Mary Casillas, Undergraduate WFSC Student During the summer and fall of 2017, I interned at the Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections (BRTC) at Texas A&M University (TAMU). The BRTC is a natural history collection, housing specimen data from a variety of organisms from all over the world. I have helped organize data and materials for the collections so that this information can be made available to the scientific and public communities. This material can be organized in files that are sent to a large collective database, VertNet. VertNet… Read More →

Texas A&M’s Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections will play an integral role in the new oVert Thematic Collections Network (TCN). The project is supported by a $2.5 million National Science Foundation grant and will utilize specimens from the BRTC and other collections to make data-rich 3-D images available on-line. Texas A&M University is one of 16 institutions to be involved in this groundbreaking project, which will scan and make available museums specimens in a unique way – capturing not only external, but internal morphology. In total, 20,000 specimens… Read More →

Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Fall Newsletter – check it out here: WFSC Fall Newsletter!

My name is Hudson Berkhouse and I am a senior at Texas A&M University.  For the past two years I have been a Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences major (WFSC; or as I like to say, a Wi-Fi-Sci-Guy), with an emphasis on management.  Prior to becoming a WFSC major, I majored in Biomedical Sciences. I changed my major as a sophomore because I wanted hands-on field and lab experience, both of which are heavily emphasized in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences.  Accordingly, my internship entailed working as a field technician… Read More →

My name is Hudson Berkhouse and I am a senior Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences major at Texas A&M University.  One of the reasons I was originally drawn to this major was that it combines a thorough scientific education in many wildlife-related scientific fields with hands-on training and experience.  Accordingly, students seeking a degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences must, at some point in their undergraduate years, fulfill an internship that is in some way related to their studies.  For my internship, I was able to work as a… Read More →

One of my main projects during my internship at Texas A&M University’s Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections (BRTC) was sorting through and organizing a collection of tissue samples from past research by Dr. Ira Greenbaum. These tissue samples were primarily harvested from a variety of Peromyscus species over decades of research. Totaling over 7,000 combined liver, heart, kidney, and testicle samples, the collection had been stored inside freezers in Dr. Greenbaum’s lab for some time, until those freezers started to fail.  Luckily the BRTC was able to take… Read More →

My name is Stefan Hill and during my final semester as an undergraduate at Texas A&M University, I had the fortunate pleasure of interning at Texas A&M University’s Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections (BRTC).   It was the busiest semester I have had to date in my entire college career, but the experience I gained as an intern in these short few months have been one of the highlights of my academic study.  I learned the ins and outs of how the specimens in the collection are selected, prepared,… Read More →

Excellent article from NY Times about collections! Libraries of Life – NYTimes.com.

New publication from Curator’s Voelker and Light of the BRTC! River barriers and cryptic biodiversity in an evolutionary museum – Voelker – 2013 – Ecology and Evolution – Wiley Online Library.

Come paint with us December 4th from 6:30 till 9:30 at Downtown Uncorked! We will be generating funds to support our biodiversity research, student training, and conservation.  Your registration includes 3 hours of instruction from the Purple Turtle Art Studio and all supplies. Downtown Uncorked serves wine, beer, appetizers and pizzas so plan to enjoy a snack and glass of wine while you paint. You will leave with your very own masterpiece on a gallery wrapped 16 x 20 inch canvas. Registration is $50 and is due at… Read More →