PhD student Katie Franklin attended the 4th North American ToScA conference hosted by the University of Texas Austin. Katie presented her poster, “Exploring B-Lugol: diceCT Soft Tissue Staining,” on the effects of using a buffered Lugol’s solution to reduce soft tissue shrinkage in diceCT preparation of newborn primates. Congrats, Katie!
The DeLeon Lab showed up for AnatomyConnected2023! Among many great presentations, Jennavieve Lambeth delivered a strong podium presentation. All of the DeLeon Lab members present represented the lab well with their research presentations and warm support for their peers.
Andreana Cunningham on her experience this summer:
This summer, I traveled to the remote island of St. Helena to conduct research at Rupert’s Valley Burial Ground. This is the site of the ‘Liberated Africans,’ a group of formerly enslaved Africans who were nominally freed in the mid-1800s shortly prior to their deaths. While on the island, I worked closely with St. Helena organizations to 3D scan skeletal remains and do community engagement activities. As a culmination of the years-long effort on the island to commemorate the site, the ‘Liberated Africans’ will be reburied in late August 2022.”
Laura on her experience:
This summer I spent 6 weeks conducting field research in Andasibe, Madagascar along with PhD student, Caitlynn Filla. We were looking at lemur microbiomes across different tourist sites. We spent most of our days chasing after indri, sifaka, brown lemurs, and we also managed to get some red-bellied lemur, black-and-white ruffed lemur, and bamboo lemur samples.”
We are proud to announce her graduation from the University of Florida with a dual degree consisting of a baccalaureate in Art and in Anthropology, as well as a Medical Anthropology certificate. She was awarded UF’s Outstanding Scholar Award with Summa Cum Laude in Anthropology for her thesis on ecotourism in Madagascar. Laura will be attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst to pursue a PhD in Anthropology. We are overjoyed over her acceptance to graduate school and continued pursuit of research in Anthropology!
Andree is conducting dissertation research on the African Diaspora in St. Helena, a beautiful island in the South Atlantic Ocean. She is working in collaboration with the St Helena Government and the Liberated African Advisory Committee. You can read more about her work in this press release: LINK.
At the 2022 American Association of Biological Anthropologists meeting, Isis was awarded the Outstanding Student Presentation Award for her poster “Limitations of current data and methods for the forensic identification of Black undocumented immigrants.” She hopes to expand on this project in collaboration with other forensic anthropologists to evaluate current approaches and obstacles to forensic anthropology at all borders. We are so proud of her work and achievements representing the lab!
Amanda Pennings represented the undergraduate efforts of the Deleon lab along with Miette Ogg on their research of fgfr2 syndromes at the American Association of Anatomy Meeting in Experimental Biology. She spoke of overcoming her overwhelming nerves in an effort to express her hard work and investment in the research project to the judges. Her hard work was recognized as she was presented the Undergraduate Student Poster Presentation Award! We are so proud of her efforts and of those who assisted in this project.
“I am so grateful that I had the support of amazing mentors like Dr.DeLeon and Katie, my partner Miette, and the entire lab team as well. Without them to lean on for support, advice, and assistance, I never would have been able to achieve the success I did.” – Amanda Pennings
To read more about the awards she and others of the lab achieved please follow the link to the AAA conference awards page: https://www.anatomy.org/AAA/Meetings-Events/2022-Annual-Meeting/Competition_Awards.aspx
Congratulations to our outstanding graduate and undergraduate lab members who presented at this year’s American Anatomy Association Meeting in Philadelphia, PA!
Undergraduate lab members Amanda Pennings and Laura Haynes had an exceptionally successful meeting! Amanda was awarded the American Anatomy Association 2022 Undergraduate Research Poster Award, and Laura did an outstanding job presenting her research at her first academic!
The lab would like to congratulate Lab Manager Katie Franklin for receiving a 2022 Elizabeth Eddy Summer New Graduate Student Research Grant. This summer, she will be collecting data for her master’s project investigating the morphological complexities of the auditory system in nocturnal primates.