Many students of introductory biology and animal behavior will well remember Professor Ted Sargent who plans to retire this December. Ted earned a B.S. degree from the University in 1958 and, after receiving a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1963, returned to the University as an Assistant Professor in Zoology.
Ted looks back wistfully at his long association with the University. During his undergad years, Ted's favorite teachers included Physics Professor Bill Ross who convinced Ted that physics could be interesting and useful to a naturalist. English Professor Sid Kaplan taught Ted a special appreciation for American authors like Melville. Ted also fondly remembers his honors thesis advisor Professor Larry Bartlett, a fanatical bird enthusiast who passed on some of that enthusiasm to Ted. Another prof Ted reveres was Bill Nutting, "a nut" in the best sense of the word.  
Recounting his finest hours at UMass, Ted unflinchingly listed mentoring of his students as his greatest joy. Two shining examples are Deane Bowers, "who will always be a butterfly", and who became a Professor of Biology, and Debbie Schlenoff, who was "brilliant - no one smarter-"; and whose "thesis made a lasting impact on her field and who then went on to become a successful mom of four kids".
Ted clearly has a reverence for good teachers.  His favorite model of teacher/professor was Dave Klingener who commanded the respect of his discipline as well as the hoards of students who passed through his Comparative Anatomy course. Ted urges that any further growth of the Biology Department be through addition of colleagues with the passions for organisms and teaching that he saw in his idols.
In retirement, Ted will return to perusal of the nature literature, the love for which was nurtured by Sid Kaplan.  Several books are in progress.  One is a "Words on Birds" theme that catalogs the voluminous literary allusions to nature which are becoming difficult for us to comprehend as their subject matter (e.g. the passenger pigeon) has been erased from our memorable experience.  Another work in progress is based on Elaine Goodale, child poet of the Berkshires, whose nature poetry helps us understand our New England heritage.
 

The history of farming in the Amherst area was imaginatively portrayed in a video "Dances with Cows" in which retired Professor Dana Snyder played a leading role. Dana has been restoring antique farm implements such as hay rakes and bailers that were used throughout the long agricultural history of Massachusetts, in which Amherst and the University played important parts. The tape was entered in a national amateur video competition, but was rejected on the grounds it was "too professional". All who viewed it on our local access TV station, ACTV, agree that it captures the unique flavor of our town and its unique blend of inhabitants. Our local Amherst Conservation Commission, a sponsor of the video, would be willing to cooperate with any effort to publish it.  Any entrepreneurs out there?
 

Biology Professor Dr. Sandra Petersen has won a 1998 College Distinguished Teacher Award. These awards, separate from the Distinguished Teaching Award made by students, recognize faculty members' contributions to the advancement of undergraduate teaching across campus, efforts in involving undergrads in faculty research projects, and performance in classroom teaching.   Just prior to joining the Biology Department, Dr. Petersen held the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia. While there, she received an award for Distinguished Teaching in Histology.
Sandy has an outstanding research program with currently over $2 million in research support from the NIH and NSF. She has two major projects. Sandy hopes to elucidate how the brain, pituitary gland and ovary communicate in order to insure that the signal from the brain that ovulation should commence is sent only when the follicles are mature, and she is also trying to gain insight into the disruptive role of environmental pollutants in the control of ovulation by the brain. Sandy's lab is much sought after by postdoctoral and graduate students, and she routinely sponsors undergraduate research.
 

The annual meeting of the Northeast Section of the American Society of Plant Physiologists was held at the Amherst campus on May 1, and followed on May 2 by a National Academy of Sciences sponsored symposium "Frontiers in Plant Biology: Plant Diseases, Pests and Defense Mechanisms". This special symposium was directed at undergraduates, and area teachers and high school students. It provided an extraordinary opportunity for students to hear, in a forum designed specifically for them, a group of internationally known scientists talk on a variety of topics.  The Symposium included presentations by Dr. Frederich Ausabel, Department of Molecular Biology, Harvard Medical School (Common Themes in Plant and Animal Pathogenesis), Dr. Ilya Raskin, Agricultural Biotechnology Center, Rutgers University (Salicylic Acid and Plant Disease Resistance), Dr. Anne Simon, Department of Biochemistry, University of Massachusetts, Amherst (Kill or Cure: the Enigma of Small Virus Associated RNA's) and Dr. Gregg Howe, MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, Michigan State University (Plant Defense Strategies Against Insects).