Natural Science Seminar Spring Series Begins

April 2, 2008

ELLENSBURG, Wash. - As a natural area ecologist for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR), one of Priya Shahani's main goals is to inspire eastern Washington teachers, students and scientific researchers to learn more about the native ecosystems in our state. The DNR works closely with educators all across Washington to promote awareness and understanding of natural systems on natural areas.

Shahani brings her presentation on local pollination to Central Washington University Friday, April 4, 2008. Her speech, Pollinators in a Patchy Landscape: Forest Management, Native Bees, and a Serpentine Specialist Plant, is sponsored by CWU's Department of Biological Sciences. It will kick off the spring Natural Sciences Seminar Series, to run until the end of May.

"This series was born here at CWU in 1994," said biology professor Dan Beck. "The public is welcome, and the seminars are at a level most anybody can get something from. They're not esoteric topics that only a few can understand."

Shahani's one-hour talk begins at 4 p.m., with refreshments to be served ten minutes prior in the Science Building, room 147. Shahani manages more than 40,000 acres of natural preservation land in the eastern Cascade region, Beck said.

Five more seminars will follow, all beginning at 3:50 p.m. with refreshments. They last one hour, are held in the Science Building, room 147, and are followed by a question-and-answer period.

The spring seminar lineup includes:

• April 11: Update on Orangutans of Borneo, presented by Birute Galdikas, Universitas Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia, and Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• April 25: The Human Tailbone and that Thing Hanging Down the Back of Your Throat: Oddball Anatomical Structures and the Stories They Tell, presented by David Darda, Department of Biological Sciences, CWU
• May 9: Metabolic Flexibility and Suspended Animation, presented by Mark Roth, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle
• May 23: Aging and Retirement, presented by David Lygre, Department of Chemistry, CWU
• May 30: Integrating the Evolutionary Ecology of Ectotherms in Response to Climate Change: Physiology and Life History of Northern Side-blotched Lizards (Uta stansburiana), presented by Peter Zani, Department of Biology, Lafayette College, Easton, Pa.

For further information about the seminar series, contact Dan Beck at 509-963-2886, or by e-mail beckd@cwu.edu.

Media Contact: Daniel Beck, CWU Department of Biological Sciences, 509-963-1267, beckd@cwu.edu
CWU Public Relations & Marketing, 509-963-1493

Central Washington University is a master's degree-granting institution with approximately 10,000 students and 1,500 faculty and staff. More than 160 undergraduate and master's degrees are offered. Founded in 1891, the Ellensburg campus is located in the heart of Washington State, nestled between the Cascade Mountains and the Columbia River. Since 1975, CWU has served the needs of place bound students at six university centers throughout the state. CWU is an AA/EEO Title IX Institution.