Biology Students Present in Portland, OR – Department of Sciences & Mathematics

Three biology majors in the Dept. of Sciences and Mathematics — Kane Petty, Maddie Guerin, and Brooklyn Ward — spent the end of the holiday break in Portland, OR. They were attending and presenting at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology 2026 annual meeting.

Kane Petty, Dr. Travis Hagey, Maddie Guerin, and Brooklyn Ward stand by a gecko mural in Portland, OR.

All three students work with Dr. Travis Hagey, Associate Professor of Biology in the Dept of Sciences and Mathematics, whose National Sciences Foundation grant pays for students to do research with Dr. Hagey and to travel to conferences to present their work.

The conference ran from Saturday 3 January to Wednesday 7 January 2026.

Kane Petty presented a talk titled, “Effects of formalin preservation on gecko toe pads” on Tuesday in the Ecology and Evolution of Morphology session of the conference.

Kane Petty by a projection screen, giving a talk to the SICB conference.

Maddie Guerin presented a poster titled “Ontogenetic Patterns in Correlophus ciliatus Toe Pad Performance” at the Tuesday poster session devoted to Behavior, Biophysics, Development, Ecology, Ecophysiology, Morphology, and Physiology.

Travis Hagey and Maddie Guerin standing in front of a poster at the SICB conference.

A five day conference also leaves time to explore the city. Dr. Hagey and his students took the opportunity during some down time to visit the Oregon Zoo in Portland, eat at funky restaurants, and browse what Portland has to offer.

Because the biology, chemistry, and mathematics programs at MUW are undergraduate-only, our students work directly with the faculty here, and benefit from research experiences many don’t experience before moving on to graduate or post-graduate programs.