Dr. John Styrsky hasn’t always been a fan of spiders. “Actually, spiders make me really uncomfortable,” the University of Lynchburg biology professor admitted recently. “Something about the number of legs they have and the way they move them gives me the heebie-jeebies, so I typically give them a wide berth.”
biology
Westover Honors Fellow studies basilica orbweaver spiders for thesis project
When she first came to the University of Lynchburg, Kassidy McCall ’22 planned to major in exercise physiology with the goal of becoming an athletic trainer. What she really wanted to be, however, was a veterinarian.
SGA president, Westover Honors Fellow named Sommerville Scholar
Matthew Gillett ’22, a political science major from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has been named the 2021-22 Richard Clarke Sommerville Scholar. The award, the University of Lynchburg’s highest academic honor, was presented Friday, Oct. 29, at the Daura Museum of Art.
GIS class partners with Outdoor Leadership Programs to map cave
Mimi Oliver ’22 was a little nervous a few weeks ago, thinking about going caving with her Geographic Information Systems class. On Aug. 17, she and her classmates would hike to a cave in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and then spend the day inside taking measurements, collecting data, and exploring.
Saving the monarch butterfly, one milkweed plant at a time
The University of Lynchburg is one of a few colleges in the country studying milkweed, the monarch butterfly’s main food source, to see if it can grow in various locations along their migration path.
Master of Public Health program works with Lynchburg Parks and Recreation to keep community safe from tick-borne diseases
The University of Lynchburg’s Master of Public Health program has partnered with the city of Lynchburg’s parks and recreation department on a project aimed at helping area residents stay safe from tick-borne diseases.
Hill Award winner worked hard to ‘be as involved as I could be’
Ellen Druebbisch ‘21 is this year’s Robert L. Hill Distinguished Senior Award winner.
‘Honors Scholar of the Year’ keeps promise, excels in and out of classroom
When she was a first-year student at the University of Lynchburg, Ellen Druebbisch ’21 made a promise to herself. “I made a pact … to make the most out of my four years in college and to be as involved as I could be, so that’s what I did,” she said.
Future STEM teachers getting lift from NSF-funded Noyce Scholarship
Alyssa Gundel ’22 says she has long been “fascinated with the idea that some of the smallest components of life can come together to create a fully functioning organism” and “always knew I wanted to make an impact on someone in the world.”
Lynchburg’s Claytor Nature Center gets critical NSF grant to boost IT infrastructure, research
It’s been a year of challenges, but also blessings. One such blessing came in the form of a $167,592 grant from the National Science Foundation to support “data and security infrastructure improvements to advance biological research” at the University of Lynchburg’s Claytor Nature Center.
