Fall 2023
- Romeo, Lukas, Chloe, and Connery all presented posters at the MacFest Summer Research Symposium. They did a phenomenal job communicating their research to parents, students, faculty, staff, alumni, and Trustees!
- Mary is teaching Plant Ecophysiology this semester after a 4 year break, and the LiCor is attracting new fans!
- The Heskel Lab summer team and their research on environmental impacts on neighborhoods in Saint Paul was featured in Macalester’s social media and the Star Tribune, the newspaper of the Twin Cities (reported on by a Mac alum!)
- Mary’s tenure and promotion is being evaluated this semester!
Summer 2023
- The team will work in Saint Paul examining impacts of Ash tree removal programs due to EAB on urban environmental variables – shade, light, temperature. We hope to engage more with the new MSP LTER and get into the ‘field’ on bikes!
- Mary submits her tenure dossier in June and travels to Norway for research in July!
Spring 2023
- Mary is teaching Ecology & the Environment and Big Data in Ecology again. Big Data in Ecology hosted our first ‘class alumni’ day, inviting 10 local class alums back to talk about their life and careers post-college.
- Mary is traveled to the Arctic LTER annual meeting hosted at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in March 2023.
Fall 2022
- Mary discussed findings from Hrycyna et al. 2022 at an EnviroThursday, which was covered by the Mac Weekly
- Saiido Noor had an abstract from her summer research at Penn accepted to attend ABRCMS this Fall in Anaheim, CA and will be attending SACNAS in San Juan, PR!
Summer 2022
- Research from Ordway featuring Jean Pengra (’20), Lianna Goldstein (’20), Ally Kruper (’21), Sarah Hoffman (’19), and Shannon Hahn (’21) and Biology faculty Mike Anderson and Jerald Dosch was accepted at AoB-PLANTS! (August)
- Elizabeth’s honors thesis (now Hrycyna et al.) was accepted! at Elementa. Check it out here: https://online.ucpress.edu/elementa/article/10/1/00027/187917/Satellite-observations-of-NO2-indicate-legacy
- Time has passed! #LabBaby Isaac is now 1 year old!
- Sabbatical is almost over – in the fall I’ll be teaching a First Year course on Ecology & the Environment and Arctic Ecology.
- Field plans for Siberia were cancelled and indefinitely postponed.
Spring 2021
- Saiido Noor joined the lab to work remotely on urban ecology, air quality, and data science!
- Elizabeth is rounding the finish for her senior Honors thesis on Redlining, radiocarbon, and remote sensing of air quality in Midwestern cities. Saiido is also working on the project to measure urban geography metrics and work on data analysis.
- Jennings created a fantastic “Herman & Nimoy” video about their herbarium/stomata/climate change independent study from last spring! Watch here!
- Mary taught Ecology & the Environment and Global Change Biology in the Fall, and Arctic Ecology & Big Data in Ecology this Spring.
July 2020
- Jean is creating a poster to share our research from Ordway on buckthorn and black cherry physiology in the understory at ESA 2020. Here is the abstract .
- Elizabeth, Jennings, and Mary continue work on examining legacies of air quality and how they are captured by trees in the Twin Cities.
- Mary presents at a panel on Inclusive Teaching at ASPB 2020.
June 2020
- Mary completed her pre-tenure review files! Phew!
- Elizabeth is reviewing studies of radiocarbon in tree cores to examine how fossil fuel emissions impact urban areas
- Jennings will continue work on regional and local environmental history and climate change – we will get back to microscopy when COVID allows!
- Kori is reporting for the Mac Weekly and interning for ‘Living on Earth’ a public radio program based out of Boston.
May 2020
- Lab members Jean Pengra & Lianna Goldstein graduate! Congrats! Jean was awarded the William R. Angell Foundation Prize from the Biology Department. Lianna served as an excellent TA – even during COVID-times to Ecology & the Environment. Thanks, Lianna!
- Jennings completed a fantastic COVID-adapted capstone paper based on the Macalester herbaria, its history, and its use as a window into plant adaptation to elevated CO2.
- Mary made it through two courses going remote in mid-March. Next up – Fall 2020 Module style…
