Courses I teach:

M310/M315 Microbiology lecture and laboratory

J200/J201 Medical microbiology lecture and laboratory

M420 Microbial Ecology 

Personal and Professional Information:

Education and recent publications        

Research interests

Research students (current students in blue):

*Clarkson University, my first academic home.

Moser Leather Tannery and Loop Island Wetlands Project

In collaboration with Al Goodman, president of A.W. Goodman & Associates, we've been conducting a microbiological survey of the Moser Leather Tannery and the adjacent 47 acre Loop Island Wetlands located in New Albany, IN. See below for an abstract that describes some of our work and a few pictures from the study. 

Influence of >100 years of tannery activity on a wetland community: A service-learning project for undergraduate microbiologists

Presented at the 2004 ASMCUE meeting in New Orleans, LA

In this project a student-community partnership was established to conduct a hands-on microbiological investigation of the effects of >100 years of tannery activity on a wetland community. The study site includes a 47-acre wetland in close proximity to a tannery that was operational from the late 1800s to early 2002. Students enrolled in Microbial Ecology, an upper level course for undergraduates, examined a variety of unique environments including tanyard pools within the tannery complex, soils potentially contaminated by tannery waste, and water and sediment from two outdoor waste lagoons. Throughout the study, standard culture-dependent methods were compared to molecular-based culture-independent techniques such as ARDRA and PCR-DGGE. Student activities included, i) interfacing with the landowner to construct a hypothesis-driven research plan to investigate the wetland site, ii) completion of a suite of microbiological tests designed to address the proposed hypotheses, iii) composition of a final report that was presented to the landowner. Additionally students participated in a wetland cleanup and visited an elementary school science club to foster interest in microbiology.

IUS Microbiology class on a field trip to the Moser Leather Tannery (Fall 2004).

Fluorescence microscopy of bacteria in spent tanning fluid.

Microbiology resources: 

Bad Bug Book www.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/intro.html

CDC public health image library phil.cdc.gov/Phil/

Introduction to clinical microbiology medic.med.uth.tmc.edu/path/00001450.htm

MicrobioNet  http://www.sciencenet.com.au/profiles.htm 

Cells Alive  http://www.cellsalive.com/howbig.htm   

Microbelibrary www.microbelibrary.org

Microbes info http://www.microbes.info/ 

www.bacteriamuseum.org

Web design and implementation by Elizabeth Crowell, 2001.