Lisa J Delissio
Professional Details
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 worm 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 is now an Associate Professor. Her current interests include science education, climate change, tropical forests, and small island ecology.
Professional Interests
Scientific research interests: global climate change (global warming); tropical forest ecology; tree demography
Current research project: The impacts of climate change on tropical dry forest in Culebra, Puerto Rico.
Pedagogical interests: providing tropical field experiences for undergraduates; teaching evolution and conservation biology to non-majors; teaching writing and technological skills to Biology majors; mentoring; assessment of remote field study experiences for undergraduates
My research students and protégés. Where are they now?
Steven Bentley - earned a Masters in Teaching Biology from UMass Boston; now a Massachusetts public school teacher
John Ruggiero - High school science teacher in Winthrop, MA
Emily Bradford - technical document maker and research assistant at US Biological, Marblehead, MA
Cheryl Bondi - working on her Masters in Biology at Humboldt State University in CA, studying Western Pond Turtle migration and response to drought; working on Cascade frog studies in Lassen National Park for the U.S. Forest Service
Kathryn Arey - working on a Masters in Environmental Education at the University of New Hampshire
Veronica Wade- on an 8 wk field experience in South Africa and Mozambique with Operation Wallacea
Kristina Klausewitz - a medical narrative writer at Crowe Paradis Services Corporation in Peabody, MA
(Are you not listed here but should be? Is your information out of date? Contact me and let me know how you are doing!)
Responsibilities
Liaison with Operation Wallacea, a non-profit organization that takes college students on high-quality ecological expeditions to Indonesia, Honduras, Mozambique, South Africa, and Egypt.
Courses (Course descriptions available at: salemstate.edu/registrar):
BIO 121 Diversity of Life
BIO 123 Plants and People
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
Strategic Planning Committee
Biology Department Assessment
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.
____ (in review) Seed change for a small island.
Selected Presentations
____1996. The trees of Lambir Hills National Park. Malaysian Nature Society Educational Program, Miri, Malaysia.
____and Primack, R. 1997. Aging seedling in Old World forests. Association for Tropical Biology Annual Meeting, San José, Costa Rica.
____and Primack, R. 1998. Seedling persistence in 13 species of shade-toleranttrees in the rain forests of the Old World tropics. Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Maryland.
____and Primack, R. 2000. Above-ground biomass allocation in tropical tree seedlings: field methodology and early results. Invited lecturer, Tufts University, Medford.
____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.
____and Primack, R. 2001. Leaf lifespans, herbivory rates, and allocation of above-ground biomass in Malaysian rain forest tree seedlings. Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America, Madison.
____2003. The population dynamics of tropical rain forest seedlings as indicators of climate change. Invited speaker. 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.
____2008. Climate change in Northeast Massachusetts: challenges and opportunities. Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, Newburyport.
