A warm EEB welcome to 11 undergraduate students from across the United States, including Puerto Rico, who were selected to participate in the 2013 ED-QUE²ST REU program.

They arrived on campus in late May 2013 to spend the summer working on an independent research project under the guidance of an EEB faculty member or Ph.D. student of their choice.

ED-QUE²ST is an NSF-funded summer research program especially for first and second year college students from backgrounds underrepresented in ecology and evolutionary biology. ED-QUE²ST stands for Enhancing Diversity, Quality, and Understanding of the Ecological and Evolutionary Sciences for Tomorrow. The exceptional students, their home university, ED-QUE²ST mentors, research projects and research sites follow:

Tiffany Elise Brooks, University of Cincinnati; Professor Patricia Wittkopp and Fabien Duveau, postdoctoral fellow; Genetic and developmental mechanisms underlying phenotypic evolution, Ann Arbor

Magdalena Cruz, University of Michigan; Professor John Vandermeer; Spatial dynamics of a complex ecological network in Mexican coffee agroecosystems; Mexico

Emilia Iglesias, University of Michigan; Micaela Martinez-Bakker, Ph.D. student; Unmasking the spatiotemporal signature of neurodegenerative disease; Ann Arbor

Chloe Lash, Valparaiso University; Professor Meghan Duffy; How do parasites alter interactions between native and invasive species; Ann Arbor

Azucena Lucatero, Swarthmore College; Theresa Ong, Ph.D. student; Urban agriculture as a science: how biocomplexity and crop variety affect pest prevalence and dispersal through an urban landscape; Ann Arbor

William Henry Marshall II, University of Michigan; Apolline Auclerc, postdoctoral fellow, and Jim Le Moine, research laboratory specialist; Measuring regrowth of trees in Biostation burn plots; U-M Biological Station

Carolia Ocasio Estevez, University of Puerto Rico; Dr. Liliana Cortés Ortiz, assistant research scientist; Phylogenetics and phylogeography of Neotropical primates; Ann Arbor

Stephanie Patton, Illinois Wesleyan University; Dr. Luke Nave, assistant research scientist; Old forest net absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide; U-M Biological Station

Aréliz Rivera Rivera, University of Puerto Rico in Utuado; Senay Yitbarek, Ph.D. student; Evolutionary games of ants: unmasking the rules of biological invasions; Mexico

Kimberly Wiley, Bryn Mawr College; Professor Catherine Badgley; Dietary habits of fossil antelope from Pakistan; Ann Arbor

Dacotah Wolf Necklace, Sitting Bull College; Professor Catherine Badgley and Tara Smiley; Dietary habits of living and fossil desert rodents; Ann Arbor

Faculty directors are Catherine Badgley, Jo Kurdziel, and John Vandermeer, with administrative support from Bethany Christoff and Jane Sullivan. Kurdziel and Badgley will coordinate weekly meetings and discussion of this year’s book selection, “The Panda’s Thumb” by Stephen Jay Gould. The U-M program is in its third year and is funded by the National Science Foundation. Students will spend nine weeks conducting research with their mentors. The program began with an orientation retreat at the E.S. George Reserve, around campus and at the Museum of Zoology to observe research in action and discuss the scientific process and to acquaint students with available facilities and resources. Participants receive funds for airfare, local housing and a stipend for their efforts.

Pictured are the ED-QUE²ST students, mentors, and others involved in the program.