SNAPSHOTS IN THE ACADEMIA-INDUSTRY CONTINUUM
are excited to learn about the latest work of graduate students. They are very encouraging and are always ready to share their experiences with the younger generation.
These past two years in graduate school have made me realize that there is not a “flow barrier” between academia and industry. Instead, there exists a broad continuum between them. The more I navigate through it, the more I realize that there is more to explore. But as I am taking different snapshots in my everyday work, like in the hydraulic tomography method, I am sequentially acquiring a more holistic picture of what this continuum is like. This gain in knowledge excites me every day and it motivates me in my research and career. I am mostly “pumping” from the aca- demia-end of the continuum at the pres- ent moment. Most certainly, I will not forget to “pump” from the industry-end after I graduate by continuing to serve in different industry liaison projects with colleges. I also encourage every reader to do the same thing and talk to each other about their findings. Remember, one way to increase the efficiency of a hydraulic tomography survey is to take advantage of “pumping sources” that others have put in!
Acknowledgement
Thanks to Jean M. Neubeck of Alpha Geoscience, for inviting me to write this piece at the 2014 AIPG/AHS national conference and editor, Vickie Hill, for fol- lowing up on it. I would like to acknowl- edge my research advisor, Tian-Chyi Jim Yeh, my PI, Chin Man “Bill” Mok of GSI Environmental Inc., and co-PI Walter Illman from University of Waterloo for their inspiration and guidance. Thanks to my colleagues and friends, Yuanyuan Zha, Deqiang Mao, Elizabeth Hubbs, and others for making life in graduate school enjoyable. Thanks to generous scholar- ships from the AHS and the Roy G. Post Foundation, and the many great people who I have met at their award luncheons.
Michael Tso is a third-year hydrology graduate student at the University of Arizona. Michael received a B.S. in geo- systems engineering and hydrogeology from the University of Texas at Austin. Michael’s research interest includes hydrogeology, groundwater modeling, inverse problems, hydrogeophysics and aquifer remediation. He is concerned about water issues in underprivileged communities.
The Denver Museum Of Nature & Science Welcomes New Curator Tyler Lyson – The Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the region’s leading resource for informal science education, announces the addition of Tyler Lyson as curator of vertebrate paleontology.
Lyson studies fossil vertebrates, par- ticularly dinosaurs and turtles. He is especially interested in the evolution of body plans and extinction patterns of different groups across major extinction events. He uses fossils to help determine how ecosystems change through time, what killed the dinosaurs, how long it takes for an ecosystem to normalize after a major extinction event, and the sequence of changes, such as a lizard- like animal becoming the highly modi- fied body plan of turtles.
“Tyler brings exciting new talents to the Museum’s curatorial team,” said Dr. Scott Sampson, vice president of research and collections and chief curator. “He engages colleagues and citizen scientists alike in his research and explains discoveries in ways that intrigue and excite elementary students as much as or even more so than his peers.” Prior to the Museum, Lyson was a Peter Buck Postdoctoral Researcher at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. He is also the founder and director of the Marmarth Research Foundation, dedicated to promoting informal science education and scien- tific research among citizen scientists in the fossil-rich Hell Creek Formation in southwestern North Dakota.
“I look forward to going on field expe- ditions to help build the Museum’s col- lection of vertebrate fossils and to share my excitement about Earth’s rich history with the general public,” said Lyson.
Recent Research Leads to New Understanding of Turtle Evolution- Lyson’s research on the evolution of turtles and their shells, published this month in Nature Communications, has led to new understanding of how tur- tles developed their unique respiratory anatomy. Unlike other vertebrates that use a combination of musculature and bone to compress and expand the lungs to breathe, turtles rely on musculature alone. Over time, the ribs of turtles have grown fixed into their rigid shells. However, even prior to this, turtles relied solely on trunk muscles for res- piration. Lyson’s study sheds light on this unique feature among vertebrates as well as the process and timing of the
evolution that occurred to set turtles apart.
By studying thin sections of the fos- sils, Lyson and colleagues have shown that the modern turtle breathing appa- ratus was already in place in the earli- est fossil turtle, an animal known as Eunotosaurus africanus. This animal lived in South Africa 260 million years ago and shares many unique features with modern turtles, but it lacked a shell. A recognizable turtle shell doesn’t appear for another 50 million years. Lyson says “The body plan of Eunotosaurus tells us what turtles looked like before they had a shell, which provides key insights into the evolution of both the iconic turtle shell as well as the unique breathing mechanism found in modern turtles.”
The study suggests that early in the evolution of the turtle body plan, a gradual increase in body wall rigidity produced a division of function between the ribs and abdominal respiratory mus- cles. As the ribs broadened and stiffened the torso, they became less effective for breathing, causing the abdominal mus- cles to become specialized for breathing. This in turn freed up the ribs—approxi- mately 50 million years later—to become fully integrated into the shell. The next phase of Lyson’s research will look into why the ribs of early turtles began to broaden, as this is the first step in the evolution of the ribs becoming integrated into the shell and a reliance on abdomi- nal muscles for respiration.
Lyson received his PhD from Yale University, and is a member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists and is a Honorary Researcher at the University of Witswatersrand in South Africa and Curatorial Affiliate at the Yale Peabody Museum.
About the Denver Museum of Nature & Science-The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is the Rocky Mountain Region’s leading resource for informal science education. Our mission is to be a catalyst and ignite the community’s passion for nature and science. The Museum envisions an empowered community that loves, understands, and protects our natural world. As such, a variety of engaging exhibits, discussions, and activities help Museum visitors celebrate and under- stand the wonders of Colorado, Earth, and the universe.
www.aipg.org
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