Diatoms of North America
James D. Woodell
Taxon Contributor
Undergraduate Student University of Iowa
That is one of the definitions of life: organism and environment change together in a reciprocal arrangement, as they are two manifestations of an ecology, two parts of a whole. - Kim Stanley Robinson
I am currently an undergraduate at University of Iowa in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences majoring in Environmental Biosciences (BS). I worked in Dr. Ann F. Budd’s lab doing research on coral morphology and phylogenies in order to better understand extant and extinct solitary species. I was excited to expand on what I had learned there and so took the diatom class at Lakeside Lab. Delving into their diversity and understanding their place in varied environments has been an enlightening experience. Next year will be my last year as an undergraduate, and I will spend it working on an honors project in Dr. Maurine Neiman’s lab using freshwater snails as model organisms to research sex in an environmental context. I plan on continuing my education after receiving my undergraduate degree, pursuing a goal of studying marine ecology.