A cheerleader for biology

Although Betsy Linehan-Skillings helped collect 900 frogs this spring and summer, she is happy to report she didn’t have to dissect any of them.

“That’s the inevitable question when I tell people what I do, but we just bring them to the lab for testing and then take them back home, usually the next day.”

This is her second summer working with Mark Bee, associate professor of ecology, evolution and behavior, who studies how and why female frogs select mates from a  chorus of croaking males. His findings could lead to better hearing aids for humans.

Although she never imagined chasing frogs at night as part of her college education, a couple of years ago she saw a Driven to Discover TV commercial about Bee’s research and was intrigued. The next summer she joined a group of undergraduate assistants who donned hip waders and headlamps to spend evenings (9 p.m. to 2 a.m.) chasing frogs in several designated lakes west of the Twin Cities.

Some of the male frogs croak all the way back to the St. Paul campus, she says. The length and time a male croaks and the robustness of his sound are signs of reproductive fitness, which attracts females.

This summer, Betsy also conducted an independent research project to study which frequencies are most appealing to females, so she spent more time in the lab during the day than in the lakes at night. A University Research Opportunities Program (UROP) grant supported her effort.

“It’s a good lab because you can start early in college. The more you work, the more responsibility and trust you earn. I’ve made lots of friends there.”

“Betsy is a real delight to work with,” Bee says. “On top of being very bright and extremely friendly, she has an upbeat, get-it-done attitude that is infectious. The cheer she brings to the often difficult and mundane tasks of day-to-day scientific research really elevates the atmosphere of the entire lab.”

During the school year, Betsy will continue working in Mark Bee’s lab thanks to the Monica Tsang and James Weatherbee Merit Scholarship, which was established by R&D Systems/Techne Corporation to honor Tsang and Weatherbee, longtime employees who both served as vice presidents and founded the company’s Biotechnology Division. Tsang retired in 2007 to care for her husband, who suffers from a chronic illness.

Betsy, who is putting herself through college, has written to the couple and hopes to thank them in person soon.“I am so grateful. Scholarships mean the difference between working at a minimum wage job and working in a research lab, which is such an important part of a biology education.” Betsy also received a four-year U of M Presidential Scholarship.

In addition to maintaining a 3.84 GPA and working in a research lab, Betsy has volunteered at the Children’s Museum of Minnesota for the past three years and is vice president of the U of M Japanese Club.  She was also a member of the 2010 Homecoming Court. After she graduates, Betsy plans to enter a Ph.D. program, hopefully at UC Berkeley, Stanford or UCLA, and ultimately teach biology at a small college in Minnesota.

“I love research, but teaching is my passion,” she says.