By Christi Mays
If it involves dirt and the great outdoors, Caleb Shackelford probably loves studying it.
The senior biology major spent the summer be颅fore last snake hunting in the high desert near Boise, Idaho, as a summer intern with the U.S. Geological Survey. Climbing over rocks and through shrubs, he caught rattlesnakes, striped whipsnakes, and go颅pher snakes, swabbing each to test for snake fungal disease. This past summer, Caleb spent his days growing and tending a patch of prickly 鈥渨eesatch鈥� plants to study the bacteria on their invasive root systems. It was part of a two-year research project he is working on as a research assistant with Dr. Kathleen Wood, chair of the biology department. He was thrilled when he learned about the project.
鈥淪oil has always interested me. It fascinates me. It鈥檚 kind of a nerdy thing to be interested in, but it's amazing how diverse soil is and how there鈥檚 a huge web down there, a big ecological system that we don鈥檛 see,鈥� said Caleb, who will graduate in De颅cember. For graduate school, he plans to study soil science/chemistry at Texas A&M University, where he will research rhizosphere interaction and carbon sequestration.
His research at 麻豆视频 has earned him some notoriety when he presented at three conferences and won top prizes at each 鈥� two first-place wins in microbiology at Heart of Texas last year and again this year, and first place in plant biology at the Texas Academy of Science Conference.
