In 2012, students from an eclectic mix of states (Arkansas, Iowa, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Utah) and an unlikely set of countries (Indonesia, Iran, Australia) gathered for the diatom course at Iowa Lakeside Lab. Most of the students are enrolled in graduate programs, using diatoms in their research projects. The students learned not only about the freshwater diatom genera in North America, but were exposed to the species diversity from this global set of student study sites.  

In 2013, we will mark the 50th anniversary of the class in Iowa, which started as the “Diatom Clinic” by Dr. Gene Stoermer in 1963. Recently, a former student from the 1963 class, Gerry Haukoos, sent a note in rememberance of Gene. He recalled that the first morning of the class in 1963, he overheard Dr. John Dodd instructing his former graduate student (Gene) in the adjoining room. John Dodd said something like, "you're in the big time now, go get'em". This exchange occurred when John and Gene were in a stone lab, in the midst of the cornfields of northwest Iowa! For many years of teaching the summer course, Gene would end his lectures with, "Now go forth and do great things". All the students that pass through this stone building have done exactly that.

Funding

  • J.C. Kingston Fellowship

    Teaching Fellowship - Nina Desianti

  • C.W. Reimer Scholarship

    Merit Scholarship - Catharina Grubaugh

  • Friends of Lakeside Lab

    Educational Support

  • Okoboji Foundation

    Educational Support

  • Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust

    Student Microscopes and Imaging

  • Messengers of Healing Winds

    Student Microscopes and Imaging

Participants

Mark Edlund

Content Editor, Centric Diatoms Diatoms of North America, Editoral Review Board

Senior Scientist Science Museum of Minnesota

Steve Main

Professor emeritus Retired, Wartburg College

Marina Potapova

Content Editor, Monoraphid Diatoms Diatoms of North America, Editoral Review Board

Curator Diatom Herbarium, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Drexel University

Sarah Spaulding

Content Editor, Symmetric Biraphid Diatoms Diatoms of North America, Editoral Review Board

Ecologist US Geological Survey

Ehsan Atazadeh

Associate Professor of Ecology Department of Plant, Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Tabriz, Iran

David R.L. Burge

Content Editor, Araphid and Centric Diatoms Diatoms of North America, Editoral Review Board

Assistant Scientist St. Croix Watershed Research Station

Phytoplankton Scientist Natural Resources Research Institute

William Daniels

Ph.D. Student Geology Department, Brown University and Marine Biological Laboratory

Nina Desianti

J.C. Kingston Fellow Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, Ecology and Systematics of Diatoms

Catharina Grubaugh

Ph.D. Student Fordham University

Kerry Howard

Truckee Meadows Community College

Matthew Keith

Undergraduate Student University of Iowa

Somayyeh Kheiri

Research Scientist Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, National Botanical Garden, Tehran, Iran

Steve Nelson

Professor of Geochemistry Department of Geological Sciences, Brigham Young University

Michael Van Gorp

Undergraduate Student University of Iowa

Jane Shuttleworth

Friends of Lakeside Lab

Img 5775
Image Credit: Mark Edlund
Students at the Miocene Ashfall Fossil Bed, Nebraska.
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Image Credit: Sarah Spaulding
David Burge collecting Neidium at Dead Man's Lake, Pilot Knob, Iowa.
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Image Credit: Sarah Spaulding
Somayyeh Kheiri and Marina Potapova on West Lake Okoboji, Iowa.
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Image Credit: Sarah Spaulding
Nina Desianti, JC Kingston Teaching Fellow, working on piston core of Lake Minnewashta.
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Image Credit: Sarah Spaulding
Kerry Howard setting gravity coring device.
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Image Credit: Mark Edlund
Will Daniels samples diatoms from Miocene ash beds.
C Lewisii Inflata  L 3 6 5
Image Credit: Matt Keith
Caloneis lewisii from the Reimer Herbarium L-3-6. The sample was collected on the East Branch of Des Moines River, north of Seneca in Kossuth County, Iowa
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Image Credit: Sarah Spaulding
Mike Van Gorp and Islam Atazadeh with a piston core with sediment from Lake Minnewashta.
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Image Credit: Sarah Spaulding
Matt Keith, prairie lad.
F Nitz Live Gird With Scale
Image Credit: Kerry Howard
Colony of Fragilariforma nitzschoides with contracted chloroplasts and internal valves.