Garey Chair and Professor of Biology Romi Burks gave an invited talk during the special symposium session, “The past, present, and future of freshwater invasion ecology and management: A career retrospective for David M. Lodge,” at the Society of Freshwater Science meeting. Dr. Lodge, an internationally well-known invasive species ecologist, just recently retired from Cornell University after 10 years of serving as the Director of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability following a successful 28-year tenure at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Lodge served as the Ph.D. advisor for both Dr. Burks and SU biology graduate Matthew Barnes ’06, who conducted his undergraduate research on apple snails. Dr. Barnes then went onto the University of Notre Dame to become an expert in environmental DNA, a research topic in which he and Dr. Burks continue to collaborate with Southwestern undergraduates using apple snails as a model organism. Accordingly, Dr. Burks titled her talk “Being a successful role model (organisms): Insights into diversity and distribution of apple snails (Pomacea) gained through field and molecular ecology,” highlighting how her time in the Lodge lab prepared her for the diversity of approaches needed to study invasive species. In her talk, she drew parallels between the effects of rusty crayfish that Dr. Lodge documented throughout his career and ways in which apple snails also impact aquatic systems. Dr. Barnes highlighted his last investigations in Texas with his remarks, titled “Back to the future with environmental DNA: repurposing previously collected samples to study the history of Texas freshwater jellyfish invasion.”

Supported by funds from the Garey Chair in Biology and the Mellon Grant for Publicly Engaged Scholarship, Professor of Biology Romi Burks gave a talk and tasting at the Northwest Chocolate Festival, titled “Get Origin(al): Educated by chocolate in Brazil and Peru.” Dr. Burks shared her professional development experiences abroad this summer learning about supply chains and post-harvest practices in two important origin countries that grow Theobroma cacao, the tree that provides the beans from which we make chocolate. She also participated in the “Unconference,” a networking opportunity for professionals in the chocolate industry.

Alumna Esmeralda Rosas ’24 recently published her biology capstone as part of an applied journal section called “Management in Practice” within the journal Management of Biological Invasions. Co-authored with fellow apple snail lab alumna, Cynthia Bashara ’23, this study reports a four-year monitoring effort with Austin community member David Christie that resulted in a local eradication of invasive snails. Success stories in invasion biology often get overlooked, but this paper, titled “Winning the shell game: environmental DNA (eDNA) confirms local control of the invasive apple snail, Pomacea maculata” provides a template for others to follow. A downloadable PDF of the paper is available here. Made possible by devoting time during a recent sabbatical, this publication represents the second outcome of the ongoing collaboration between Professor and Garey Chair in Biology Romi Burks, and Matthew Barnes ’06, Associate Professor at Texas Tech University.

The weekend of February 28 – March 2 brought scientists from all over Texas to McLennan Community College and Baylor University in Waco, for the 145th Texas Academy of Sciences meeting. Ten students represented the Biology Department, including Gage Mallo ’26, Johun Reyes ’26, Annika Tracy ’25, Murphy Jacobie ’27, Madeleine Thomas ’26, Kylie Allemeier ’26, Katelin Pilarski ’26, Sarah Berver ’26, Alanna Guerrero ’25 and Jordan Emerson ’27. 

Based on her collaboration with Assistant Professor of Biology Kim McArthur, Annika gave a talk, titled “Location-independent axon pathfinding in the hindbrain of larval zebrafish,” that earned the first place undergraduate talk award for the neuroscience section. 

Madeleine presented a poster with her research mentor, Assistant Professor of Biology Sunny Scobell, titled “A morphological analysis of the dopaminergic pathway in the brain of a male pregnant pipefish.” Dr. Scobell also mentored Jennifer Smalz, a student from her previous institution (UD: The University of Dallas), who gave a talk titled “Investigating male pregnancy in Gulf Pipefish using scanning electron microscopy to describe the anatomy of the brood pouch over the reproductive cycle.” Ms. Smalz’ talk earned the first place undergraduate award in the systematics and evolutionary biology section. Within that section, Dr. Scobell also gave two presentations, one co-authored with UD student Farah Atarah, titled “Brood pouch anatomy throughout the course of male pregnancy in Gulf Pipefish,” and another focusing on her endocrinology, titled an “Investigation of the role of prolactin during reproduction in a fish with male pregnancy.”

Murphie presented a microbiology focused poster, titled “An affinity analysis of Aliivibrio fischeri and zooxanthellae” with the mentorship of Director of First Year Biology Laboratories Stacie Brown.

Working with Chair and Garey Professor of Biology Romi Burks, Gage presented a poster, titled “You better Belize they’re different: Phylogenetic analysis and species identification of native apple snails in Belize,” that garnered a first place best poster award in the systematics and evolutionary biology section. His poster co-author Johun secured first place in the Undergraduate Research Award Competition, complete with a $2,000 prize to continue the work, with his proposal, “Beneath Belizean waters: Discovering diversity of native apple snails in northern and southern Belize.” 

Also from the Burks lab, Kylie, Sarah, and Katelin shared their recent troubleshooting efforts in the lab in a poster titled “Extraordinary extraction efforts: Experiments to enhance DNA extraction for tissues of apple snails of conservation interests” that also used collections from Belize that occurred as part of the 2024 study abroad experience.

Dr. Burks also gave an oral presentation in the science education section about the recent undergraduate research experience that she developed in BIO50-222, Methods in Ecology and Evolution. Her talk, titled “Methodological microplastics: Development of an undergraduate CURE to quantify abundance of microplastic fibers in a local stream,” came out of conversations with microplastics expert Andre Felton from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Buoyed by the momentum built on sabbatical, Garey Chair of Biology Romi Burks continued her work on the intersection between chocolate and liberal arts education by sharing her knowledge as the featured STEM kick-off speaker at Schreiner University on September 4 with a talk titled “Chocolate Covered Science: Connect what you love to eat with what you love to study.” Following that event, Burks attended the Dallas Chocolate Festival on September 7, where she contributed to a panel discussion on the crisis in the chocolate industry, along with entrepreneur Kate Weiser of Kate Weiser Chocolates and Jimmy Steward of Guittard Chocolate. Afterwards, Burks gave a solo presentation titled “Educated by Chocolate: How to build your chocolate knowledge one bite at a time.” Burks has also been invited to give this talk again at the Northwest Chocolate Festival, along with a second presentation titled “Separating Fact from Fiction in the Science of Chocolate.” These lectures will take place the first weekend of October.