Good morning from the beautiful Douglas Lake!
The research and teaching campus in northern Michigan is alive and swimming with students and scientists who are immersed in forests, rivers and lakes for this fresh season of discovery.
Pictured on the right is Sydni Smith, a senior at U-M. Sydni used the rake method to gather aquatic plants and insects from the bottom of Douglas Lake as part of her General Ecology Lab class on Friday, May 23.
One U-M student — Julia Cole, who will be a senior in Program in the Environment (PitE) in the fall — said her courses at the Biological Station give her “so much joy and engage so many different parts of your mind.”
That’s music to my ears.
A picture paints a thousand words, so I’m devoting the May newsletter to showing rather than telling. As you enjoy your coffee or tea and scroll through this gem of a bulletin, you will find two dozen photos and captions that will hopefully make you feel a part of the excitement at the University of Michigan Biological Station. Our generous donors are making these transformational experiences possible through scholarships and fellowships.
Before I sign off and jump back into my scientific adventures in the Northwoods, I am proud to report we have 71 active research projects being worked on this year — including 26 new projects.
It’s the last call to sign up for UMBS Alumni Weekend (Aug. 8-10).
It’s also the final day for students from universities all over the world to apply for courses in the UMBS summer term (July 1-31).
And, as always, I would love to see you in person. Please join us on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in Gates Lecture Hall for the Summer Lecture Series.
This week we’re featuring Dr. Timothy James, who will be teaching the Field Mycology course at UMBS in the summer term and is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan and the curator of fungi at the University Herbarium in Ann Arbor. He’s a Michigan rock star who had a paper recently published in the journal Nature ("Fungal Impacts on Earth’s Ecosystems") that examines the fungal threats facing civilization and investigates opportunities to use fungi to combat these threats.
His talk at UMBS on Wednesday, June 4, is titled: What Can We Learn About Sex From Studying Fungi?
And, last but not least, please join me in giving a hearty congratulations to Chrissy Billau, our UMBS storyteller and strategic communications wizard, for winning the 2025 Rising Star Award in the Natural Sciences Division from the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Chrissy is an invaluable asset to our team, the Biological Station research and academic communities, the University of Michigan and the northern Michigan communities that we are embedded in. Thank you to her and to our entire staff for making this such a special place.
Read the full May 2025 newsletter to watch a video about students buiding a flux tower to measure climate change biology and read a Q&A with the 2025 garden steward who is driven by food justice and sustainability.
Sincerely,
Dr. Aimee Classen
UMBS Director
