Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries Seminar

Instructors: Dr. Matthew Gray (mgray11@utk.edu) and Dr. Sharon Jean-Philippe (jeanphil@utk.edu)

Seminar Assistants: Drs. Katie Edwards, Bill Sutton, Heath Hagy, Doug Osborne, and Zhimei Guo

Phone: 974-2740 (MG), 974-2946 (SJP)

Office: 247 Ellington PSB (MG), 281 Ellington PSB (SJP)

Meeting Time and Place: Wed, 12:20 − 1:10 p.m., 160 Plant Biotechnology Building

Course Goal: To provide an opportunity for forestry, wildlife and fisheries graduate students to practice delivering professional presentations and to increase opportunities for graduate students and faculty to interact.

Expected Outcomes: Students will develop skills in constructing and delivering PowerPoint presentations and in answering questions related to their graduate research and natural resource principles, concepts and issues.

Course Credits: 1 credit

Academic Assessment:

Weights of Academic Assessments:

● Presentation 85%

● Attendance 15% (1.5% per seminar, 18 Jan – 11 Apr)

Course grade will be determined using the following scale:

Grade	Final Weighted Percent	Grade	Final Weighted Percent
A	90–100%	B	80–86%
B+	87–89%	C+	77–79%

Full Syllabus

Presentation Grading Sheet

Examples of Contemporary Natural Resource Topics

Presentation Schedule:

Date	Name (MS/PhD; 1^st/2^nd Seminar)	Title
1 February	Dr. Rick Gerhold	Using disease research in wildlife conservation
8 February	Dr. Adam Willcox	Conservation behaviors of fish and wildlife stakeholders: a research overview
15 February	Dr. Darrin Hulsey	Fishing in the desert for mechanism underlying trophic diversification in cichlid fishes
22 February	Dr. Tim Rials	Biomass refining systems

29 February	No Seminar
7 March	1. Ashley Unger (MS, 2^nd) 2. Alex Richman (MS, 2^nd)	Does the proximity of northern bobwhite to annual grain plots, roads, firebreaks, and disk blocks affect movement and survival? Forest Certification Advantages in the Marketplace
14 March	1. Daniel Reed (PhD, 2^nd) 2. Lauren Maestas (MS, 1^st)	A comparison of life cycle environmental impacts associated with wood and switchgrass pellets, natural gas, and electricity Tularemia ecology: Utilizing Carnivores as a Sentinel Species
21 March	No Seminar
28 March	1. Michael Craig (BS, 1^st) 2. Jesse Troxler (MS, 2^nd)	The Emerald Ash Borer; a new invasive pest to Tennessee Minimizing bias in camera trap studies
4 April	1. Jared Laufenberg (PhD, 1^st) 2. Anton Astner (MS, 2^nd)	Population dynamics of Louisiana black bears in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley of Louisiana. Lignin Yield Comparison Between Woody and Herbaceous Biomass using Clean Fractionation
11 April	1. Jason Hogan (MS, 1^st) 2.	Precision Forestry: Bottomland oak/hardwood regeneration