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GEMS
Group News
Louisiana State University E235 Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, LA 70803 office: 225-578-2469 fax: 225-578-2302  |
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Congratulations, Sarah, for
receiving the Geological Society of America "Farouk El-Baz
Student Research Grant" for your project, “Rare earth elements
and rates of fossilization in dinosaur bones from various
depositional environments of the Late Cretaceous, Montana.” The
Farouk El-Baz grant encourages and supports desert studies by
students worldwide who are either in the senior year of their
undergraduate studies or at the masters or Ph.D. level. Sarah's
pictured here with Dr. El-Baz at GSA.
Posted Nov., 2009.
Congratulations Kathleen! She
received the Best Poster Presentation Award (Life Science
Category, level II-upper-level undergraduate) in the LSU Triple Ex (Excite, Explore,
Experiment) Annual Symposium for Undergraduate Research,
sponsored by the LSU Office of Strategic Initiatives and the
Cain Center.
Here's Kathleen working with smelly sulfur water -->
Dr. Justin Birdwell and Dr. Engel
have the cover of the Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, volume
71, issue 2, for 2009. It accompanies their publication,
"Impact of recharge on chromophoric dissolved organic matter in
the Edwards Aquifer, Central Texas."
Welcome back everyone! And,
welcome the new faces in the lab, Sarah Keenan, Chang Lui, and
Changjie Liu. They are all new PhD students. It should be a
great year! Dr. Engel, Kathleen Brannen, Justin Birdwell, and Janez Mulec attended the International Congress of Speleology meeting in Kerrville, Texas, in July, 2009. The following are papers (extended abstracts) and abstracts of presentations that they or their collaborators made: - Brannen, K.M., Engel, A.S., and Birdwell, J.E. Tracing the origins of chromophoric dissolved matter in karst aquifers. Proceedings of the International Congress of Speleology meeting, Kerrville, Texas, July 19-26. (5 printed pgs; peer-reviewed) - Paoletii, M.G., Beggio, M., Pamio, A., Gomiero, T., Brilli, M., Dreon, A.L., Toniello, V., and Engel, A.S. Comparison of three moonmilk cave habitats associated with troglobitic beetles. Proceedings of the International Congress of Speleology meeting, Kerrville, Texas, July 19-26. (3 printed pgs; peer-reviewed) - Oarga, A., Mulec, J. Sebela, S., Rossmassler, K., Campbell, B.J., Engel, A.S. Microbial diversity from the sulphidic karst spring, Žveplenica-Dolenja Trebuša, Slovenia. Geomicrobiology of Cave and Karst Environments Symposium, International Congress of Speleology meeting, Kerrville, Texas, July 19-26 (oral presentation) - Porter, M.L., and Engel, A.S. Energy flow and productivity-diversity relationships in chemolithoautotrophically-based ecosystems. Geomicrobiology of Cave and Karst Environments Symposium, International Congress of Speleology meeting, Kerrville, Texas, July 19-26 (oral presentation) - Meisinger, D.B., Engel, A.S., Porter, M.L., Schmid, M., and Lee, N.M. The hunt for hidden biodiversity and novel functional groups: a case study of unique Chloroflexi affiliated species and other novel species from Lower Kane Cave, WY. USA. Geomicrobiology of Cave and Karst Environments Symposium, International Congress of Speleology meeting, Kerrville, Texas, July 19-26 (oral presentation) Posted August, 2009. Congratulations, Kelley for graduating from LSU in May, 2009!
>Congratulations, Cassie for receiving the 2009 Edward B. Picou Named Grant from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Foundation Grants in Aid program. Posted May, 2009.
Congratulations, Cassie, for receiving the 2009 William L. Wilson Scholarship in Karst Science Award from the Karst Waters Institute.
Welcome Brendan Headd to the lab,
as well as welcome everyone back from a Xmas break! You will
also see a new face around the lab this January - February. Dr. Janez Mulec (pictures at right), from the Karst Research
Institute in Postojna, Slovenia, is here conducting research on
the microbial diversity of sulfidic karst springs. < Jani Brendan >
For those of you who wonder if it snows in Louisiana, or Baton Rouge - the answer is YES. This is a pictures of LSU Lakes and creek on the way to campus, December 11, 2008. Baton Rouge got 3+ inches!
Dr. Annette Engel and colleagues
attend International Symposium for Subsurface Microbiology in
Shizouka, Japan, in November. Pictured (from left to right, top
to bottom): Mount Fuji; Karen Rossmassler (Univ. of Delaware) at
her poster; Karen, Annette, and Dr. Barb Campbell (Karen's
advisor); Dr. Janez Mulec (Karst Research Institute, Slovenia)
giving his presentation; Barb in Narusawa Ice Cave (lava tube)
near Mt. Fuji while on field excursion.
Posted December, 2008. Dr. Annette Engel attended a
China-US Geomicrobiology of Extreme Environments workshop in
October, which included being in Beijing for several days, then
traveling to south-central China to sample hot springs including
at Tengchong. Pictured (left to right) is the workshop meeting
room (and nice banner), Dr. Hongchen Jiang (former visiting
student in the lab at LSU) and Dr. Engel at Tengchong, and the
full group of Chinese and American (and one Canadian)
scientists. Welcome Cassie Gray and Skylar
White to the lab,
as well as welcome everyone back from a long and productive
summer!
Congrats Angela on
your graduation, as well as other
Spring
graduates!
Posted June., 2008 Welcome Amanda Jo Zimmerman and
Lindsey Johnson to the lab!
A lot of posters were presented at the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, CA in December. Good job! - Peng, Bao,
Anderson, Engel,
Carbonate-associated sulfate in lucinid (Bivalvia) shells
Chris Schulz and Angela Garcia presented posters at the
annual Geological Society of America Meeting in Denver, CO, in
October. Congrats on getting it done and putting together two
great posters!!! - Schulz, C., and Engel, A.S. (2007) Relating microbial gene sequences to environmental factors: Cutting through the trees. Geological Society of America meeting, Denver, CO, October (Poster presentation). - Green Garcia, A., Thiessen, M., Aronowsky, A., Anderson, L., and Engel, A.S. (2007) Implications of bacterial diversity within a modern lucinid bivalve habitat. Geological Society of America meeting, Denver, CO, October (Poster presentation). Posted November, 2007 Welcome
Lisa Boughner, Brendan Donnelly,
and Kelley Gwin to the lab!
June 2007, Environmental Microbiology, cover! The related article can be found at www.blackwell-synergy.com. Meisinger, D.B.*, Zimmermann, J.*, Ludwig, L., Schleifer, K.-H., Wanner, G. Schmid, M. Bennett, P.C., Engel, A.S., Lee, N.M. (2007 In situ detection of novel Acidobacteria in microbial mats from a chemolithoautotrophically-based cave ecosystem (Lower Kane Cave, WY, USA). Environmental Microbiology. 9(6): 1523-1534. doi:10.1111/j.1462-2920.2007.01271.x weblink. (*equal contribution) Posted May, 2007
2007 LSU Structural Geology students and TAs, chilling on the Rio Grande, Big Bend National Park, Texas, at the end of their Spring Break trip. For more information about this class, see Dr. Brian Darby's webpage.
Posted April, 2007
Congratulations to
Angela Green-Garcia for
receiving $1000 from the Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid program for her
thesis research! Welcome Kathleen and Maureen to the group! Posted April, 2007 Chris, Robin, and Annette attended the "Time in Karst" meeting in Postojna, Slovenia. For pictures from caves in the region, go to the Cave Pictures (link). Posted April, 2007 Chris Schulz will be presenting the
poster, "Molecular
investigations of Bacteroides as microbial source
tracking tools in southeast Louisiana watersheds" at the Fall 2006 American Geophysical Union meeting,
in San Francisco, CA.
Pictured are Dr. Megan Porter (left) and Dr. Engel (right) at the steps leading to the Postojna Cave (Jama means cave in Slovenian) Posted Dec., 2006 The GEMS group welcomes the new graduate student, Chris Schulz to the Department and to the Research Group. Posted August, 2006
Congratulations to Robin Reger for receiving the James G. Mitchell Award at the National Speleological Society meeting in Bellingham, Washington. The award is given at the meeting to the best speaker under 25 yrs old, and a member of the NSS. Posted August, 2006
Members of the GEMS group are presenting at several meetings this summer: National Speleological Society Meeting, Bellingham, Washington:
- Reger, R., Porter, M.L., Menichetti, M., Engel,
A.S. Diversity comparisons between microbial mats and endosymbiont gut
International Symposium on Microbial Sulfur Metabolism, Münster, Germany. - Engel, A.S., Lichtenberg, H., Prange, A., Hormes, J. Sulfur speciation in naturally occurring filamentous microbial mats from sulfidic springs: A XANES spectroscopy study. 19th Annual Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association , Kobe, Japan (invited) - Engel, A.S., and Randall, K.W. Microbial colonization and weathering of carbonates in deep subsurface settings. Posted July, 2006 Congratulations to Kelli Willson Randall for successfully defending her MS thesis "Assessing the potential impact of microbes in the Edwards and Trinity Aquifers of Central Texas" on Friday, March 17, 2006! Posted Feb, 2006  The
children's book, Cave Sleuths (as part of the Science on the Edge
series), by Laurie Lindrop, was released. The book describes exciting cave
research, as specifically biospeleology and cave geomicrobiology research, and
features the work of several cave scientists around the world, including the
story of Dr. Engel's MS graduate research in the Movile Cave, Romania.
The cover photo, by Kevin Downey, is of Lower Kane Cave in Wyoming (link to Engel Lab cave photos), and features Dr. Libby Stern (in red) sampling the Upper Spring orifice water.
Posted
Feb, 2006
Robin Reger attended the
Molecular
Geomicrobiology short course sponsored by the Mineralogical Society of
America (MSA) at the University of California-Berkeley in December, before the
American Geophysical Meeting. Robin received a scholarship from the NASA
Astrobiology Institute to attend.
GEMS lab group at departmental Halloween Party, 2005. Casper = Kelli; Jezabelle = Lindsay; Dead Caver = Robin; Bride of Frankenstein = Annette; Street "walker" with kitty ears = Angela (meow...)
Members of the GEMS group attended the Geological Society of America Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, and gave the following posters and papers: - Randall, K.W., Johnson, L., and Engel, A.S. (2005) Assessing the potential impact of microbes in the Edwards and Trinity Aquifers of Central Texas. (abstract link) - Armbrister, O.L., Jr., Engel, A.S., Ferrell, R.E. (2005) Geomicrobiology: An essential teaching tool for GAEMP. (abstract link) - Engel, A.S. and Porter, M.L. (2005) Exploring the microbial diversity of sulfidic karst springs and evaluation of microbial indicator species. (abstract link) Posted October, 2005 The GEMS group welcomes the new graduate students, Robin Reger (from Texas A& M Galveston) and Angela Green-Garcia (Univ. of Houston), to the Department and to the Research Group. Robin and Angela are both deciding what they would like to work on for their thesis research. Posted August, 2005
After the meeting, Dr. Engel and her colleagues from TUM and UT-Austin went to Lower Kane Cave, Wyoming, to conduct field work, and visited Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park. Posted August, 2005
Posted August, 2005 Kelli Willson received a scholarship from the Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research ($200) and a scholarship from the South Texas Geological Society ($2000) for her MS thesis research. Congrats, Kelli! Posted August, 2005
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  Please contact Dr. Annette Engel for more information regarding the research or photographs. Call (225) 578-2469 or email. Address: Department of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. |
| ©AS Engel2009 |
<Congratulations,
Congratulations,
LSU Group, Jan. 2009
GEEK
group featured on LSU Geology & Geophysics
Dr.
Engel visited Postojna, Slovenia, for an International Long-term
Ecological Research Network workshop, sponsored by the National
Science Foundation (to Dr. Dave Culver, American University),
the Slovenian Research Agency, and Scientific Research Centre of
the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. 
