In general, parasitology graduates from UNL have done well. Many are in academic positions, several have won regional and national student paper competitions as well as other awards (teaching awards, H. B. Ward Medal). What follows is a list of Janovy lab graduate students from the past fifteen years, their thesis or dissertation titles, an abbreviated reference to papers derived from their work (if published), and their present positions.
Matthew Bolek, 2006 (PhD). Samana graduated in May, 2006, then spent a year at the University of Nebraska in Kearney before joining the Zoology Department faculty at Oklahoma State University.
Samana Schwank, 2004 (MS). Samana graduated in December, 2004, with her MS degree then returned to Germany in February. She is currently in a doctoral program at the London School of Tropical Medicine.
Jillian Detwiler, 2004 (MS). Jill graduated during the summer of 2004 with her MS degree and now is at Purdue, in Dennis Minchella's lab, working on her PhD.
Jaclyn Helt, 2003 (MS). Jaclyn graduated then entered a certification program in secondary teacher certification in the College of Education and Human Sciences. She received her certification this past summer and is pursuing employment opportunities. She was also involved in the American Society of Parasitologists' Journal of Parasitology scanning project in the Manter Lab. Jaclyn is now teaching school in Ohio.
Ben Hanelt, 2002 (PhD). Ben spent a year as a temporary instructorship at Louisiana State University, teaching introductory biology and parasitology lab. He is now on a post-doc at the University of New Mexico in Sam Loker's lab. Several papers from his dissertation have been published. He found an opportunity to continue with his nematomorph work at LSU and we'll be surprised if that does not continue at UNM.
Jennifer Schawang, 2000 (MS). Jennifer spent a year as a doctoral student at Oklahoma State University in Al Kocan's lab and is now working at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center in Oklahoma City. She presented at the ASP meetings in San Juan during the summer of 2000. One paper from her thesis has been published: The response of Gregarina niphandrodes (Apicomplexa: Eugregarinida: Septatina) to host starvation in Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) adults. 2001. J. Parasitol., 87:600-605.
Megan Wise, 1998 (MS). Megan went to work for Schering-Plough Animal Health outside of Omaha. After two years of industry, she decided to return to academia and recently received her Ph.D. at Colorado State University. One paper from her thesis is out: Host specificity in Metamera sillasenorum, n. sp., a gregarine parasite of the leech Helobdella triserialis . . . 2000. J. Parasitol., 86:602-606.
Scott D. Snyder, 1996 (PhD). The major paper from his work here is: Host specificity among species of Haematoloechus (Digenea: Haematoloechidae). (J. Parasitol., 80:1052-1055; J. Parasitol., 82:94-99.) Scott spent a couple of years as a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh before joining the faculty of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He won the American Society of Parasitologists' Clark P. Read Young Investigator Award, for doctoral dissertation work, in the summer of 1997.
Richard E. Clopton, 1993 (PhD). His seminal paper is entitled: Specificity in the gregarine assemblage parasitizing Tenebrio molitor. (J. Protozool., 38:472-479; J. Parasitol., 78:334-337; J. Parasitol., 79:701-709.) Rich is now an associate professor of biology at Peru State College, Peru, NE, and actively pursuing various aspects of gregarine biology. Rich is a former editor of COMPARATIVE PARASITOLOGY.
Laura J. Krebs, 1995(MS). Population and community structure of parasites in two sympatric species of minnows, Notropis dorsalis (Agassiz) and Notropis stramineus (Cope) (Pisces: Cyprinodontidae). At last communication, Laura was a doctoral student at the University of Arizona.
Aris Efting, 1994(MS). The role of host life history in determining the structure of actinocephalid gregarine communities in damselfly naiads. Aris is now a doctoral student in the School of Natural Resources at UNL.
Percival, Tamara J. 1992(MS). Tissue level interfaces of four actinocephalid gregarines and their coenagrionid hosts. (J. Eukary. Microbiol., 42:406-410.) Tami (now Tami Percival-Cook) received her Ph.D. from Texas A&M, Department of Entomology and is now a faculty member at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. In the summer of 2003 she had the experience of watching one of her own students give a paper at the national parasitology meetings in Halifax.
Ferdig, Michael T. 1990(MS). Variations in morphological characteristics and ecological niche in a monogenean parasitizing disjunct populations of Fundulus sciadicus Cope, 1885 (Pisces: Cyprinodontidae). (J. Parasitol., 77:58-61; J. Parasitol., 79:744-750.) Mike received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, did a post-doc at NIH, and is now on the faculty at Notre Dame. Web site: http://www.science.nd.edu/biology/faculty/Ferdig.htm.
McDowell, Mary Ann 1990(MS). The structure of the parasite assemblage of the fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas Rafinesque, 1820 (Pisces: Cyprinidae). (J. Parasitol., 78:830-836.) Mary Ann received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, did a post-doc at NIH, and is now on the faculty at Notre Dame. Web site: http://www.science.nd.edu/biology/faculty/McDowell.htm.
Ruhnke, Timothy R. 1988(MS). The comparative ecology of Gregarina cuneata Stein, 1848, and Gregarina steini Berndt, 1902 (Apicomplexa) in Tenebrio molitor larvae. (J. Protozool., 36:428-430; J. Parasitol., 76:519-522.) Tim is currently a faculty member at West Virginia State University. Web site: http://www.wvsc.edu/~ruhnketr/
Hardin, Eugene L. 1987(MS). The population biology of Distoichometra bufonis Dickey, 1921 (Cyclophyllidea: Nematotaeniidae) in Bufo woodhousii Girard, 1854 (Amphibia: Bufonidae). (J. Parasitol., 74:360-365.) Lee is a physician with the United States Army and is presently in Germany.
Megan Collins 2000 (BS). Megan began working seriously last spring (1999) on a project involving monogenes of centrarchid fishes. She soon discovered that there were plenty of monogenes on bass and sunfish and that there was a whole lot of literature ready to be mastered! Since then she's pursued a very interesting ecological problem at CPBS involving host specificity among bluegill, largemouth bass, green sunfish, and crappie in several Sandhills lakes, and back in Lincoln at one of the local lakes. Megan received her MS from Southeastern Louisiana State University and is now teaching school in Omaha.