Press Releases
Published: 11-28-2018
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Some fungi are smelly and coated in mucus. Others have gills that glow in the dark. Some are delicious; others, poisonous. Some spur euphoria when ingested. Some produce antibiotics.
All of these fungi - and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, more - occur in North America. Of those that are known to science, 44,488 appear in a new checklist of North American fungi,...
Published: 10-31-2018
by Jeff Mitchell
Most would agree that flowers play an important and colorful role in making the world around us a more beautiful place.
To close observers, however, flowers also play a key “canary in the coal mine” role: The timing of their blooms informs us of the ecological health of the planet and, specifically, about the growing intensity of global climate change.
While much...
Published: 09-21-2018
Student award winner explores innovative methods of producing more reliable ecological niche models for highly mobile species
Novel modelling approaches proposed by Kate Ingenloff, PhD candidate at the University of Kansas, could improve accuracy of maps used to shape management and policy of imperilled and migratory species, vectors of human disease...
Published: 08-30-2018
Theresa Baker
It has been more than 50 years since scientists completed a comprehensive survey of Alaska’s plants. Now the University of Alaska Museum of the North will use a nearly $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to create an innovative online database of Alaska’s plants.
Curator Steffi Ickert-Bond credited the successful award to the museum’s curator...
Published: 08-29-2018
The openVertebrate (oVert) Thematic Collection Network (TCN)—funded by the US National Science Foundation—is seeking a postdoctoral scientist that will work with the oVert team to develop and fine-tune protocols for imaging using x-ray computed tomography (CT-scanning) and workflows for sharing digital anatomical datasets using on-line depositories. A portion of this position will be...
Published: 08-22-2018
The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) recently received funding from NSF's INCLUDES program to host a conference examining diversity and inclusion within data science professions with an emphasis on the environmental sciences (Boulder, CO, April 2-4, 2019). Funding is provided to support travel and conference expenses for selected applicants. You can find additional information...
Published: 08-13-2018
By Cara L. Foster
After twelve long months of preparations, the Caribbean Biodiversity Information Portal has finally been launched.
Speaking at the official launching ceremony, which took place at The Savannah Hotel yesterday morning, Assistant Curator of the Natural History Department at the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, Kerron Hamblin, revealed that the project was a year...
Published: 06-20-2018
The National Science Foundation awarded Northern Arizona University and Utah State University a three-year, $700,000 collaborative grant to improve the usability and accessibility of Symbiota, an online platform that allows natural history collections to share data, including images, for millions of biological specimens. Currently, Symbiota includes data for more than 37 million specimens from...
Published: 06-15-2018
Dr John La Salle, an affable and charismatic scientist who paved the way in digital innovations, died unexpectedly on Sunday, May 27, aged 67.
Throughout his scientific career, La Salle made a significant contribution to insect taxonomy and spent a decade as director of CSIRO’s Australian National Insect Collection in Canberra. In recent years, as director of the Atlas of Living...
Published: 06-12-2018
June 12, 2018
In September 2016, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Integrative Activities funded the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct a study on the prevalence and impact of sexual harassment in science, engineering and medical departments and programs. The results of that study are now publicly available in a new report, Sexual Harassment of...
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