Season 3, Episode 1: Marrin Crist
The Watershed Conservation Research Center (WCRC) engages in strategic conservation activities related to land and water resources in the upper Allegheny River basin, focusing on the French Creek Watershed. The co-directors Profs. Casey Bradshaw-Wilson and Kelly Pearce, along with numerous other staff scientists, work with Allegheny students and community partners to conduct research projects during the summer and academic year. Listen in to the 1st episode of Season 3, where Prof. Venesky and Marrin Crist (a student in the Department of Environmental Science and Sustainability) chat about one of the projects that Marrin did during as part of our Summer Research Program in 2023.
Click on Marrin’s photo to listen to this episode.
Season 3, Episode 2: Bridgette Reeb
It’s been a quite a while since I’ve thought about Prince Tuesday, Mr. McFeely, and the other fictional characters in one of my favorite childhood TV shows: Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Bridgette Reeb (’25), a student in our Philosophy Program, has spent time during the last 2 academic years under the mentorship of Prof. Irem Kurtsal thinking about Fred Rogers… specifically, about some of the virtues and ethics associated with the philosophy of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. In this episode, Bridgette and I chat about how she began to view Fred Rogers as a philosopher and how some of the principles from his philosophy could be used/adopted by patients and health care providers in America.
Click on Bridgette’s photo to listen to this episode.
Season 3, Episode 3: Mitchell Devore and Ngwe Leku
Professor Mahita Kadmiel‘s (Biology and Biochemistry) research program focuses on hormonal regulation (and dysregulation) of the eye. Although most of her research is done in the laboratory setting at Allegheny College, she is actively involved with collaborative research with Erie Retina Research Center. Some of this collaborative work involves mobile screening of patients for eye diseases, with the aim of increasing access to care for patients who might not routinely visit an ophthalmologist. In this episode, I chat with Ngwe Leku (’27; Biochemistry major and Global Health Studies minor) and Mitchell Devore (’26; Biochemistry major and Psychology minor) about a summer project that they did associated with the mobile retinal screening program.
Click on the photo of Mitch and Leku to listen to this episode.
Season 3, Episode 4: Sophia Mita
As the Earth’s climate changes, species will be exposed to different thermal environments from the ones in which they evolved. This not only includes changes in average temperatures (e.g., warmer winters), but more variable temperatures (e.g., a 70F day in the Spring followed by a 30F day). To some degree, organisms can cope with these temperature changes because of their physiological systems… but the degree to which variable temperature might cause short- or long-term effects in wild organisms is still poorly understood. Professor Jennifer Houtz (Biology) and her students study some of these physiological mediators of stress resilience in wild birds. In this episode, I caught up with Sophia Mita (’24) quite literally right after she completed her Biology Senior Seminar to chat a bit more about the work that she did as part of a summer research project and how that morphed into her Senior Comp project, both under the direction of Professor Houtz.
Click on the photo of Sophia to listen to this episode.