Lake Forest College is pleased to announce the publication of the sixteenth edition of the journal Eukaryon. The 2019 online edition will be unveiled on the College’s website on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020. A campus reception will celebrate the collaborative work of students and faculty at the College. Assistant Professor of Biology Flavia Barbosawill present a public seminar “Endless forms most beautiful: how evolution drives the shape of life,” following a campus-wide reception.

About Eukaryon

Eukaryon is an award-winning undergraduate research journal at Lake Forest College that publishes the very best of life science scholarship conducted by Lake Forest students. The journal’s goal is to celebrate and highlight the academic accomplishments of students achieved within the research-rich classrooms and student-centered research labs of Lake Forest College faculty. The word “Eukaryon” reflects the diversity of organisms with which the Department of Biology faculty are involved through their scholarship.

The students and faculty of the biology department at Lake Forest College founded this peer-reviewed annual online journal in 2004. The inaugural issue was published in January 2005 and featured 17 articles selected by biology faculty. In its inaugural issue, student work from a variety of biology courses (from First-Year Studies to advanced senior seminars and senior theses) was represented. Authors included freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and in one case, a graduate, who returned to audit a course. Diverse categories of articles were published, from research reviews and primary articles, to Nature-styled News and Views and senior theses. These categories reflected the breadth and depth of scientific writing required of a life sciences student at the College.

An editorial board comprised solely of Lake Forest College students who selected articles through a peer-review process put forth the 2006 issue. In spring 2005, the biology faculty selected the student members of this board. This board not only reviewed articles, it also authored all editorial policies of the journal. The 2007 issue demonstrated a continuing expansion of the journal with the co-publication of print and online issues, an increase in selectivity, diversity, and number of accepted manuscripts, as well as an increase in editorial board size. In 2009, we created the features board to encourage the writing of high-quality articles about student engagement beyond the classroom. In 2015, new board positions were created to aid in the editorial process. As Eukaryoncontinues to grow, maintaining high scientific journalistic standards and capturing the interdisciplinary, truly life-science experience of the journal remains a goal of this 2019–2020 editorial board.

While reflecting on 15 years of academic and journalistic achievement, editor-in-chief Ruqia Bibi ’20 said, “Every year Eukaryon strives to showcase the life sciences scholarship at Lake Forest College, working tirelessly to make the upcoming edition the best that it can be. Eukaryon’s success would never be possible without its dedicated team members who come together to create an astonishing product at the end of each season. This year we received an outstanding number of articles from various branches of the life sciences. We are beyond thankful for the enormous and remarkable support of the faculty and students of Lake Forest College. Our goal is to continue striving for the best, to mature and build upon the founding principles of Eukaryon”.

“I’m very excited about the release of the 16th Eukaryonjournal,” said Eukaryon advisor Ann Maine. “The Board has worked very hard and engaged a variety of students throughout the year. The theme, ‘form and function’ challenged and excited the students as a prism for examining science.”

About Inauguration speaker Flavia Barbosa:

Flavia Barbosa is an assistant professor of biology at Lake Forest College. Sheattended the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil for her undergraduate degree. She went on to pursue a doctoral degree in biological sciences in  the University of Missouri.  

At Lake Forest College, Barbosa currently teaches Sensing the Environment, Ecology and Evolution,   and Animal Behavior. She is also mentoring two senior thesis students. Barbosa is interested in a particular part of evolution that most of us don’t consider: sexual selection in certain species. To study this, she looks at mating behaviors of insects, from katydids to moths, and has found that female preference plays a large role in evolution.

Eukaryon is published by students at Lake Forest College, who are solely responsible for its content. The views expressed in Eukaryon do not necessarily reflect those of the College. Articles published within Eukaryon should not be cited in bibliographies. Material contained herein should be treated as personal communication and should be cited as such only with the consent of the author.