Biology Department

Senior Theses

All seniors at Reed College must complete a year-long thesis project as a part of their final academic year. For Biology students, the senior thesis offers an opportunity to fully engage a research question with the assistance of a faculty advisor. The diversity of topics and questions pursued by Biology seniors spans the breadth of the biological sciences. All students must identify a focused problem within their area of interest and then design experiments, collect and analyze data, and provide both a written document and oral defense of the finished thesis.

The range of research topics engaged in by Biology seniors can be seen below in the list of thesis titles from our most recent group of seniors. Thesis titles are listed in alphabetical order by the senior's last name. The abstract for a thesis can be viewed by clicking on the Abstract link (if provided). The faculty member advising each student is listed with the abstract, and includes a link to his/her home page.

Thesis Research Support

The Biology Department has available a number of sources of financial support for thesis research. While modest projects are sometimes supported from regular Department funds, many of our Seniors find support for their research expenses from grants to their faculty thesis advisor or from institutional grants from foundations like HHMI and, most recently, the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation. Research funds from the institutional grants are awarded on a competitive basis to seniors who prepare a written proposal in support of their request. Both the Miller Foundation and the HHMI Undergraduate Research Program have provided critical support, allowing Reed seniors to develop research projects that are more ambitious and sophisticated than might otherwise be possible. In addition to developing critical research skills, the seniors learn the important process of supporting their research through the development of written research proposals. Senior theses listed below (or on the links above for earlier years) that were supported by either the Miller Foundation funds or Reed's HHMI Undergraduate Research Program awards are designated with a label in blue.

You may be wondering just how many Biology and BMB majors we graduate each year. We wondered that as well, so in 1996 we began weighing the graduating class to determine the official "biomass" of the Department's seniors. We can now quantitatively answer the question of how many seniors we graduate, with our answer given in units of metric tons. You can see the results at the BIOMASS homepage.

 

2008 Senior Thesis Titles

(CLASS OF 2008: If your thesis abstract is not currently included on this page and you would like it to be, please follow this link.)

  • Microbial Source Tracking of Escherichia coli in Reed Lake by Antibiotic Resistance Testing and PCR-RFLP Analysis by Christine Anne Lehualani Beckel
  • Associative Nitrogen Fixation Ability Does Not Predict Symbiotic Nodulation Ability in Burkholderia tropica by Christopher Kyle Black - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation) - Abstract
  • Promoter-Regulated Effects of TIS11 Overexpression on the Rate of Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus Stop Codon Readthrough in Saccharamyces cerevisiae by Rachel Katherine Bond - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation) - Abstract
  • Assessing the Presence, Stability, and Linearity of Dominance Hierarchies among Female Cichlids of the Species Astatotilapia burtoni by Evan Freer Bremer - Abstract
  • The Pre-Steady-State Kinetics of Orotate Phosphoribosyltransferase: Synthesis and Enzymatic Characterization of 2-Thioorotic Acid by Jade Alana Bryant
  • The Dominant Female: A Look at the Possible Sex-Role Reversal in Julidochromis marlieri, from a Behavioral and Hormonal Perspective by Seyram Ahiadeke Butame - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation) - Abstract
  • Phytostabilization of Abandoned Diatomite Mine Sites in Terrebonne, Oregon, Utilizing Purshia tridentata and Soil Amendments by Samuel Dyer Chamberlain - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation) - Abstract
  • A New, “Open Source,” Rhizobia-Based Transformation System for Soybeans by Matthew Bradley Chambers
  • Formation of Filaments by H-NS and Ler by Garon Coriz - Abstract
  • Deriving the Spider Embryo: Gastrulation and Dorsal-Ventral Patterning in Zygiella x-notata by Bryce Krishna Cragg - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation)
  • Fluorescence Studies of ScaR by Christine Elizabeth Deyo
  • Ontogeny and Phylogeny of Two Spider Species, Cheiracanthium mildei and Latrodectus mactans by Allison Elizabeth Edgar - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation) - Abstract
  • What Did or Did Not Occur: Expression of the Glutathione-S-Transferases in Soybean (Glycine max) Root Nodules in Response to Paraquat by Jessica Anne Emge-Hosner
  • Urban Wildlife Conservation: Genetic Diversity and Connectivity of Three Populations of Taricha granulosa within an Urban Matrix by Luke Owen Frishkoff - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation)
  • Characterizing Serpentine Soil Tolerance in Mimulus guttatus (Phrymaceae) by Margaret Frisbie Hendrick - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation) - Abstract
  • The Western Pond Turtle (Emys marmorata): An Assessment of Head-Start Programs Using Population Viability Analysis (PVA) by Paul Gresham Hightower
  • Toward a Study of Salmonella Orotate Phosphoribosyltransferase Binding Stoichiometry by Emily Ann Meloche Justusson
  • The Change in Localization of the Ubiquitin Ligase Nedd4 in the Presence of 17-ß Estradiol in MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells by Emily Li Pin Kam - Abstract
  • Determining the Interval of Estrogen-Mediated Gene Repression on the ER Target Gene N4BP3 in MCF-7 Human Breast Cancer Cells by Aroon Saikumar Karra
  • Is Dam Removal a Panacea? Salmon, the Sandy River, and the Marmot Dam by Matthew Joseph King - Abstract
  • Green Roofs and Urban Biodiversity: Arthropod Conservation in Portland, Oregon by Georgia Helena Kirkpatrick - Abstract
  • Construction of a Binary Vector for the Overexpression of Glutathione S-Transferase in Medicago truncatula by Edwin Gaston Lauer
  • The Isolation of Large Dense-Core Vesicles towards the Identification of Their Tethering Proteins by Jeremy Thomas Sheng Leitz - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation)
  • Lactoferrin as  a Potential Anti-Proliferative Agent: Lactoferrin Exhibits Inhibitory Transcriptional Control over Skp1 by Claire Elizabeth Matturro - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation) - Abstract
  • Establishing the Boundaries for Metal Ion Selectivity in the Manganese Transport Regulator MntR by Amanda Marie McGuire
  • Differential Regulation of the proU and LEE5 Operons of Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli by the Repressor H-NS and Anti-Silencer Ler Requires more than Competition for a Shared Binding Site by William Clement McNitt - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation) - Abstract
  • Site Directed Mutation of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae OPRTase Flexible Loop: Potential Application to Structural Studies by Michael Melesse
  • Intraspecies Recognition in Asatilatopia burtoni Cichlids by Catherine Ariel Mingoya- Abstract
  • Cancer Resistance in Xenopus laevis: An Investigation of p53 Expression by Aurelia Rose Moran - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation)
  • Methane Production in Response to Sulfate Concentration in Batch Anaerobic Digesters by Laura Emily Mulshine
  • Microevolution of Gasterosteus aculeatus in the Johnson Creek Watershed by Maximilian Oliver Press - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation)
  • Cellular Movements during Early Neurogenesis in Zygiella x. notata by Petra Alice Runckel
  • DNA Binding and Recognition by MntR by Vito Antonio Spadavecchio
  • The Potential Use of Two White Rot Fungi, Pleurotus ostreatus and Trametes versicolor, in the Bioremediation of Used Motor Oil by Daniel Luther Sullivan - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation) - Abstract
  • Ecophysiology and Pleiotropy of Foliar Anthocyanins in Delphinium nuttallii and Delphinium leucophaeum by Rebecca Anne Susko - Abstract
  • The Evolution of Phenotypic Plasticity under Alternative Population Dynamics by Jonathan Randolph Sweeney - Abstract
  • Organ Localization and Function of Immunosuppressive Enzyme Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase and its Novel Isozyme, ID02, in Xenopus laevis by Catherine Samuels Uram - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation) - Abstract
  • Messenger RNA Encoding the Egg-Laying Hormone Is Actively Transported to the Neurites of Bag Cells in Aplysia californica by Natalie Calida Vizcarra - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation)
  • The Discrimination between Calcium and Manganese in MntR by Erin Leigh Weber
  • Is PinX1 a Negative Regulator of Telomerase in Xenopus laevis? by Michael Edward Wernick
  • Maternal Care and Aggression in the African Cichlid Astatotilapia burtoni by Alexandra Holbrooke Winters - (This study was funded in part by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation) - Abstract
  • Expression and Characterization of Xenopus laevis POT1 by Gillian Reed Woodruff - Abstract
  • An Investigation of Two Similar but Different Proteins in Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli: Ler and H-NS by Melissa Ann Louise Zarr