2008 Woodie Awards
FSU Biology Department Welcomes Additional Faculty
Ashley Diggs
Issue date: 9/27/06 Section: News
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Dr. Ghioca received her Bachelor of Science and Masters at University of Bucharest, in Romania. She specialized in Ecology and Environmental Protection/Management. She then earned her PhD in Wildlife Science from the Department of Range, Wildlife, and Fisheries Management at Texas Tech University, working on larval amphibians in playa wetlands.
She has worked on two post doctoral projects, the first at Texas Tech with the Institute for Environmental and Human Health, investigating larval amphibians. The second project focused on identifying vegetation indicators for the Great Lakes's coastal wetland condition and on investigating the use of high resolution satellite images for mapping and characterizing coastal wetland vegetation.
She joined the Department of Biology at Frostburg State University in the position of Herpetologist and Ecotoxicologist primarily because of two reasons. She said "I will get to teach and educate students in addition to carrying out research on what I love most: amphibians and reptiles. Also, the Department of Biology offers a Masters program so that gives me greater opportunities of interacting with motivated and interested students. I should also mention that I enjoy living in Frostburg because I missed exploring mountains and forests for a long time."
Dr. Rachel J. Collins earned her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh. She got her Master's degree in Ecology, Department of Zoology, at Miami University. She got her Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science, Department of Zoology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, with a minor in English. She graduated cum laude in 1989.
Dr. Collins was a participant in the West Virginia Department of Forestry, Wildlands Fire Training Course where she studied prescribed fire management techniques, fire behavior, incident command structure and practiced fire-fighting methods.
She was also a field assistant for mammals, insects, and the maintenance of diversity in tropical forest ecosystems in Panama and surveyed vegetation. Dr. Collins was also a technician for a Black Bear Research Project. She worked on this project with the Department of Zoology at North Carolina State University. There they established and monitored trap lines, assisted in handling captured bears, and used radio telemetry to locate bears.
Some of her special skills include prescribed fire training, trapping and banding vertebrates, radio telemetry, parametric and resampling statistics, and experimental design.
"I am thrilled that we were able to hire Dr. Collins and Dr. Ghioca," said Dr. William Seddon, chair of the FSU Biology Department. "Dr. Collins fills a gap that was created last year when our former forest ecologist took a position at another university. Dr. Ghioca, our new herpetologist, fills a position that has been open for four years. Both positions are essential for our Wildlife and Fisheries programs and we all look forward to working with these two new faculty members over the coming years."
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