Up Close with the Department Chair
Crislyn D’Souza-Schorey is Professor and Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences. She is the first woman to serve in the role. In addition to oversight of a department of over 80 faculty and one of the largest undergraduate majors and graduate programs on campus, she also runs her cancer research laboratory. She is married to Jeffrey Schorey, Professor of Biological Sciences; they have a son, who will be a freshman in high school in the fall.
Fighting for clean water
At the Environmental Change Initiative, Professor Jennifer Tank is conducting research to help farmers across the country make positive changes to solve this widespread challenge. As the Galla Professor of Biological Sciences, she is studying the benefits of farming techniques designed to keep nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus on fields, where farmers need them. Her research combines the wide-scale planting of cover crops in winter with innovative drainage strategies that can reduce fertilizer runoff to streams and rivers. By working closely with farmers using these two techniques, Tank’s findings have shown that protecting freshwater does not need to come at a cost to agricultural production.