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State-of-the-art facilities, unparalleled collections of living
and preserved organisms, and access to temperate and tropical field
sites involving diverse habitats and a wide range of organisms are
available to BEES students to conduct research. Specialized equipment
on campus available for student use include a laboratory for evolutionary
molecular sequence analysis, scanning, transmission and confocal
microscopes, gas source stable isotope mass spectrophotometer, bioacoustic
lab, flume lab, GIS lab, and high-speed network access to a wide
range of desktop and super-computing facilities. Greenhouses for
research are available. Students can also acquire training and conduct
research at several sites off campus.
The
Smithsonian Institution manages several research facilities utilized
by BEES students. National Zoological Park includes both the National
Zoo in northeast Washington, D.C. and the
The Conservation & Research Center , located 65 km west of
campus in Front Royal, Virginia. The National Zoo is a 163-acre public
park with over 500 species of vertebrate and invertebrate animals
on and off exhibit available for research by BEES students. Over 20%
of the animals at the National Zoo are threatened with extinction
and many cannot be studied elsewhere. Facilities maintained by the
Department of Zoological Research include climate-controlled holding
rooms, and fully-equipped laboratories for bioacoustics, molecular
genetics, nutrition and energetics. The Center for Research and Conservation
includes 1600 acres in large paddocks for propagation and research
on 35 species of endangered birds and mammals and 1600 acres in native
forest with a permanent trapping grid for small mammals. Facilities
include labs for endocrinology and GIS and a dormitory for students.
The
Laboratory of Analytical Biology is a research unit of the
National Museum of Natural History located 35 km from campus
in Suitland, Maryland. The lab is fully equipped for molecular genetic
studies including automated and manual DNA sequencing, microsatellite
development and typing, RFLP, AFLP and RAPD analysis. The unit has
specialized facilities for work with ancient DNA and houses an important
genetic resource collection, with over 12,000 cryopreserved plant
and animal samples. Genetic data analysis is a particular strength.
An array of high speed Unix platforms provide computational power
for both phylogenetic and population genetic studies.
The
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center is a 1000 ha research
site encompassing 20 km of shoreline on the Rhode River and a landscape
of coastal plain forests, agricultural fields, wetlands, and estuary
connected to the Chesapeake Bay, 40 km east of campus. Facilities
include instrumentation for analytical chemistry, dock and small
boat fleet, plankton culturing facility, greenhouse, 50 m forest
instrument tower, CO2 and trace gas field labs, GIS lab, electronics
and machine shops, and a dormitory for students. Long-term data
provide 20-30 year records of population fluctuations for many species
at the site.
BEES graduate students are also eligible to participate
in an NSF IGERT funded training program in human evolutionary biology.The
Human Evolutionary Biology
Doctoral Program (HEBDP) is a graduate program linking paleoanthropology
with molecular and organismal biology, ecology, chemistry, engineering
and geology to promote interdisciplinary research emphasizing experimental
and comparative methods for studying human evolutionary history.
HEBDP is a collaboration between The George Washington University,
the University of Maryland, Howard University, the Smithsonian Institution,
NIH,and other DC area researchers.
The
Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and the adjacent
Patuxent Wildlife Refuge and Research Center are just
a few miles north of campus and provide valuable facilities,
habitat and animals that can be used by BEES students. These
two centers together administer thousands of acres of unspoiled,
managed, and cultivated lands for research purposes. Several
BEES faculty maintain an active and productive relationship
with both federal units. Other temperate field sites utilized
by BEES faculty and students include the
Mountain Lake Biological Station in Mountain Lake, Virginia
and the
Rocky Mountain Biological Lab in Gothic, Colorado.
Many BEES faculty and students also conduct research
in tropical regions. Some faculty have affiliations with independent
laboratories or maintain their own study sites in various parts
of the world, including Central and South America, Asia, Australia,
and New Guinea. Others utilize field stations run by the
Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) in Costa Rica or the
Smithsonian Tropical
Research Institute (STRI) in Panama. Because the University
of Maryland is a member of the OTS consortium, BEES students have
priority consideration for enrollment in OTS courses in tropical
biology.
BEES students have access to one of the most comprehensive
collection of books and journals in the world. On campus,
the
University of Maryland Library system maintains extensive
bioscience holdings and is rapidly expanding access to online
journals and databases. To search for BEES related material at the University of Maryland's library, click here. Three miles north of campus is the
National Agricultural Library
which provides direct access to all University of Maryland
students. Within 6 miles of campus and connected by the convenient
Metro system students
can access the collections of the
Library of Congress , the
National Library of Medicine , and the
Smithsonian Institution Library.
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