Student News from the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences : Rutgers SEBS and NJAES Newsroom

Fly Away: Rutgers Entomologist studies Blow flies and crime scenes

May 8, 2013 By MyCentralJersey.com

At crime scenes, there are the obvious clues: DNA, fingerprints and blood stains. Then, there are the maggots. And in New Jersey, few – if any – know maggots better than Lauren Weidner, a Rutgers graduate student whose research in the growing field of forensic entomology could make her the state’s most unlikely crime fighter. Weidner studies maggots, also known as blow flies, which can descend upon a corpse within minutes of death and provide valuable information on the time someone died.

Read the entire article at MyCentralJersey.com »

Filed Under: Environment/Natural Resources, In the News, SEBS, Students

Maggots and the Clues they Tell: Grad Student Studies Forensic Entomology

May 7, 2013 By Office of Communications

Lauren Weidner, a Rutgers graduate student in entomology, studies maggots in her lab. Credit: Kyle Sweet

Lauren Weidner, graduate student in entomology, has not a revulsion, but an appreciation for maggots, also known as blow flies, and the role they play in decomposition. This role, when it comes to dead bodies, is a telling one. Read more about Weidner’s research.

Filed Under: Research, SEBS, Students

Project Move Out Keeps Student Discards out of Landfill

May 3, 2013 By Office of Communications

Project Move Out, a joint program between Rutgers and the City of New Brunswick, recycles discarded furniture, appliances, electronics, and textiles in order to keep those items out of landfills and reduce our carbon footprint. The collection of waste will be held while students are leaving the campus at the end of Spring semester. Details on the program can be found at the Project Move Out website at: ruoffcampus.rutgers.edu/projectmoveout.

Filed Under: Community, SEBS, Students

Human Ecology Professor Hosted as Guest Lecturer by Former Grad Students

April 30, 2013 By Office of Communications

Peter Guarnaccia and former Rutgers graduate student Nia Parson display the embroidery.

Peter Guarnaccia, professor in the Dept of Human Ecology and investigator at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, was invited by former Rutgers anthropology graduate student Nia Parson to deliver the George and Mary Foster Distinguished Lecture in Cultural Anthropology at Southern Methodist University (SMU). Parson, who completed her Ph.D. in Anthropology on domestic and political violence in Chile, and is now an assistant professor at SMU, hosted Guarnaccia’s visit and interaction with the Department of Anthropology.

Parson presented Guarnaccia with a piece of embroidery depicting George and Mary Foster, for whom the lecture is named. The work was done by a textile artist from the village in Mexico where George M. Foster, a former anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of the founders of medical anthropology, carried out much of his research. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Faculty, SEBS, Students