TCNJ News
March 26, 2004
Chris Tanner Earns National Undergraduate Research Award
Ewing, NJ—Junior Biology major at The College of New
Jersey, Christopher Tanner (Byram, NJ), received the Best Undergraduate
Student Poster Award at the annual meeting of the Society of
Integrative and Comparative Biology in New Orleans.
He won the award for his work on “The Effects of Hypoxia
and pH on Phenoloxidase Activity in the Atlantic Blue Crab,
Callinectes sapidus.”
The $50 prize was nice, but Christopher was more excited about
the experience. “It’s always an honor to win an
award. It symbolizes that people appreciate your research and
find it influential within the field.”
Christopher completed his research at the Grice Marine Laboratory
of the College of Charleston. There, Christopher was able to
recreate habitats found in all estuaries, like the Chesapeake
Bay or at the mouth of the Mississippi. The research Christopher
completed last summer under the guidance of Dr. Lou Burnett
and Dr. Karen Burnett, may one day help to protect valuable
fishing resources.
Runoff in the area’s rivers causes lower oxygen content
in the water. The lowered oxygen level makes the crabs unable
to breathe as well and hinders their ability to effectively
defend themselves against pathogens in the environment. The
end result is the death of the crabs, and the loss of a major
resource.
Christopher became associated with Grice when he applied for
and was accepted to their REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates)
program, which is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
He worked at Grice and lived in Charleston for 10 weeks in the
summer of 2003.
The abstract for this project has been published in the international
journal “Integrative and Comparative Biology.”
After graduation next year, Christopher plans to study cell
physiology in graduate school. He is a 2003 Goldwater Scholar
and currently serves as the Beta Beta Beta Biological Honors
Society President.
