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About the Authors
- University of Arkansas Press
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About the Authors James Bednarz received his undergraduate degree in fisheries and wildlife biology from New Mexico State University. He completed a MS degree in animal ecology at Iowa State University and his PhD degree in biology at the University of New Mexico. He has broad interests in ecology and conservation and began his career working on fish and aquatic systems, but later focused his research on birds, mammals, and conservation issues. Most recently, he has conducted research on six continents, emphasizing avian population ecology and conservation. He has published over 120 scholarly works, including peer-reviewed journal articles, monographs, book reviews, book chapters, conference proceedings, and one technical book, and was the editor of the Journal of Raptor Research for five years. He has received over $3 million of research grants and typically advises between six and twelve graduate students as a professor of wildlife ecology at Arkansas State University. Alan Christian became an assistant professor of biological sciences at Arkansas State University in 2004. He is an aquatic ecologist who has been conducting mussel research since 1992. His master’s thesis consisted of surveying and characterizing freshwater mussel communities in the lower White River and the lower Cache River in Arkansas. He earned degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh (BS), Arkansas State University (MS), and Miami University (PhD) and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Arkansas State University in the Environmental Sciences Program. He continues to dive and conduct research on freshwater mussels and other aquatic organisms and aquatic ecosystems. He has been the recipient of over $500,000 in grant money from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Federal Highway Works Administration, and the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. Part of this grant money has been used to train and employ six graduate students and over ten undergraduate students at ASU in aquatic ecosystem research. 169 David Gilmore received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Maine and Master’s and PhD degrees in microbiology from Indiana University and the University of Connecticut, respectively . He has been teaching microbiology and genetics to students at Arkansas State University since 1992. His research interests relate to the interaction of bacteria with their environment and range from the biochemistry of fish pathogens to biodegradable plastic to the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus on healthy humans. Richard Grippo earned a BS in tropical marine biology in 1977 and a MS in marine ecology in 1981, both from Fairleigh Dickinson University at Madison. He completed his field work studying nocturnal coral reef fishes at FDU’s West Indies Laboratory on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. He earned a PhD in ecology in 1991 with a minor in statistics from Pennsylvania State University, where he studied the physiological effects of acid mine drainage and acid rain on aquatic organisms. While a graduate student, he supplied scientific support to the class-action litigation associated with the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska. He was awarded the August and Ruth Homeyer Graduate Fellowship Award for Outstanding Senior Graduate Student at Pennsylvania State University in 1991. He joined the faculty of Arkansas State University in 1995 and chaired the committee that developed the proposal for the first PhD program at ASU, in environmental science. He has received over $1,800,000 in research funding in the areas of biomonitoring, bioassessment , and ecological-risk assessment. In 2006 he was awarded the ASU Environmental Sciences Faculty Research Award. His most challenging achievement is his recent completion of a ten-day, ninety-mile, superstrenuous category, backpacking trip in northern New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains with the Boy Scouts. John Harris has been an adjunct professor of biological sciences at Arkansas State University since 1990 and has been a research co-advisor or committee member of over ten graduate students at ASU. At his day job, he has worked for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department in the Environmental Division since 1980. He earned his degrees from Southern Arkansas University (BS), the University of Louisiana– Monroe (formerly Northeast Louisiana State University) (MS), and the University of Tennessee (PhD). He is the author of numerous articles and reference materials on freshwater mussels in Arkansas. 170 About the Authors [34.230.35.103] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 00:15 GMT) Tanja McKay became an assistant professor of entomology at Arkansas State University in 2004. She is a veterinary entomologist who has been conducting research since...