| College of Sciences Newsletter | Edition 25 | June 15, 2005 |
      | Back to Faculty News Two Emeriti Professors Announce $100,000 Gifts in support of BiologyTheir names have long been synonymous with ODU's biological sciences department, and thanks to their recent gifts to the university's capital campaign, their legendary contributions to the program will be felt for many years to come in yet another way Emeriti professors Daniel Sonenshine and Harold Marshall recently announced gifts of $100,000 each to fund a lecture series and scholarship, respectively.   The establishment of the Daniel E. and Helen N. Sonenshine Endowed Lectureship in Infectious Diseases is an outgrowth of Sonenshine's own research interests. Not long after joining the faculty in 1961, he began his first tick research project here and has been involved in acarology, the scientific study of mites and ticks, ever since. His primary emphasis has been the study of tick-borne diseases. Sonenshine noted that the lecture series, which could start as early as next fall, will cover the general area of infectious diseases. "The goal is to create a seminar series to attract top-notch speakers to stimulate our faculty and students with the most exciting work in this discipline that's going on," he said. "It's a way of counteracting insularity, to look at the bigger, broader picture." He envisions speakers giving general lectures for the community, in addition to more technical lectures and workshops for faculty and students in the biology program. Sonenshine began his research on tick pheromones, tick immunity and tick-borne diseases in 1984. Patents have derived from his work and he is in the process of developing a "tick decoy." His research and the publication of his definitive two-volume text, "The Biology of Ticks" (1991) and "Dynamics of Tick-Borne Zoonoses" (1993), have placed him among the world's experts in the field of acarology. During his tenure at the university, Sonenshine created a master's program and two doctoral programs, and received Virginia's Outstanding Scientist award in 1994. He retired from teaching in 2002 but continues to conduct research and serve as director of ODU's Animal Care Facility. Of his gift, he said: "I've had a more than 40-year association with the university. I'm pretty much here every day doing research, so ODU is quite important to me." Marshall, who came to Old Dominion two years after Sonenshine and retired in 1995, also has had a distinguished career that continues today in the form of research on phytoplankton and toxin-producing algae, most notably the fish-attacking microbe called pfiesteria, in Chesapeake Bay and Virginia rivers. His gift of $100,000 will establish the Harold G. and Vivian J. Marshall Endowed Scholarship in Biology. The annual award will go to a biology graduate student whose concentration is ecology. Marshall served as chair of the biology department for 21 years (1969-1990), during which it grew from seven to 26 faculty, with expanded graduate programs. He has conducted research of phytoplankton ecology in the North Atlantic, equatorial Pacific and the Caribbean Sea, and this year received $337,000 in grant support for his latest research projects. He has received more than $5 million in research funding. He is widely published (131 articles in scientific journals) and is past president of the Virginia Academy of Science. Marshall, who guided the graduate research of 64 master's and doctoral students, is especially proud of an ongoing graduate student research exchange program in biology that he established and has supported over the past decade between ODU and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland. Marshall, who guided the graduate research of 64 master's and doctoral students, is especially proud of an ongoing graduate student research exchange program in biology that he established and has supported over the past decade between ODU and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland. Other stories in Faculty News Section.. Phyllis Brown, Editor |
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