Minority speaker series brings expert on tropical medicinal plants to campus

Dr. Eloy Rodriguez

Dr. Eloy Rodriguez of Cornell University will be the next speaker in the quarterly series of minority academic seminars organized by the Student Coalition for Diversity in Science with support from the Dean's Office in the School of Medicine. This seminar is jointly sponsored with the Department of Zoology. Rodriguez is James A. Perkins Professor of Environmental Studies in the Division of Biological Sciences at Cornell.

He will speak on "Medicinal Plant Ecology: Resistant Parasites, Wild Apes and Tropical Phytodrugs" at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 14, in Room 132 of Hitchcock Hall. The presentation is open to everyone.

In addition, Rodriguez will meet with minority students while he is at the UW. A workshop luncheon has been scheduled from noon to 2 p.m., Tuesday, April 14, in the African-American Room at the Ethnic Cultural Center, 3931 Brooklyn Ave., N.E., where he will speak about graduate studies relating to his research in tropical rainforests. That presentation is titled "Graduate Studies in Amazonian Tourism: Wild Drugs and Dead Monkeys." For the workshop only, register by contacting Anhthu Hoang at hoang@zoology.washington.edu.

Rodriguez, in his research, goes deep into the tropical rainforest and tramps through the bush to track primates as they swallow plant leaves and rub them on their bodies to combat parasites. The plants are what he seeks because their chemistry reveals nature's cures for animal and perhaps human afflictions. Rodriguez has discovered that capuchin monkeys, common throughout the Americas, exhibit what is called "fur rubbing" behavior. These monkeys rub plant leaves of the genus Piper on their fur. When Rodriquez looked at the chemistry in the plant leaves the monkeys use, he found it perfect for killing mites and fleas.

For the past 10 years, Rodriguez has been taking undergraduate and graduate students to the tropics for field research. He offers these field experiences to inspire students to go on to graduate studies in the basic sciences. He hopes that motivated students will pursue studies in conservation biology, chemical ecology, ethnobotany, epidemiology of infectious diseases and evolutionary medicine (how viruses and bacteria mutate).

The seminar series was organized and conceived by the Student Coalition and Dr. Patrick Stayton, assistant professor of bioengineering, to foster an increased awareness of minorities in academic science and emphasize the need to encourage young underrepresented minority students to pursue careers and higher degrees in the sciences. The series is called the UW Minority Academic Seminar Series for Excellence in Science (UW-MASSES).

For more information on this speaker and the series, contact Robert Alaniz at ralaniz@u.washington.edu. ¶