[Bristol-Birds] Chris O'Bryan selected top biology academic award.
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:04:54 -0400
BBC's Chris O'Bryan sweeps student award !
The Bristol Bird Club's outstanding biologist,
Chris O'Bryan, shown in the red jacket at the
top right, has swept, yet, another top award.
He is shown above working with the BBC Clinch
Mountain Golden Eagle Group in Russell Co., VA.
during December and January of this year.
Here is the text of the announcement which
came this morning:
Dear Chris,
On behalf of the Biology Department Awards
and Scholarships Committee I am happy to
inform you that you have been chosen to be
recognized by the Biology Department at the
Annual Awards Day (Tuesday, April 26, 2011
at 3:00 p.m. ) as Outstanding Senior Biology
student for 2010-2011.
Congratulations!
Dr. S. L. Schiller
Sarah Lundin-Schiller, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
Austin Peay State University
Clarksville, TN 37044
As a prominent teenage herpetologist and birder, Chris was awarded
one of Austin Peay State University's most prestigious Benjamin P. Stone
Scholarships.
In addition, he was chosen by the university to an appointment as an
undergraduate research assistantship in herpetology, before he earned his
high school diploma. He began summer work with the APSU Center
for Excellence in Field Biology before he enrolled as a college student.
He studied under the advisorship of Dr. A. Floyd Scott, Director of the
David H. Snyder Museum of Zoology, which is housed in the spacious,
new Sundquist Science Center -- a major repository for
amphibian and reptile specimens for the state.
He researched the Alligator Snapping Turtle in the Ghost River tributary
of the Wolf River about 30 miles east of Memphis along the Mississippi
border.
He was awarded the Dr. David Snyder Scholarship by APSU for the
2008-2009 academic year.
He was selected as a recipient of the Chad Lewis Memorial Grant
from the Tennessee Herpetological Society. The review committee,
which decided the award, included Dr.Ray Jordan, Associate
Professor, Dept. of Biology, Tennessee Technological University;
David Withers, Heritage Zoologist Tennessee Natural Heritage
Program at Nashville and Pete Wyatt, Region Wildlife Coordinator
with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
He spent several years volunteering as a researcher of the
endangered Bog Turtles in the Southern Appalachians and 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. He has been named an honorary member
of the National Zoo Herpetological staff in Washington.
Chris worked years 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 also was an active member of the board
of directors of the Friends of Steele Creek Nature Center and Park
at Bristol.
He was hired as a Student Amphibian Field Technician working with the U.S.
Forest Service last summer. He worked in the Sierra Nevada Mountains at
the Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station. He assisted with a
study investigating potential livestock grazing effects on Yosemite toads
(Bufo canorus) and other amphibians in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It
was research conducted by the University of California Davis and the
University of California Berkeley.
Chris has been excited about researching members of the genus
Ranavirus (family Iridoviridae) which can cause catastrophic mortality
of pond-breeding amphibians and are associated with an emerging
infectious disease that may be contributing to amphibian declines.
Recently, Chris has been collaborating with Dr. Andrew Gray
and a Kentucky state wildlife biologist to collect field material
at ponds in the western parts of Tennessee and Kentucky
for Dr. Gray's research with ranavirus at the University of
Tennessee.
Last May, Chris went to The University of Georgia Veterinary
Diagnostic and Investigational Laboratory at Tifton, GA
so he could learn the DNA procedures needed.
He spent 13 hours a day learning the most advanced
PCR techniques available to him. With the kind help of
Dr. Debra Miller, he spent a week in a crash course in her
labs.
The Bristol Bird Club and Chris' friends in Northeast Tennessee
as well as his parents, Don and Laura O'Bryan of Piney Flats,
are very proud of his continued great progress.
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