Courses, schedule and research opportunities

A number of items:

1/ From Kathy: If you have an advisee looking for a challenging, literature-based, grad seminar style course in S09, I am offering one on the topic of "cell death" and am happy to have ccs students enroll in it through MCDB 194X (2 units). They just need to contact me for an add code. It meets Mondays at 10 AM. I posted a description on the ccs bulletin board and Les sent out an email advertising the course as well.

2/ A general heads up (also from Kathy):
MCDB is working on revising curricula and one of the main goals is to spread out the upper division course offerings across all quarters a bit more (right now, many are bunched in Winter qtr). The most immediate change that might affect our CCS Bio students is that MCDB 112 (Dev Biol) will be offered in FALL 09 (instead of W10), so be aware. The lab (MCDB 112L) will remain a Winter 2010 offering for the moment. Some of the micro courses (such as MCDB 139, medical microbiology) are likely to redistribute as well, and I'll keep everyone posted as I become aware of the changes. For students who are likely to want to take a number of MCDB upper div courses, my advice is to have them get at least 1 qtr of genetics under their belts asap as it seems most faculty really want to see this as a prep for many upper division courses.

3/ A grad student was asking me about whether there were any CCS students interested in a plant based research project. If you are let me know and I'll put you in touch. They were interested in collaborating to put in an application for a Worster award. These awards support the development of graduate and undergraduate research through a mentoring program that pairs an undergraduate with a graduate student mentor during the summer. Stipends this year will be approximately $6000 for each team ($3000 for the graduate and $3000 for the undergraduate). Applications for this award are due by Friday, April 3, 2009.

4/ Sunmer research experience for undergraduates based in Dublin.

Collections-based Biology in Dubin (CoBiD) provides an exciting research environment, with experience both in high quality laboratories in the science departments in University College Dublin, and important international research centre in the National Museum of Ireland (Natural History) collections in Dublin city centre. Diverse research projects are offered, with topics ranging from systematic biology— including traditional and molecular techniques— to ecology and population genetics. Students will work side-by-side with curators and senior scientists and will be involved in all aspects of collections-based research including collection and curation of specimens, participation in field expeditions, and dissemination of scientific results through oral presentation and publication.

The deadline is in two weeks. See website for more info.