bristles at any notion that the fellows are not “real” professors. “I
would stress that these fellows are not at all glorified teaching assistants.
All are making a concerted effort to learn what works and what doesn’t
in the classroom,” she says. “They aren’t just here to give
research release time for senior professors; they are providing new courses
and new expertise.”
Christopher Laumer, ’08, a biology and geology major, agrees. “From
the beginning, I was enthusiastic about the fellows idea,” Laumer says. “They
haven’t had much teaching experience, perhaps, but their recent graduate
school experience is definitely an advantage.” The fellows, as he sees
it, add more content to what can be provided by their host academic departments.
Laumer cites the example of an independent study project he plans to pursue
in the coming academic year on the paleogeological and paleobiological aspects
of the formation of the Isthmus of Panama. “Most of the biology faculty
are interested in the ecological aspects of biology,” he says. “Professor
Byrnes, however, brings a background in evolutionary biology and an interest
in the migration of mammals, so it was great to be able to bounce ideas off
her regarding the proposed project.”
The mentored become mentors
Melanie Ufkin, ’06, first met the new biology fellow when she was tasked
with introducing her for a Recent Advances in Biology lecture. Ufkin soon discovered
that they were fellow rowers and shared a mutual interest in crew. A relationship
developed, and she began turning to Byrnes as an informal advisor, including
acting as a sounding board for her thesis defense.
One area in which she sought out Byrnes’ advice was on her plans for
graduate school and her intent to take a year off to think more about which
of her interests she wanted to pursue. Ufkin recalls that she was initially
fearful that the idea might be “frowned upon” by graduate admission
deans but was reassured when Byrnes shared with her her own experience.
Ufkin, who planned on working as a research assistant at the Medical College
of Wisconsin, not only became convinced that, indeed, it was “okay” to
take some time off to consider what to do next but was relieved to hear that
a year’s worth of practical job experience would only make her more attractive
as a graduate school candidate. According to Ufkin, “Deanna’s advice
really meant a lot, because she recently had gone through the same process
I am about to go through.”
While the connection for Ufkin was rowing and graduate school, summer research
student Muller first came to know Byrnes through singing. When being interviewed
by The Lawrentian early in her tenure at Lawrence, Byrnes happened to comment
on how great it was to have a conservatory of music here and expressed her
desire to get more involved in music. Before she knew it, Byrnes was being
steered toward Ken Bozeman, the Frank C. Shattuck Professor of Music and chair
of the voice faculty. Enter Laura Muller, a double-degree voice and biology
student who was enrolled in Bozeman’s vocal pedagogy course.
Finding new self-confidence
Muller recalls that her first voice lessons with Byrnes as a student were “terrifying
in a way.”
“I was intimidated teaching someone else how to sing, let alone someone
older than I.” Yet, “Deanna was great,” says Muller. “She
was so accommodating and natural and didn’t laugh at any of my odd requests;
she made me feel comfortable as an instructor.”
In a role reversal, Muller soon had Byrnes for a teacher when she took Terrestrial
Field Ecology in the spring term. She watched as Byrnes became more comfortable
in her own role as a teacher. “Today, she has a lot more confidence,” Muller
says. “She was reserved early on but became more comfortable as time
went on, letting her personality come out.”
Faculty mentor De Stasio agrees. “Over the past year, Deanna’s
confidence has increased wonderfully. She has learned that whatever she provides
to the students will be terrific, that there is no one right way to do it.
Her lecture style has become more interactive and she is learning to be more
flexible in her teaching approach, all part of what it takes to be a good liberal
arts college teacher,” says De Stasio.
Prospects for the future
Even though she has only reached the halfway point of her two-year fellowship,
Byrnes is already gearing up for the next step — landing a tenure-track
position for the fall of 2007. She believes that the fellowship has definitely
helped her in that regard, in making her better prepared to take on the responsibilities
of scholar and teacher.
“I am hoping that by having the practical experience that I’ve
gained through this fellowship, people reviewing my application will actually
believe
me when I say I can do all that — teach the courses, work with undergraduates
in collaborative research, etc.” Byrnes says.
“Coming out of graduate school, I was very involved in science education
and pedagogy programs at Madison and had a great deal of teaching-assistant experience,
but I had not fully taught a course myself or supervised student research.” she
observes. “Now, with the Lawrence fellowship under my belt, I will be able
to hit the ground running at any school that hires me, as I will already have
prepared and taught at least six courses of my own.”
One year later, it’s clear that the Lawrence Fellows experiment is succeeding
as hoped and that the program is going strong. Just ask Deanna Byrnes or Beth
De Stasio. Or, perhaps, Melanie Ufkin and Laura Muller.
Oh, and that green bat hair under investigation?
It seems that the three-toed sloth also grows green algae in its fur, which may
help to camouflage its movements from both prey and predators. According to Byrnes,
as quoted by the magazine NewScientist, “It could be that algae grows on
lots of mammals in the tropics. We have just never looked before.”
Drawing from a pool of applicants that soared nearly 300 percent from its
initial year in 2005, Lawrence University has appointed five more recent
Ph.D. or
terminal graduate-degree recipients to its Lawrence Fellows in the Liberal
Arts and Sciences program for the 2006-07 academic year.
The five new appointments — representing an acceptance rate of less
than one percent from among this year’s 616 applicants — brings
the number of program fellows in residence at Lawrence this fall to 12. Seven
fellows who received two-year appointments in the first year of the postdoctoral
fellowship
program will return for their second year.
New appointments for 2006-07 (see also /dept/ora/Fellows_currentbios.shtml)
Adám Galambos, economics
University of Northern Iowa, B.A.; University of Minnesota, M.S., Ph.D. Interests:
microeconomics, game theory, social-choice theory
Joshua Hart, psychology
Skidmore College, B.A.; University of California, Davis, M.A., Ph.D.
Interests: mortality anxiety, denial of death, attachment theory
Karen Park Koenig, religious studies
Lawrence University B.A.; University of Chicago, M.A., Ph.D.
Interests: The Reformation, early modern Christianity
Amy R. Speier, anthropology
University of California, Berkeley, B.A.; University of Pittsburgh, Ph.D. Interests:
medical anthropology, health tourism, social anthropology
Valerie Zimany, studio art
University of the Arts, B.F.A.; Kanazawa College of Art, M.F.A.
Interests: ceramics, Japanese art