Grace Wyngaard

Wyngaard Uses Fulbright Scholarship to Broaden Copepod Research

By Alex Sharp VIII ('10), JMU Public Affairs

Owusu-Ansah Seeks Fulbright Culture at JMU

By Alex Sharp VIII ('10), JMU Public Affairs

David Owusu-Ansah wants to foster a Fulbright culture at JMU that would increase international exposure for faculty.

“From going overseas, we are able to develop relationships with other faculty members on the international scene,” said Owusu-Ansah, professor of African studies and special assistant to the president on faculty diversity.

Hoping to spur dialog about the program at JMU, Owusu-Ansah hosted a meeting Nov. 5, 2009 in Taylor Hall where three of JMU's most recent Fulbright scholars, Grace Wyngaard, Brian Augustine and Teresa Harris, discussed the process of securing the grant. Augustine and Wyngaard also discussed their experiences abroad; Harris is now in South Africa teaching early childhood education.—Read more.

They live in all the world's oceans and in the majority of its freshwater habitats. And though they are so diminutive they can barely be seen by the naked eye, copepods' importance in the food chain is as gargantuan as their numbers.

So what are copepods?

Biology Professor Grace Wyngaard describes them as cycloptic microcrustaceans less than a millimeter in size, equipped with many pairs of appendages and antennae. They are extremely abundant and play an integral role in all marine ecosystems, providing a chief source of food for a variety of species.

"A lot of problems with these marine and freshwater organisms, they're global problems. These organisms don't respect any state or local boundaries. They're all over the world," said Wyngaard, who has been studying copepods for more than 25 years. Last summer, she spent three month's on a Fulbright-funded research trip to Brazil, where she studied the evolutionary traits of marine copepods. — Read more.