BIOL 225: Biodiversity & Climate Change: July - Disability Month

Richard Mankin is an entomologist who studies bugs and insects by "listening" to them. Using acoustic tools, Mankin helps detect, monitor, and solve problems related to pests and invasive species.
Students can listen to Mankin's, and other entomologists', research from the Bug Bytes Sound Library recordings of mosquitos, cockroaches, larvae, ants, termites, beetles, grubs, and more.

Temple Grandin is a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University and is a well-known speaker and author about both animal behavior and autism. Her pragmatic approach to talking about autism has helped many people better understand autism spectrum disorder, and serve as inspiration to those with Autism who want to pursue a STEM career. She authored the book "Thinking in pictures: and other reports from my life with autism," available in the 2nd floor stacks, call number RC553.A88 G74 1995.

Farida Bedwei's interest in computers started with a manual typewriter. Today, she is CEO of a software company she co-founded. Her cerebral palsy has not stopped her from excelling in STEM, and with a comic book about a superhero with a disability, she is a powerful advocate for girls in STEM and students with disabilities. Her novel is entitled Definition of a Miracle.

Dr. Vermeij, an evolutionary biologist and paleocologist, is a distinguished professor of geology at the University of California at Davis. He has collected shells from all over the world as part of his study of the evolution of mollusks over millions of years, a process that can be chronicled by studying the defensive strategies evident in shell adaptations and variations. Using only your sense of touch to observe all of these details about a shell may sound challenging, but Dr. Geerat Vermeij, a world-renowned scientist who is blind, has been studying shells by touch for decades. He has published several books, including Privileged hands: A scientific life (available in the second floor stacks, call number QH31.V39 A3 1997) .

On a hot summer day in 1947, Ralph Braun was told he would not live to see his 13th birthday. He had two options: sit and wait for that prediction to come true or use those words as fuel to prove it wrong. He never gave a second thought to which path he would choose.
The doctors who diagnosed Ralph with muscular dystrophy at the age of six and handed him his death sentence were wrong. Not only did he live to see his 13th birthday, but he founded BraunAbility, the world s leading manufacturer of mobility vehicles. His book entitled, Rise Above: How One Man's Search for Mobility Helped the World Get Moving.

Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig's research and work as a physician made a difference for thousands of babies born with congenital heart defects. She also helped prevent a potential epidemic of birth defects by advocating against the approval of thalidomide in the United States.
Dr. Taussig pursued her education and medical career in the early 1900s, a time when "public health" was suggested as more appropriate for a woman than being a doctor and not all universities granted advanced degrees to women. She was also dyslexic and suffered hearing loss caused by whooping cough. She did not let these challenges stand in her way. Read about her in, Breakthrough! : How Three People Saved "Blue Babies" and Changed Medicine Forever

Nicholas Saunderson (1682-1739) was a blind English mathematician. He served as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. Although a good teacher and proficient mathematician, he did not publish his work. In 1740, after his death, his notes were published as Elements of Algebra, in ten books (sections of the books are available through HathiTrust.)

Díaz-Merced was a college student studying math and physics when she first started experiencing blind spots caused by diabetic retinopathy. By thirty, she was blind. For an astrophysicist, her loss of sight could have signaled the end of her exploration of space data, but Díaz-Merced discovered another way to access, analyze, and interpret space data. She listened to it. She has led a TED talk in 2016.

Annie Jump Cannon's work evaluating the brightness of stars led to the spectral classification system used by astronomers today. There are conflicting stories about when she got scarlet fever and lost most of her hearing, but many accounts suggest this happened while she was in college. She began working for Edward Charles Pickering at Harvard Observatory with the goal of mapping all the stars in the sky.
Cannon is credited with developing the Harvard Classification Scheme, a system that classifies a star based on its temperature and spectra. (Her work on this system continued and evolved the work of two other women who had worked for Pickering.) For more information, read the ebook Annie Jump Cannon.

Dr. Jane Goodall's fieldwork with chimpanzees in Tanzania changed how we think about primates and their relationship to humans. You might not associate Dr. Goodall with a disability, but she suffered from prosopagnosia, or "face blindness." Learn more about Jane through the book, The Jane effect: celebrating Jane Goodall, available on the second floor, call number QL31.G58 J34 2015.