E-Nouncements - May 2025

Thank you to all of our guest presenters and graduate students who spoke at this semester's seminar series! The seminar will resume in Fall of 2025.

Until then, enjoy visiting some of our affiliate organizations:

Denver Museum of Nature and Science (10% discount for CU Employees)

Denver Botanic Gardens (SCFD Free Days, Student Discount available with online ticketing)

Denver Zoo Summer Adult Nights

On April 25th, undergrad Sachiel Oberto and Ph.D. student Ali Alghamdi presented their poster, Using Scanning Electron Microscopy to Identify Animals Associated with Limber Pine Damage in Yellowstone National Park, as part of the 2025 Research and Creative Activities Symposium. The poster featured their work from Dr. Diana Tomback's lab, which was co-mentored by affiliate faculty member, Dr. Holly Lutz. Their presentation caught the eye of CU Denver Chancellor Ken Christensen, pictured with Sachiel and Ali below. Click this link to view their presentation.

Biology Master's graduate My-Lan Le was named as the Spring 2025 CLAS Outstanding Master's Student! She was honored at the CLAS Dean's Awards and Spring Graduation Reception on May 2nd. My-Lan continues a now six-semester long streak of Biology students winning either the Outstanding Master's or Ph.D. Student Award. 

My-Lan also successfully defended her Master's thesis, "Investigating Ecological Drivers of Reproductive Variation in an Endemic Alpine Plant (Physaria alpina): Competition, Pollen Limitation, and Habitat Variation", on Friday, April 18th as part of the Graduate Seminar Speaker Series. Great work, My-Lan!

Ph.D. Student Audrey Spencer successfully defended her dissertation, "Systematics and Biogeography of the Eastern Asian-North American Disjunct Genus, Physocarpus (Rosaceae)", on Friday, April 25th as part of the Graduate Seminar Speaker Series. Great work, Audrey!

Ph.D. student Jillyn Tittle successfully defended her proposal, "Modeling the Molecular Dynamics of Engineered Filamentous Phage Systems for Phage Display Applications" on April 23rd! Jillyn plans to build a computational simulation of phage display dynamics in a helper phage-phagemid phage display system. Her plan focuses on simulating the intermolecular mechanisms that drive the success of the phage display platform and hopes to inform and improve experimental design. Great work, Jillyn!

Master's student Derick Singleton successfully defended his thesis, "Inference and Characterization of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in Freshwater River Microbial Communities Across the United States", on April 18th. Great work, Derick!

Master's student Roy Rutherford successfully defended his thesis, "Environmental Health in an Urban Greenway: Assessing Urban Wetland Habitat Features and Larval Mosquito Abundances", on April 17th. Great work, Roy!

Microbiologist and Laboratory Coordinator Munira Lantz recently received TWO awards to honor her work as a CU Denver staff member! She was honored with the CLAS Hidden Gem Staff Excellence Award on April 21st and also received the CLAS Outstanding Staff Award at the May 2nd CLAS Dean's Award Reception. Congratulations, Munira, and thank you for all the tireless work you do to support the department!

Our own Dr. Timberley Roane and other CU Denver researchers were recently published in the American Society for Engineering Education journal, "Advances in Engineering Education." Click this link to read their article, "Fitting College to Students (not Vice Versa): A Certificate Program on Environmental Stewardship of Indigenous Lands."

Noted regional journalist, Ben Polley, recently published an article entitled, "Dispatches from the Wild: Novel solutions to save the federally protected whitebark pine," in the Explore Big Sky journal. The article quoted Dr. Diana Tomback extensively and featured and the work done by her lab to save the Whitebark Pine from several ecological threats. The article was used to promote tourism to Big Sky, Montana. 

Dr. Michelle DePrenger-Levin received her Ph.D. of Integrative and Systems Biology from CU Denver in Spring of 2024 and now works as the Manager of Conservation Programs at the Denver Botanic Gardens. She recently spoke about drone-powered plant conservation on the national podcast, "In Defense of Plants." Click here to listen.

Visit the Westminster Butterfly Pavilion for their Pollinator Gardening Mini-Bootcamp to learn more about pollinator habitat gardening! June 1, 10:00am - 11:30am.

Join Dr. Lisa Gardiner on June 4th at 7:00pm for the DMNS High-Octane Lecture Series: Reefs of Time: What Fossils Reveal about Coral Survival. 

Visit the Chatfield Farms location of Denver Botanic Gardens for their summer Lavender Festival. Saturday and Sunday, July 19 and 20, 9:00am - 4:00pm

Reach all your audiences and boost results by following key principles of digital accessibility! Join this training to learn:

• Purpose, requirements and impact of digital accessibility
• Checklist of principles applicable across communication platforms & modalities (websites, email, document creation software)
• Best practices, do’s & don’ts, and hands-on practice!

Click Here to Register

We are excited to kick off another academic year! The event is free and open to both the campus community and the public.  This year’s event takes place on the 1300 block of Lawrence St. between Speer and 14th St.  The event will feature interactive booths highlighting various CU Denver departments, colleges and schools. There will be live music, food trucks and interactive engagements.