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Inspiring Students

Student happens upon research, opportunities follow

Colt Edin works with a vole as Dr. Thomas observes.

By Jennifer Richter, CSB '10

A chance encounter led Saint John’s University senior Colt Edin, a biology major from Askov, Minn., down a three-year path to some very unique and rewarding undergraduate research.

It all started with a trip to the post office his sophomore year. Colt noticed a familiar looking biology professor while waiting in line. He asked if she was Dr. Thomas (CSB/SJU assistant professor of biology) and then introduced himself to her. They talked for a few minutes and at the end of their conversation Dr. Thomas told Colt about the behavioral research she was doing with prairie voles and asked if he would be interested in working with her.

“I was, so a bit later I sat down and talked with her and things have kind of just followed from that to today,” Colt said. “It was very much a chance encounter that led me in an interesting direction.”

And a lot has happened since that fateful day.

The project that he and Dr. Thomas worked on involved looking for evidence that offspring of voles from different geographical backgrounds would be less likely to survive in nature than pups born to parents of the same geographical background.

It took a lot of time and effort from both of them to come up with an answer to that question.

“We both attacked this kind of equally,” Dr. Thomas said. “Coming up with the question was more my role. Once that happened, we talked together about how to design the experiment and then we started.”

Dr. Thomas picks up a vole while working on an experiment with Colt Edin.

And then Colt’s work really began.

“I helped Colt run some of his first trials and showed him what he needed to look for,” Dr. Thomas said. “But after that, he ran the trials when he needed to. He knew the parameters he was looking for.”

However, Colt’s responsibility was not just to do experiments in order to answer their hypothesis.

“My role in the project has been a mixture of a lot of things,” he said. “A lot of literature review … seeing what information we can gather. Animal care has probably been the most time consuming part; cleaning up after the voles, changing cages, maintaining a database of their genealogy.”

After years of study and working with over a hundred voles, Colt and Dr. Thomas finally came to a conclusion, finding no evidence of outbreeding depression.

“We were not able to support our hypothesis about outbreeding depression,” Dr. Thomas said. “No parameter that we looked at as an indirect measure to determine fitness, which is having offspring that survive and reproduce, was significantly different if you chose the male from around the corner or the one from 650 kilometers away.”

Colt Edin presents the research project he worked on to the Animal Behavioral Society. His presentation led to him receiving an award as well as networking with famous researchers.

Once they found their answer, the most rewarding experiences really began. Colt had the opportunity to present their findings at an international science meeting in summer 2005.

“I presented this project in Salt Lake City at the annual meeting of the Animal Behavioral Society,” Colt said. “There were people from research universities all across the country, and out of all the undergrads there, I was named first runner up for the Genesis award for best undergraduate presentation at the meeting.”

And, although quite an accomplishment already, Colt experienced even more at the meeting.

“I got to rub elbows with a bunch of very, very famous and well-known quality researchers. You open up the backs of our textbooks in behavior-type classes, and I’ve met them. And them. And them.”

Besides presenting the project at that particular meeting and networking with researchers, Colt is also working on the manuscript of the research.

“It will be published in an international peer-review journal,” Dr. Thomas said.

Overall, Colt’s experience has been remarkable and unique for a liberal arts college student.

“Most liberal arts colleges are not going to be able to [offer research programs],” Dr. Thomas said. “Research is not something they can do because funding doesn’t exist.”

“The ability to present at the international meeting was something not many undergrads at small, liberal arts institutions like this have the opportunity to experience,” Colt added.

Colt plans to continue some form of research in his future, so this experience will help him in preparation for those ambitions.

“Whatever I end up doing, research will be a part of it, and I’ll end up in the sciences somewhere. Whether it’s in research biology or medicine, research will be an important component of my life, my work.”