Faculty named AAAS fellows for work on molluscs, physics

Two faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Sandra Shumway, professor- in-residence in the Department of Marine Sciences, and Joseph Budnick, professor emeritus and research professor in physics, join the list of 14 faculty and emeritus faculty members at UConn who are AAAS fellows.

They were the only two elected this year.

AAAS, which publishes Science magazine, covers all fields of science, and ranges from basic research to the applications of science to society, says William Stwalley, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Physics, who was elected an AAAS fellow last year.

Marine scientist Sandra Shumway, professor-in-residence, was named an AAAS fellow for her research on molluscs and the effects of toxic algae on marine life.

Photo by Daniel Buttrey

Shumway, who came to UConn five years ago, conducts research on shellfish and harmful algal blooms, known popularly as "red tides."

She was cited by AAAS for her work in using flow cytometry to learn more about how molluscs feed, and for documenting the impacts of toxic algae on marine life.

In work at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine in the 1980s, she and colleagues were the first to use a flow cytometer - then a new instrument to marine science - to measure the size, composition, and surface characteristics of the particles on which clams and other molluscs feed.

"I literally woke up at 3 a.m. one morning and said, 'I know what we can do with that,'" says Shumway, recalling how the Maine lab was one of the first to obtain the new instrument.

Flow cytometry allowed scientists to get a better sense of what feeding molluscs are capable of doing, she says.

Oysters, for example, are incredibly efficient at what they choose to eat, as she and colleagues described in a paper published in Nature .

This has implications for their nutrition, for restoration efforts, and for aquaculture, in providing food that will be most readily consumed.

"How they do it is still a mystery to us," she says.

Shumway is working on that problem with J. Evan Ward, an associate professor of marine sciences, whom she calls "the guru of particle selection."

"You don't do anything by yourself," she says. "I've had terrific collaborators through the years."

Shumway's work on harmful red tides dates back to a 1987 paper, the first to focus on the impact of the toxic tides on marine animals and aquaculture.

Algal blooms, which are increasing globally, affect different marine species in different ways, she says.

Not all shellfish are affected by a red tide in the same way, and the species of algae in the bloom also vary in toxic impact.

Shumway has twice been president of the National Shellfisheries Association. She was a Marshall Scholar, earning her Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees at the University of Wales, and a Leopold Fellow, holder of a fellowship that trains scientists to open lines of communication with the press and public.

She edits the Journal of Shellfish Research and the Journal of Experimental Marine Ecology, and is the founder and co-editor of Harmful Algae.