March
26 ,
2004
Mandy
Cass ’04 Wins Fulbright to Study in Sydney, Australia
|
Mandy Cass ’04 has received
a Fulbright fellowship to spend next year in Sydney, Australia,
working at the Australian National Museum. Cass will investigate
the evolutionary biology of a diverse group of fish known as
flatfish that includes flounder, sole, halibut, and other common
food fish.
The research Cass plans to conduct in Australia grew out of studies she has pursued
at Mount Holyoke; graduate classes at the University of Massachusetts with William
Bemis, a highly acclaimed ichthyologist; and an internship last summer at the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. At the Smithsonian, she learned how
to prepare and interpret the pharyngeal arches—tiny bones that support
the gills—a complex part of the anatomy that has not been systematically
studied in flatfish. The internship was part of the NMNH Research Training Program,
which MHC assistant biology professor Gary Gillis had recommended to her, having
taken part in the same program back in 1989.
She applied for the Fulbright at the urging of one of her supervisors at the
Smithsonian, who put her in contact with Dr. Jeff Leis at the Australian National
Museum, which has one of the largest collections of larval fish in the world.
Competition is steep for Fulbrights in Australia. According to Katya King, the
College’s assistant director for fellowships and scholarships, last year
there were 140 applications for 17 places. King explained that the application
process is lengthy and that her office is available to assist students wishing
to apply. Cass said she is “extremely excited” to have won the award.
Cass grew up in Bar Harbor, Maine, and came to Mount Holyoke planning to major
in history and minor in biology. “Science has always been part of my life,” she
said, explaining that her mother teaches high school biology and her father is
a chemistry professor. While she was initially not inclined to follow too closely
in their footsteps, two weeks into professor of biological sciences Stan Rachootin’s
course on ecology and evolution spring semester of her second year, she was hooked. “I
declared a double major in history and biology and asked Stan be my adviser,” she
said. Cass has also worked as one of his lab instructors. “She helped students
find clearly stated questions,” Rachootin said, “and she had a flair
for leading lost students out of quagmires.”
Cass is as passionate about history as she is about biology. She has found that
her history studies have complemented her scientific inquiries. “Both fields
have the same way of thinking out problems,” Cass said. “You look
at an organism the same way you look at a historical document or character. You
look at how something or someone is formed by outside forces. You ask, what’s
the world like around this thing or person? It’s dividing something down
to its causes. It’s a weird way to look at things, but it works for me.” Rachootin
is impressed with Cass’s ability to make connections between science and
history. “Mandy is bringing a wide range of skills to her study of flatfish
evolution, but fundamentally she is a historian of nature who reads between the
lines of the fish bones,” Rachootin said.
After her year in Sydney, Cass plans to attend graduate school at Cornell University
in ecology and evolutionary biology.
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