Wendy Paterson '09

Wendy was an environmental educator at the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine before helping with animal recovery efforts in Alabama following the 2010 Gulf oil spill.

A graduate assistant teaching introductory biology labs at Central Michigan University, Wendy originally aspired to be a zookeeper.

“Then [at Oswego] I was introduced to the scientific process and looking at the ecosystem as a whole as opposed to just taking care of the animal,” said Wendy, who is researching mussels in the Great Lakes.

Michigan must-visit: I just visited Grand Haven, Mich. I am involved with mussel research in the Grand River and we stayed in Grand Haven for the night. It is a beautiful location with lots of festivals, restaurants and outdoor entertainment.

Oswego must-take course: My two favorite courses at Oswego were “Wetland Ecology” taught by Dr. Eric Hellquist and “Forensic Anthropology.”

Lake Ontario or Rice Creek? That is a hard choice. Rice Creek was my home but Lake Ontario is my inspiration.

On campus or off? I lived on campus during every fall and spring semester. I like the convenience. I really liked living in Moreland my last year because
it was peaceful and you had your own room.

Favorite zoo animal: I am a big fan of otter exhibits because they are such playful animals. There are some very nice ones in New York including the Wild Center, the Ross Park Zoo and the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. A close second would be butterfly gardens and leaf cutter ants, which are often found together.

No. 1 pet: My favorite pet would be a dog. Thousands of years of artificial selection lead to the perfect pet.

A teaching assistant’s No. 1 pet peeve: Students not paying attention and not reading the syllabus. There are only so many times I can go over the content in the syllabus before I become annoyed.

No. 1 reason to attend Oswego: My best answer is diversity. There is a little bit of everything. It was an endless buffet in courses, clubs and events. I couldn’t take all the courses or join all the clubs I wanted to in just four years.

Last place you look: The place I put it so I would not lose it.

Great book: My favorite series is Harry Potter by JK Rowling and my favorite nonfiction book is The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen.

As they prepared to return this summer, they had a chance to share their stories with representatives of the international partnership that is supporting a Brazilian research experience for them and 13 other SUNY students this year and another 15 next year.

Officials from Sovereign Bank/Banco Santander, the State University of New York system and Brazil’s State of Alagoas visited SUNY Oswego in May to preview the work that 15 SUNY students will do this summer at Oswego’s global laboratories in Brazil under the first phase of a $160,000 Santander-funded project.

Officials from Sovereign Bank/Banco Santander, the State University of
New York system and Brazil’s State of Alagoas visited SUNY Oswego in May and heard Bellinger’s and Buckner’s presentations. Banco Santander awarded $160,000 to SUNY to support student participation in ongoing research at Brazilian sites in Oswego’s new network of global laboratories.

“We strongly believe that future leaders will be global leaders,” said Eduardo Garrido, director of the Santander Universities program at Sovereign Bank, a U.S. subsidiary of Spain-based Banco Santander. “This has to be fostered.”

Emerging scientists

Buckner gave an illustrated presentation of her work in Brazil’s Pantanal wetlands with Cleane Medeiros of Oswego’s biological sciences faculty. She participated in a survey of reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates, gathering data that will help protect the habitat.

“I’ve had dreams of being a scientist forever,” the senior zoology major said. This summer she returned in search of ideas for her doctoral research. A McNair Scholar at Oswego as well as a participant in the college’s Honors Program, Buckner has been accepted to pursue a doctorate at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Bellinger reported on his work last summer studying the period luminosity relationship of Cepheid stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, working with Shashi Kanbur, Oswego’s faculty fellow and a member of the physics faculty. “You can’t see the Magellanic Cloud from the northern hemisphere yet it holds all the data that I’m researching,” Bellinger said.

This summer the junior double major in computer science and applied mathematics worked on computational quantum physics at the Federal University of Alagoas in Maceio.

‘Tight-knit collaboration’

SUNY Oswego President Deborah F. Stanley last year traveled to the Brazilian state of Alagoas, the fast-developing northeastern region of Brazil, to sign three agreements that established some of the first global laboratories in Oswego’s planned world-spanning network, including agreements with the federal university and the state of Alagoas.

In turn, Eduardo Setton, secretary for science, technology and innovation for the state of Alagoas, came to Oswego and heard Buckner’s and Bellinger’s presentations. Setton spoke of the tech park in Maceio and the opportunities for international collaboration there through such agreements as SUNY Oswego has established.

Kanbur described Oswego’s network of global laboratories, which he is helping to develop, as “absolutely unique,” and Bellinger added that his experience supports that claim: “My friends at private universities have expressed envy that we have such fantastic opportunities at our public university.”

Josh McKeown, Oswego’s director of international education and programs, agreed. “We have built something special,” he said. “Our students can so seamlessly enter into a research program in another country because of the close relationship of our international faculty with researchers abroad.”

Oswego’s agreements in Alagoas are among nine the college has with universities and states in Brazil. “That’s really a tight-knit collaboration. I’m proud of Oswego for forging these alliances with such an important country,” said Sally Crimmins Villela, SUNY’s assistant vice chancellor for global affairs.

President Stanley noted that Oswego is deepening the relationship as it sends more students to the country to participate in hands-on research while gaining understanding of another culture, and she said she hopes to bring students from Brazil to Oswego. “Banco Santander’s support is helping our global laboratories come into full blossom,” she said.

For 15 years, Bill followed the wild chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, capturing the intimate details of their daily lives for the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), which is led by renowned primatologist and conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall.

Psychology major Nikki Packard ’11, left, talks with the wife-and-husband team of Kristin Mosher ’89, center, a much-published wildlife photographer, and Bill Wallauer, videographer for the Jane Goodall Institute, Feb. 10 during a visit to Distinguished Service Professor Paul Voninski’s Anthropology 280 class in Mahar Hall.

He has videotaped chimpanzee births, dominance displays, infanticide attempts, encounters with snakes and “rain dances.” Much of his footage is unprecedented — including capturing a live birth on tape.

Kristin is a professional wildlife photographer and sound recordist. She previously worked as a Jane Goodall Institute staff member, and continues to partner with Bill on production work for JGI. The alumna’s photographic work has appeared in many publications, including National Geographic, BBC Wildlife Magazine and numerous books.

Currently, the couple is working on a three-year project with Disneynature documenting the behavior of chimpanzees for an upcoming major motion picture.

The Great Lakes Fishery Commission has awarded a SUNY  Oswego conservation geneticist a $62,822 grant to study small, bottom-dwelling Lake Ontario fish called deepwater sculpin — once thought extinct there.

Assistant Professor of Biology Amy Welsh studies a fish once thought extinct.

The grant for Amy Welsh, assistant professor in Oswego’s biological sciences department, is in cooperation with researchers from Michigan State University and federal and state agencies.

Deepwater sculpin, a species with a flattened head, side-mounted eyes and distinctive fanlike dorsal fins, once thrived in Lake Ontario, but disappeared from scientists’ sampling sites from the 1960s through 1996.

Welsh will conduct DNA analysis to determine whether today’s deepwater sculpin are back from supposed extinction or drifted here from the upper Great Lakes.

Maureen Walsh, a research fishery biologist with the USGS Great Lakes Science Center’s Lake Ontario Biological Station in Oswego, said her agency, the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Canadian partners sample the lake annually for many species of animal life. Deepwater sculpin had been plentiful from at least the 1920s through the 1950s, then disappeared.

Welsh and Walsh said the goals of the genetic study are to determine how today’s deepwater sculpin are related to the historic Lake Ontario population, and whether these finger-length fish could become plentiful enough to make part of a healthy, native diet for a depleted population of lake trout currently feeding on non-native alewives.

Whether the return of deepwater sculpin benefits lake trout or not, Welsh finds it an exciting development for Lake Ontario.

“The goal in the Great Lakes is to restore more of a native ecosystem,” she said. “There is impetus to revive native species.”

— Jeff Rea ’71