CEE's Drs. Eric Seagren and Ahmet Aydilek Add Valuable Images to the ASM MicrobeLibrary Visual Collection

Drs. Eric Seagren and Ahmet Aydilek

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering's Drs. Eric Seagren and Ahmet Aydilek are part of the UM Team that has helped enrich the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s (ASM) MicrobeLibrary Visual Collection. The images supplied by them have greatly enhanced the collection, and are invaluable to students, general public, and industry colleagues.

Please see official press release below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Leslie Robinson

Communications Specialist

lrobinson@asmusa.org

202-942-9314

University of Maryland Scientists Publish Images in the MicrobeLibrary Visual Collection

Washington, DC (6 February 2009) — The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) announces the publication of images under the title “Bacterially-Induced Calcite Precipitation via Ureolysis” by Chiung-Wen Chou, Eric Seagren, Ahmet Aydilek, and Timothy Maugel of the University of Maryland, College Park, in the ASM MicrobeLibrary Visual Collection.

The Visual Collection is a clearinghouse of high-quality, peer-reviewed images, animations, and videos about the microbial world for educators, primarily at the undergraduate level. The Visual Collection is one of many resources in MicrobeLibrary, an online, searchable collection of more than 2,000 peer-reviewed resources for undergraduate microbiology and biology education. The library builds upon the scientific expertise, intellectual creativity, and private collections of the members of ASM and other researchers of microbiology and biology from around the world; it receives more than 1 million hits per month.

“The Visual Collection has always been the most widely used section of the MicrobeLibrary,” says Susan Bagley, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Mich., and editor-in-chief of the Visual Collection. “We owe the success of the MicrobeLibrary to the high-quality resources submitted by authors who are committed to sharing their scholarship of teaching and learning with a broader community of educators.”

The images by Chou, Seagren, Aydilek, and Maugel are important additions to MicrobeLibrary. Given the current social and political climate, it is more important than ever that authoritative materials are available to help students, the general public, and other scientists understand the significance and impact of microorganisms in the world.

MicrobeLibrary is a founding partner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s BiosciEdNet Collaborative (www.biosciednet.org), a portal sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s National Science Digital Library (www.nsdl.org). MicrobeLibrary is the first service of its kind, has won many citations and media accolades, and continues to be recognized as one of the best resources for science information.

For more information, visit www.MicrobeLibrary.org.

The American Society for Microbiology is the oldest and largest single life science membership organization in the world, composed of over 43,000 scientists and health professionals. Its mission is to promote research and research training in the microbiological sciences and to assist communication between scientists, policy makers, and the public to improve health, the environment, and economic well-being.

Published February 6, 2009