[Bristol-Birds] Chris O'Bryan awarded APSU major scholarship

Chris O'Bryan, a prominent teenage herpetologist and birder, has been awarded
one of Austin Peay State University's most prestigious scholarships.

University officials notified Chris he has received the Benjamin P. Stone 
Scholarship,
a renewable award recognizing academic excellence for the study of biology.  His
scholarships, awarded so far, cover full tuition and board.

He graduates from high school May 19 and moves to APSU June 1-2.  He has studied
as a home school student and is currently enrolled in classes at Northeast State
Community College at Blountville, TN

In addition, the Bristol Bird Club member who lives at Piney Flats, TN, had 
previously been
notified by APSU that he has been 
appointed to a two-year 
undergraduate research 
assistantship which begins in late May.  
Such assistantships are very rare 
for incoming freshmen.  The 
assistantship will pay him for research 
he conducts with graduate students.
This is in addition to any scholarship
funds.

The biology department recently notified 
Chris that his academic advisor will be 
Dr. A. Floyd Scott, Director of the 
David H. Snyder Museum of Zoology which is
housed in the spacious, new Sundquist 
Science Center at the school in Clarksville, 
Tennessee.  This is the major repository for 
amphibian and reptile specimens for the state.

Scott, along with William Redmond of the 
Tennessee Valley Authority, in 1996, published 
the widely-recognized Atlas of Amphibians in 
Tennessee.  Chris will be studying as part of the The 
Center of Excellence for Field Biology at 
          Chris conducting field survey with Ron Harrington               
Austin Peay State.  The center brings 
                                                                                
        together scholars and students from various 
biological disciplines to conduct research on topics in field biology and 
ecology.
He begins his study June 4 with classes during the summer session and field 
research in West
Tennessee where he will research the Alligator Snapping Turtle in the Ghost 
River tributary of the
Wolf River about 30 miles east of Memphis along the Mississippi border.  He 
recently spent his
Easter holiday canoeing in approximately 8 miles of the Wolf River. The Ghost 
River section 
is an unchannelized river section that meanders through bottomland hardwood 
forests of  cypress-tupelo 
swamps, and open marshes. 

He has spent several years volunteering as a researcher of the endangered Bog 
Turtles in the
Southern Appalachians and last year was employed during the summer as a field 
researcher of
the species, hired by the Knoxville Zoo.

In 2004 he conducted a summer research study supervised by the East Tennessee 
State University
Biology Department.  It was funded by ETSU under a Howard Hughes national 
grant.  He studied
the Spiny Soft-shelled Turtle basking habitats.  The study was featured on the 
Turner South 
National Cable TV program "Natural South."  He presented his findings at the 
ETSU biology
department and displayed a poster at the Tennessee Herpetological Society 
annual meeting.

Over the Christmas holidays of Dec. 2005, he was invited by the Amazon 
herpetological staff of the
U.S. National Museum to join the staff for a nine-day trip in the Amazon River 
of Peru.  Chris
spent his Christmas on the Amazon River.  He has been named an honorary member 
of the National 
Zoo Herpetological staff in Washington.  

Chris works as a naturalist on the staff of the Steele Creek Park Nature 
Center.  He began work
there as a volunteer in 2002 and in June 2005 was hired as an assistant 
naturalist.  He is also an
active member of the board of directors of the Friends of Steele Creek Nature 
Center and Park
at Bristol.

Chis' present dreams include eventually working towards a graduate degree and 
eventually 
working in tropical herpetology.

His parents are Laura and Don O'Bryan, formerly of Shady Valley, TN and Boone, 
NC.

Let's go birding . . . .

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN

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