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