• Evaluate the potential use of ethanol yeast, a co-product of bio-ethanol production, as a fish meal replacement in the diets of sunshine bass (white bass Morone chrysops x striped bass M. saxatilis)

• Define historical baselines for restoration of coastal Great Lakes pine forests
• Evaluate the necessity for restoration of composition and structure in modern coastal forests
• Assess the impact of historical legacies on modern composition and structure of coastal pine forest

The main project objective is to empower underserved students by directly involving them in innovative Great Lakes-based antibiotic discovery and providing exposure to careers in the environmental and biomedical sciences. Our team is uniquely suited to integrate community-based education into advanced, technology-driven problem solving in a remote or hybrid environment. Importantly, our program will allow students in afterschool programs like the Boys and Girls Club to go beyond workbook science and into real world problem solving. 

Aim 1. Supervised sample collection from the Chicago River and Lake Michigan lakefront.
Aim 2. High-throughput robotics to build a library of bacteria from their samples.
Aim 3. High-throughput robotics to test bacterial libraries against the human pathogens Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus.

Short-term outcomes

1. Determine the capacity of bacteria derived from the Great Lakes to produce novel antibiotic leads via environmental collection, bacterial library generation, and screening against pathogens.
2. Assemble and educate up to 20 middle school students over the course of the project period (broken down into two student cohorts, ~7-10 students per year).
3. Engage the student cohorts in multiple steps of Great Lakes-based antibiotic discovery.
4. Expose the student cohorts to weekly exercises that focus on environmental problems facing the Great Lakes.
5. Expose the student cohorts to possible careers in STEM-based Great Lakes research via weekly guest career talks.

Long-term outcomes

1. Discover and develop locally sourced antibiotics via spectroscopic identification and in depth biological profiling experiments.
2. Expand our university-community partnership to other Chicago area BGC’s. 
3. Acquire NSF funding to expand to up to five additional clubs and engage large numbers of youth in a pipeline toward STEM careers based on topics important to Great Lakes health.
4. Disseminate the blueprint of our university-community partnership via detailed open-access publications, conference presentations, and other media promotions to the greater academic world and inspire the creation and improvement of similar programs nationwide.

• Determine whether round gobies interfere with mottled sculpin spawning
• Compare spawning shelter requirements of the two species in a effort to find methods of minimizing round goby spawning success while maximizing mottled sculpin spawning success

• Assess how recreation influences the behavior of the endangered Karner blue butterfly at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
• Identify and predict the implications of such disturbance-related behavior on oviposition rate and larval host plant selection by the Karner blue butterfly
• Identify and devise active management strategies and site designs minimizing recreational disturbance to the Karner blue butterfly at sites with existing populations and restored sites proposed for the species re-introduction

In this one-year research project, I propose a data-driven fragility curve to investigate the damage level of the levee system considering the structural conditions, flooding level and environmental conditions in the Southern Lake Michigan region and provide recommendations on the maintenance strategy suitable for the flooding area. The goal of the proposed research is to mitigate potential losses, improve the current levee system maintenance and therefore enhance the flood resilience of the levee system and coastal communities in the Great Lake region. The goal of the proposed research is to investigate the levee system safety in the Great Lake region.