Faculty

Bonita Biegalke, PhD: Irvine 341, biegalke@ohio.edu, Associate Professor in Biomedial Sciences.

Pete Coshigano, PhD: LSB 225, coshiga@ohio.edu, Associate Professor of Microbiology.

Joan Cunningham, PhD: Irvine 060, cunninj1@ohio.edu, Microbiology Student Organization Advisor.

Ken Goodrum, PhD: Irvine 404, goodrum@ohio.edu, Associate Professor of Immunology.

Mario Grijalva, PhD: Irvine 333, grijalva@ohio.edu, Director, Tropical Disease Institute; Associate Professor.

Don Holzschu, PhD: LSB 239, holzschu@ohio.edu, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology.

Calvin James, PhD: LSB 229, jamesca@ohio.edu, Associate Professor of Virology; Director, Tropical Disease Institute.

Lorie LaPierre, PhD: Irvine 063, lapierre@ohio.edu, Instructor of gene regulation, general microbiology, and virology.

William Romoser, PhD: Irvine 338, romoserw@ohio.edu, Professor of Medical Entomology.

Ed Rowland, PhD: Irvine 332, rowland@ohio.edu, Associate Professor of Immunoparasitology.

Executive Board

President - Kate Campbell

Co-Vice Presidents - Sarah Tremaine and Paul Gazzillo

Secretary/Treasurer/Webmaster - Catrina Musser

Social Chair/Historian - Ryan Bartlett

Alumni

Sarah Cunningham Ball

"I graduated from OU in 1999 as a microbiology student and was part of the original MSO. After I graduated I started working at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, in the department of infectious diseases. I work in the lab of Dr. Eric Arts, in which we study HIV-1. Currently, we are studying HIV fitness/recombination and drug resistance. All of my work has been in the area of HIV fitness/recombination. As you may or may not know, HIV-1 is divided into 3 groups M, N, and O. Group M consists of currently 10 different clades, or subtypes, A-J, and makes up 99% of the infections world wide. My main projects have centered around the fitness difference between HIV subtypes, mainly A-D, which will give us some clue as to why certain subtypes are more predominant. Aside from this I have also found myself thrown into the role of lab manager, so I also take care of the ordinary workings of the lab, such as ordering, organizing and overseeing the work study students, for example. I have found my 1 1/2 years here extremely enjoyable and rewarding, it is a great atmosphere here as well and I encourage other graduates to look at Case for jobs. Thanks."

Ryan Whitmer

"I work at Veterinary Diagnostics, a medium sized lab in Columbus. Basically we handle 70% of all the vets in Ohio and another 2 or 3 hundred in other states. The lab, which is mostly made up of vet techs and med techs, handles all of the testing done on animals, from blood work and profiles to cultures and biopsies. It's a really laid back place to work. We are usually very busy in the morning, but it slows down considerably in the afternoon. I handle all of the cultures that come in. We enter them in the computer, streak out a blood and McConkey plate for each one. On average I streak about 100 plates a day. We record the results the next day and put the colonies into the Aris machine, which does all of the IDs and sensitivities. I usually get a couple of odd things a day which I have to make special slides for or plate on different media, so at least it doesn't get routine or monotonous. We usually see the basic pathogens, a strep or staph, E.coli, Pseudomonas, Proteus etc., but occasionally we get Clostridia, Campylobacter, Salmonella, Vibrio, and some other somewhat "big" ones. The most important thing about the job, which you will find out soon enough, is technique. There are shortcuts here and there, but 90% of it is straight out Micro Techniques. As far as job hunting goes, this was the first job I interviewed for, I didn't have much competition, and I got to name my own salary, within reason of course. I'm making about 37,000 a year including the extensive overtime I put in. So the money is good, the competition is slim, and the work is great. Not much else you can ask for. Good luck!"

Christopher Haney

"I'm working toward a Ph.D. in environmental microbiology at the University of Arizona's College of medicine, department of microbiology and immunology, in Tucson, Arizona."

This page was designed for former members of the Microbiology Student Organization that have graduated. If you are interested in being added, please send in a summary of what you are currently doing and what you have done. Include graduate school, jobs, family, and anything else of interest. You can also include a picture, e-mail, and a link to your webpage as long as it doesn't contain any inappropriate content. Send your information and files to microorg@ohio.edu