| PRESIDENT……...……Brenda Oppert | IMMED. PAST PRES......Calvin L. Cink |
| PRES. ELECT………....Lawrence H. Skelton | KJAS DIRECTOR…....…W. Scott Kardel |
| VICE PRESIDENT…....James Taylor | TRANSACTIONS ED......Daniel F. Merriam |
| SECRETARY …………Pieter Berendsen | BULLETIN EDITOR…....Lawrence H. Skelton |
| TREASURER………….Janice S. Barton | WEBMASTER..................Sam Leung |
| Volume 27, No. 2 | September 2002 |
COMING SOON!
14th ANNUAL FALL FIELD
Reserve Saturday, 21 September, for a cruise through the natural wonders of a river delta with Stan Roth. No need for concern about "swamp varmints", however, since this delta is a "fossil" deposited about 290 million years past (give or take a week) by streams cutting down the mighty Arbuckle Mountains and carrying resulting sediment northward into the Kansas Sea. Since excavated (by the WPA during the 1930's?), this geologic feature now called the Chautauqua Hills is a natural laboratory of flora and fauna adapted to a hilly sandstone and shale environment in southeastern Kansas. The trip will begin at 9:00 A.M. at the Jones World store/restaurant, The Yellow Brick Road, 150 E. Main Street, Sedan, Kansas. Kansas state highway 99 leads to Sedan from the north and U.S. Highway 166 from the east and west. See the map for directions in Sedan. Attendees will spend the day touring out-of-the-way natural areas on private land in southern Chautauqua County. There are caves, shady and springy fern sites, poison oak (unique in Kansas), birding, wildflowering, and geologizing. BYOL (Bring your own lunch) wear shoes fit for rough-land walking and bring a flashlight. If you opt to drive down Friday afternoon, the best motel arrangements would be in Independence, Winfield or Eureka. If you have questions, check with Stan Roth at (785)843-4764 (home), (785)691-6381(mobile), sdroth@yahoo.com (e-mail).
Joseph T. Collins, adjunct herpetologist for the Kansas Biological Survey at the University of Kansas, was the keynote speaker at the 134th annual meeting of the Kansas Academy of Science, held at Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas, on 12-13 April 2002. Collins who also is adjunct curator of herpetology at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, presented the keynote address entitled Venomous Snakes, following the KAS banquet on Friday evening, 12 April. He also gave a public lecture, Amphibians, Turtles, and Reptiles of St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge, Florida, on Saturday, 13 April, after the KAS luncheon. The Saturday talk featured the color slides taken by his wife, best friend and professional photographer, Suzanne L. Collins. Joseph Collins is co-author of the Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, as well as 22 other books and over 220 scientific and popular articles on wildlife. He retired in 1997 from the KU Natural History Museum where he is now Herpetologist Emeritus. In 1996, Governor Bill Graves formally proclaimed Dr. Collins The Wildlife Laureate of Kansas.
In April, John Robert Berg, long-time KAS member, past-editor of the Transactions, professor emeritus of geology at Wichita State and retired U. S. Army colonel, received a proclamation recognizing his many services to the Kansas Academy of Science. Dan Merriam presented the framed proclamation which was signed by KAS President Brenda Oppert and Secretary Pieter Berendsen. Dr. Berg, who is 87 years old, was presented with the proclamation by his long-time friend and KAS past-president Dan Merriam. Also present were Mrs. Berg, John Charlton, Geological Survey staff photographer, and KAS president-elect Larry Skelton.
Front-left to right: Jim Aber, Dan Merriam, Brenda Oppert, James Taylor, Jim Triplett
Rear-left to right: George Potts, Stan Roth, Larry Skelton Dave Saunders, Calvin Cink.
135TH ANNUAL MEETING 11-12 APRIL 2003
The 135th Annual Meeting of the Kansas Academy of Science will convene at Pittsburg State University on Friday and Saturday, 11 and 12 April 2003. Chairman Jim Triplett promises a good time, a full schedule of good papers and a fascinating plenary session speaker. For details and to follow progress, check: www.pittstate.edu/biol/kas135
Some of these people will join if asked; others must be sold. You, the reader, know some of them. Show them the current Transactions and invite them to become a member. The Academy can double its membership if each present member enlists just a single new one this year!
Elmer Finck - Elmer received both a B.S. in Fish and Wildlife Management and an M.S. in Biology (Plant Ecology) from the University of North Dakota. His Ph.D in Biology (Behavioral Ecology) is from Kansas State Unversity. He completed a post-doc at Konza Prairie Biological Station. Elmer is currently Professor of Biology and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Fort Hays State University. He serves as editor of the Prairie Naturalist. His current research interests are in the effects of habitat fragmentation, grazing and burning on prairie animals and plants, reintroductions of pronghorns and golden eagles into Kansas, and the ecology and population dynamics of several species of birds and mammals. Professional memberships include the American Ornithologists Union, Cooper and Wilson Ornitho-logical Societies, Association for Field Ornithologists and American Society of Mammalogists. He is past president of the Kansas Ornithological Society and Kansas chapter of the Wildlife Society. He is president of the Central Plains Society of Mammalogists. He is an active participant in the meetings of the Kansas Academy of Science and was a KAS Distinguished Lecturer.
Mike Everhart - Mike received a M.S. in Zoology from Wichita State University and his career has been in environmental management. He was Environmental Health Director of the Wichita Sedgwick County Health Department for 4 years and has spent 17 years of environmental work at Boeing-Wichita. He is Adjunct Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History and has been actively collecting fossils in the Smoky Hill Chalk since the early 1970s. He authored and maintains the popular website Oceans of Kansas Paleontology. He has presented numerous papers at scientific meetings, and published his work in several journals. Mike has been an active member of the Kansas Academy of Science for over 30 years and currently is an At-Large Member of the Council. He chaired the Paleontology Symposiums at the 2000, 2001 and 2002 KAS annual meetings.
For At-Large Council Member-Class of 2005:
Scott Crupper - Scott obtained a B.S. and M.S. degree in Biology at Pittsburg State University, followed by a Ph.D in Microbiology at the University of Kansas.
He was a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology at Kansas State University School of Veterinary Medicine. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Emporia State University, where he teaches microbiology and molecular biology courses. His research interests include mechanisms of bacterial antibiotic resistance and the isolation of bacterial natural products with antibiotic and anti-cancer properties. He and his students have presented the results of their work at recent Kansas Academy of Science annual meetings. The Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science is among the journals in which his work is published.
Johanna Foster - Johanna's degrees include a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Nevada-Reno and Ph.D in Biology (ecology) from the Univerisity of Kansas. She is currently Associate Professor of Biology at Johnson County Community College, where she teaches ecology, molecular and cellular biology, and environmental science. Research interests include the effects of mound-building ants on prairie plant communities, the role these ants play in prairie restoration, and the effects of haying on a restored prairie plant community. Professional memberships include the Kansas Academy of Science, Ecological Society of America, and North Dakota Natural Science Society. Public service activities include guest speaker for educational and non-profit institutions. She won the 2002 Innovator of the Year Award from the League of Innovation in the Community College for a project that trained elementary teachers in methods to improve science teaching. She is a regular participant in annual meetings of the Kansas Academy of Science.
Bill Stark - Bill has a B.S. in Biology from Baker University, an M.S. in Biology from Fort Hays State University and a Ph.D in Fisheries and Wildlife Ecology from Oklahoma State University. After three years as Assistant Professor of Biology of Southeastern Oklahoma State University, he returned to his native Kansas to a position at Fort Hays State University, where he is currently Associate Professor of Biology. His teaching and research interests are focused on the aquatic sciences and to a lesser extent in herpetology. He advises masters degree candidates with theses centered on: the effects of water willow on young-of-year recruitment of largemouth bass; conservation of a relict population of Topeka shiners in Wallace Co., Kansas; assessment of introductions of white perch in Kansas riverine systems; and habitat associations of the prairie rattlesnake in shortgrass prairie ecosystems. Bill has been active in professional societies in both Oklahoma and Kansas and has served on a number of committees. He is past president of the Oklahoma Chapter of the American Fisheries Society and is currently president-elect and representative to the Kansas Nongame Wildlife Advisory Council for the Kansas Chapter of the AFS. He and his students have presented papers and posters at annual meetings of the Kansas Academy, and Bill chaired a paper session at our last meeting in Hays.
Martin Simon - Martin has a B.A. in Biological Sciences and an M.S. and Ph.D in zoology, all from the University of California at Davis. After 5 years as Assistant Professor of Biology at Benedictine College in Atchison, he served as Associate Professor of Biology and Environmental Science at Widener University in Chester, PA. He returned to Benedictine in Kansas where he is currently Professor of Biology. He also served as Senior Lecturer at Benedictine Inter-national University in Singapore in 2001. He has taught a variety of courses including comparative anatomy, behavior, research design and analysis, and research methods. He has held a number of research positions and is currently a Visiting Research Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at KU Medical Center and Project Director of the Benedictine Bottoms Missouri River Biodiversity Assessment Program. His research interests are in herpetology, with publications addressing repro-ductive biology, behavior, anatomy, systematics and ecology of amphibians. He and his students have presented their work on the Benedictine Bottoms in posters and talks to recent annual meetings of KAS and hosted our recent fall KAS field trip to the Bottoms.
Best Overall Research Project - Leslie Smith, Shawnee Mission Northwest HS
Best Large High School Project (tie) - Sarah Wissmann, Shawnee Mission West HS and Travis Skare, Blue Valley North HS
Best Small High School Project - Rick Beard, Wichita Northeast Magnet
Best Large Middle School Project - Will O'Donnell, Trailridge Middle School
Best Small Middle School Project - Monica Schmidt, Haven Middle School
Leslie Smith will be representing Kansas at the American Junior Academy of Science joint meeting with the AAAS next February in Denver, CO.
For more information on the KJAS, visit http://webs.wichita.edu/kjas/
