Henderson State biology students, faculty mentors present research

Pictured, from left, are: Riley Kratz, Valerie Anderson, Princes Rodriguez, Lydia Serviss, Dr. Brett Serviss, and Dr. Renn Tumlison.

Most people are probably not familiar with dark ibises, liriopogons, great-tailed grackles, and twig girdlers.

But four Henderson State University biology students and their faculty mentors know very well what they are.

They presented their research recently at the annual meeting of the Arkansas Academy of Science (AAS) at Lyon College in Batesville.

The meeting featured professional scientific presentations by faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students as they delivered the results of their research in a scientific academic forum.

Henderson State's contingent gave these presentations:

• Princes D. Rodriguez and Dr. Renn Tumlison, History and Distribution of the Dark Ibises in Arkansas
• Valerie Anderson and Tumlison, History and Distribution of Great-tailed Grackles
• J. Riley Kratz and Dr. Brett Serviss, New Distributional Records of Liriopogons in Arkansas; and New Records of Angiosperms for the Arkansas Flora
• Lydia I. Serviss and Tumlison, Ovipositional Behavior of the Twig Girdler in Arkansas.

"Students gain experience with the art of presentation, add lines to their resumes, and have the opportunity to meet professionals from other institutions and graduate schools," Serviss said. "One scientist attending the meeting commented to Dr. Tumlison on the twig girdler presentation, saying 'I want to compliment you and your student for the girdling beetle presentation. It was quite fascinating.'"

Presentations made at the meeting are submittable for possible publication in the peer-reviewed Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science. Research from Kratz's presentations have already been published, with an additional manuscript recently accepted for publication in the Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas.

The four students will present their papers at the upcoming Arkansas Undergraduate Research Conference at Henderson State on April 12.