Academics

Lisa J Delissio

Professional Details

Spring Courses

Professional Biography

Dr. Delissio received her B.S. in Biology from Tufts University, during which time she had her first tropical field ecology experience at Hummingbird Cay in the Bahamas. She then worked as a laboratory technician at M.I.T. where the C. elegans DNA she sequenced contributed to Nobel Prize-winning work on programmed cell death. Unable to spend another summer indoors, she went back to school at Boston University and studied tropical forest ecology in Malaysian Borneo with Richard Primack, one of the world's leading Conservation Biologists, for which she received her Ph.D.. Upon graduation, Dr. Delissio took a position at Salem State College, where she has continued until this time. Her current interests include climate change, tropical forests, small island ecology, and science education.

Professional Interests

Pedagogical interests:

Principal Investigator for National Science Foundation Math and Science Partnership START Grant: Atlantic Partnership for the Biological Sciences: a Partnership for Effective Lab- and Field-based Science:http://atlantic.mspnet.org/ 

* Teaching scientific writing to Biology majors (participant: http://www.eoearth.org/article/Student_Science_Communication_Project)

 *Mentoring

* Providing tropical field experiences for undergraduates

* Teaching evolution and conservation biology to non-majors

Scientific research interests:

The impacts of climate change on tropical dry forest in Culebra, Puerto Rico. 

* Global climate change

* Tropical forest ecology

My research students and protege(e)s. Where are they now?

Joseph Mistretta - Attending the Masters program in Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Australia

Cheryl Bondi - (MS in Biology, Humboldt State University) PhD candidate at SUNY- ESF, working on red-backed salamanders in VT/NH and examining the effects of soil calcium on their diet

Jennifer Smith-Castro  - Fish and Wildlife Biologist - US Fish and Wildlife Service

John Ruggiero - Science teacher in Winthrop High School 

Emily Bradford - Technical document maker and research assistant at US Biological, Marblehead 

Steven Bentley - (Masters in Teaching Biology, UMass Boston) Forest and Park Supervisor - MA Department of Conservation and Recreation; Will soon be teaching at a private international school in Hanoi, Viet Nam.

Veronica Wade - Environmental Specialist at Triumvirate  Environmental

Kristina Klausewitz - Medical narrative writer at Crowe Paradis Services Corporation in Peabody

Yukari Tabiki - Back in Japan, working toward a career in the conservation of marine species.

Kathryn Arey - (MS in Environmental Education, University of New Hampshire)

(Are you not listed here but should be? Is your information out of date? Contact me and let me know how you 're doing!)

Responsibilities

Courses (Course descriptions available at: salemstate.edu/registrar):

BIO 121 Diversity of Life
BIO 123 Plants and People

BIO 124 Human and Social Biology

  BIO 131 Introduction to Organisms
BIO 300 Botany
BIO 301 Conservation Biology
BIO 407 Directed Study in Biology
BIO 408N Research in Biology

Co-chair of the Biology Department Undergraduate Research Abroad Committee
Currently Serving on the All College Committee

Selected Publications

____, Primack, R., Hall, P., and Lee, H.S. 2002. A decade of canopy tree seedling survival and growth in two Borneo rain forests: persistence and recovery from suppression. Journal of Tropical Ecology 18:645-658.

McTaylor,C., ____, and Klausewitz, R. 2003. The changing field of undergraduate research. Aspect. School of Arts and Sciences, Salem State College, May.

____and Primack, R. 2003. The impact of drought on the population dynamics of canopy tree seedlings in an aseasonal Malaysian rain forest. Journal of Tropical Ecology 19: 489-500.

Drobot, S., Porinchu, D.F., Arzayus, K.M., Barber, V.A., ____, Smith, l.M., and Warren ,J. M. 2004. The ‘ideal’ climate change Ph.D.Program in Report from the October 2003 DISCCRS workshop: 15-20.

____ 2008. Analysis of rainfall data from the island of Culebra, Puerto Rico over a period spanning 1907-2007 in light of climate change predictions. A report for U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Boqueron, P.R. October.

Knowlton, C., ____ 2011 (Lead Author); Encyclopedia of Life (ContributingAuthor); Hogan, C. M. (Topic Editor) Cuvier’s Beaked Whales (Ziphius cavirostris): Ecology and Anthropogenic Impacts In: Encyclopedia of Earth.Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental InformationCoalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First publishedin the Encyclopedia of Earth February 7, 2011; Last revised Date February 11,2011; Retrieved February 11, 2011 <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Cuvier%E2%80%99s_beaked_whale?topic=49540>

____ and Arthur, Calum. 2011 Study shows benefits ofconservation work for students. Biodiversity Science. July. Retrieved July 25,2011

Selected Presentations

____and Primack, R. 2000. The resilience of tree seedlings in a severe drought at Lambir Hills National Park. Center for Tropical Forest Science Biennial Meeting, Smithsonian Center for Tropical Forest Science and the National Institute of Education, Singapore.

____2003. The population dynamics of tropical rain forest seedlings as indicators of climate change. Dissertation Initiatives for the Advancement of Climate Change Research (DISCCRS). Guanica, Puerto Rico.

____and Klausewitz, K. 2007. Tree phenology in a Caribbean tropical dry forest. Fifth Annual Symposium in Plant Biology. University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

____2008. Confronting climate change in the U.S. Northeast. Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine of Tufts University, Grafton.

____ 2010. The use of studies of plant taxonomy and plant ecology to encourage environmental stewardship in school children. Escuela Ecologica, Culebra, Puerto Rico