Faculty Spotlight: Michelle Boone

photo of Michelle Boone

  • associate professor of Biology
  • teaches Introduction to Biology and Conservation Biology
  • does conservation biological research on amphibians and human effects on the environment
  • involved in interdisciplinary projects to communicate science in new, creative, and artistic ways


"I went to Furman University, a small liberal arts school in the Southeast, where I majored in biology and English. My English major was for fun, but biology was what I planned to do. I delved into it further by going to graduate school at the University of Missouri at Columbia.

"Science is very exciting because it has a very practical applied side, where you can study something, learn from that, and implement it—potentially quickly. I really like working outside, out in nature, understanding the way animals interact with the environment.

"In my lab, we work exclusively with amphibians. Because they are sensitive indicators, we use them as a model for understanding how humans impact the natural world. They are amazing organisms to study. I don't think I ever thought about frogs or salamanders, and then once I learned about them, it was like a whole different world. It got pretty exciting!

"I've also been working on interdisciplinary projects with faculty in journalism and the arts to figure out how to bring diverse groups of students into science. We scientists tend to be dull, unfortunately—although we're exciting in our own way, when it comes to interacting with the public we often kill them with facts. We ran a pilot program called Transforming Nature to communicate science in new ways, so we had students writing poems about pesticides, creating art about crop diversity, and developing a video about the local watershed.

"I was part of the Altman Fellowship program last year, and it was a lot of fun to talk about scientific problems from different perspectives. Faculty across various departments are thinking about many of the same issues from really different, broader angles, and as a conservation biologist, it's been mind-altering!"


"I teach intro to biology, and it's great to interact with students right as they're starting to think they're going to be doctors and then figuring out they don't all want to be doctors. I also teach conservation biology, which is why I came into science in the first place. I'm trying to get people to think broadly about things and pull in different elements from what we usually think of in science, in terms of how to communicate science to the public or do science outreach. There are components of this that students aren't getting in their other science classes.

"The best thing I like about teaching, though, is learning new things. I try to design classes around ways that makes them more unpredictable. I'm picking things that I haven't read before, so sometimes they end up being duds, but usually they don't! There's always interesting discussions that emerge from whatever we pick, and I really like the dialogue that develops from thinking about things and solving problems. This is really what science is all about: figuring out the right questions to ask and then how to test those questions."


"We're really trying to understand the ecological effects of pesticides. Animals already experience competition and predation, and in the case of amphibians, they have to deal with their habitat drying up. When you add another stressor to that environment, how do they deal with it?

"We also study a disease that has been wiping out amphibian populations around the globe; it's called the amphibian chytrid fungus and has been in the news. It's been resulting in extinctions, especially in the tropics, but also in the western US. Because the disease pathogen is everywhere, we can go out and measure it in frogs which are carrying the pathogen.

"I have one student who's working in the lab to understand what the disease's effects are. It doesn't seem to be causing population declines, but frogs die when they're exposed to it. We're just trying to understand those disease dynamics as well as how changing an amphibian's habitat influences its ability to remain connected to other populations. If we cut down forests or put up roads, how big of a barrier is that? In some species, human habitats actually help them, such as in the case of bullfrogs, but for most of them it doesn't.

"I have three graduate students right now who are amazing scientists and scholars, and they've been the best group that I've had all at the same time. There are also a few undergraduate students working in the lab as well. Graduate students develop their own projects and ideas, while undergraduates often do different interesting research projects that give us an important piece of the puzzle. Lots of undergraduates publish in the scientific literature as a result of the work that they do!"

Outside the Classroom

"When I have free time, my 'fiberholic' side comes out! I love to make things with yarn and fabric. I took a sewing class the year after finishing undergrad, and that is one of the best skills I've ever learned—plus, loads of entertainment. I also love trying to crochet things that don't look like they were made by a granny, and I recently learned to knit, which is more addictive than chocolate. Making things helps me appreciate the time that goes into our goods, and as a result it helps me think more mindfully about consumption. I also love to walk and hike (just don't make me run!), especially in the mountains—and my genes lead me back there as much as possible."

[September 2015]