[Bristol-Birds] Chris O'Bryan M.S. thesis defense set for April 15, 2014 at Clemson University
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2014 14:53:56 -0400
The Clemson University School of Agricultural, Forest & Sciences announced
Thursday
that Chris O'Bryan, a Masters of Science degree candidate, will defend his
thesis Tuesday,
April 15, 2014, at 3 p.m. in Room G-22 of the school's Lehotsky building.
Clemson
terms the event "an exit seminar and final oral examination."
He enrolled in the graduate program in 2011. Chris studied under Dr. Rob
Baldwin,
Assistant Professor, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources
His thesis is "Persistence of a vulnerable semi-aquatic turtle in an
intensively-managed
forest landscape." He has focused on the Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata)
movement patterns.
The project has been a collaboration among Clemson University, Weyerhaeuser
Company
and other regional partners. Chris frequently worked with project partners,
including Dr. Jessica Homyack,
of Weyerhaeuser. The company heavily funded his research and provided the
study area where
Chris has spent field seasons on-site in Eastern North Carolina about 8
hours drive from campus.
His research focused on a study of forested ecosystems in the lower
Atlantic coastal plain
of the eastern United States. It specifically address interactions among
landscape-level
hydrology, intensive silviculture, and distribution of amphibians and
reptiles. The study will
help guide region-wide management plans and increase the knowledge of how
managed forests
contribute to biodiversity.
His special interests encompass landscape ecology and conservation biology
of organisms.
Before going to Clemson, he worked as an Undergraduate Research Assistant at
Austin Peay State
University's Center of Excellence for Field Biology. As an undergraduate,
he conducted an
independent project studying the presence of ranavirus, an emerging
pathogen, on syntopic
amphibian larvae in Tennessee. That project revealed that ranavirus is
present in a select population
of amphibians in West Tennessee, adding to our knowledge of the prevelence
of this deadly virus.
Chris O'Bryan in Africa 2013.jpg
Chris O'Bryan afield in Ol Pejeta Conservancy north of Nairobi, Kenya
He earned a B.S. degree in Biology from Austin Peay State University at
Clarksville, TN in 2011
where he was the top Senior Biology Student and graduated with honors.
Today (Friday 4 April 2014), he is in East Lansing, Michigan where he is
involved in a three-day
interview and tour of Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State
University where he
is considering study for a doctorate. Today is being spent in interviews
with faculty from Michigan State,
the University of Michigan-Flint and a research Ph.D. from the Michigan
Department of Natural Resources.
When selected for consideration, Michigan State provided roundtrip
commercial air transportation
between Clemson and East Lansing. Chris flew up Thursday morning and will
return Saturday.
Also in the mix for his doctorate, Chris has been looking at graduate
studies at Purdue University and
the University of Georgia. A final decision will come later.
He came home to the Bristol Bird Club as the speaker for our Annual Banquet
in September 2011.
O'Bryan is a former park naturalist at Steele Creek Park Nature Center in
Bristol Tennessee. He
is a moderator of both the Bristol-Birds Net and TN-Birds and a regular
participant on the Bristol Christmas
Bird Count. He grew up in Shady Valley, TN and his parents now live at
Piney Flats, TN.
His long history of field research extended back to his teenage years and
research under a Howard
Hughes National Student Research grant from ETSU to study the Spiny
Softshell Turtle at Steele Creek
Park, before he graduated from high school; a summer of field research for
Bern Tryon of the Knoxville
Zoo studying and radio tracking Bog Turtles in Carter County, TN; assisting
a graduate student
at APSU studying the Alligator Snapping Turtle in the Wolf River just east
of Memphis as well
as assisting Dr. Matt Gray, an associate professor in the Department of
Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries
at the University of Tennessee, with field work involving amphibian
ranaviruses. Chris had
an Undergraduate Research Assistantship position awarded him by Austin Peay
State University
even before he graduate from high school.
He has twice been invited by the Smithsonian Institute Museum of Natural
History staff to join
them on international field trips. The first was to the Amazon of Peru,
while a high school student,
and the most recent was to East Africa along with the Moscow Zoo staffers
from Russia. He spent
weeks working in these field environments.
He worked with a University of Florida researcher to conduct summer study of
Gopher Tortoises at
St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in the Big Bend of Florida.
Previously, he was a student amphibian field technician with the U.S. Forest
Service in the Sierra Nevada
Mountains at the Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station along
with University of California Davis
and the University of California Berkeley.
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
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