EWU Student Wins Murdock Poster Prize

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December 10, 2024

Jeff Schell, a senior majoring in biology and psychology, was recently awarded an Ecology-Evolution-Biodiversity Murdock Poster Prize for 2024.

Schell, a 39-year-old returning student from Spokane, received the prize at the 33^rd Annual Murdock College Science Research Conference, an annual event held in Vancouver, Washington that is cohosted by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and Whitman College.

This year's conference, themed "Saving Our Planet Through Scientific Research," attracted more than 450 students and faculty from 31 Pacific Northwest colleges and universities. Schell's research presentation, "A Novel Case Study for the Biotic Resistance Hypothesis in a Host-Parasite System at Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge," was among the award-winners.

Jeff Schell pictured with his research presentation at the conference.

Schell's research, the basis for the presentation, involved analyzing fish behavior. His project, conducted under the mentorship of Krisztian Magori, assistant professor of biostatistics at EWU, began last summer as a paid position and continued through the fall. Both Schell and Magori received cash prizes from the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust in recognition of their work.

Schell juggled classes with an outside job working nights and weekends with doing research at EWU in the mornings, saying, "It was kind of a hectic quarter, to say the least, but it was really fun."

The majority of his research expenses were funded, providing vital applied learning experiences while also helping him to cover education and living expenses.

"I felt like a scientist. Having a lab full of fish and running them and then analyzing their behavior was really intriguing," Schell says, adding that the hands-on learning, including fish husbandry and statistical analysis, will come in handy in graduate school. During graduate study, Schell hopes to work with intelligent marine animals, such as cephalopods (octopuses and squids) or cetaceans (whales and dolphins).

"I am intrigued by the elaborate behaviors of animals involving things such as camouflage, memory, and social hierarchy," Schell says. "The way that octopuses change their skin shape and color during different behaviors is my dream topic of study!"

Schell, who returned to university study after a 15-year break, is bankrolling his own tuition, fees and living expenses. This year, due to the credits he earned in the past, he didn't qualify for any financial aid. He says receiving the LeClaire scholarship award through the biology department is helping to keep him on track to graduate.

"Strictly financially it was amazing, but also just the support," Schell says. It also, he explains, sent an inspiring message that the university notices him as a student and supports his work.

Schell says Eastern's welcoming culture, along with the support and applied learning experiences made his accomplishments as a returning student possible: "Props to Eastern for being so open and inclusive to people that are nontraditional in the classical sense," he says.

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