Bryn Athyn College Alumni Magazine Winter 2015 | Page 34

research

Allexx Atkins, Joe Grubb, Bracken Brown, Laird Klippenstein, and
Mark Apedo present at the Society for Ecological Restoration International
Mid-Atlantic Chapter Conference, held February 2010 at Rutgers University.

This feature makes
Bryn Athyn College
truly remarkable. As
Potapov pointed out,
“Where else in the
world would you find
undergraduate students
and professors working
together in the middle
of the night to put a
collar on a non-sedated
deer? Nowhere in the
world. Any other place
would outsource the job
to hired specialists, and
use tranquilizers.”
Allexx Atkins and Michael Rodgers
This unique
present research at a Mid-Atlantic
collaboration
continues
Chapter of the Ecological Society of America
from the hands-on
meeting held April 2013 in Dover, DE.
work all the way to the
scientific community, where, as Potapov said, “Our
students get to collaborate with College faculty and
PERT personnel. Together, we have co-authored
a number of scientific presentations and papers.
Our extensive deer tracking data set — which is the
intellectual property of Bryn Athyn College — is
used for research in both theoretical and applied
fields, and importantly, as a tool for education.”
Higgins’ eyes lit up as he explained, “I went
to my first conference last spring. To see one of
our students with four or five scientists around

Bracken Brown, Alex Rohtla, and Dallas Hendricks at The
joint conference for the Mid-Atlantic Chapters of the Ecological
Society ofAmerica and the Society for Ecological Restoration
held March 2009 at The College of New Jersey.

him, and to see him telling them about his work
. . . it’s a wonderful feeling.” Standout moments
included the time when Michael Rodgers, a former
Bryn Athyn College biology major (‘13), gave a
presentation at Elizabethtown College to the
Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Ecological Society of
America. Now two years out of college, Rodgers still
works with the Deer Study team on both trapping
and data analysis. In addition, three students
have coauthored papers in peer-reviewed scientific
journals: Bracken Brown (Biology ‘11) who now
teaches in Kempton, PA, Dallas Hendricks who is
in Colorado, and Laird Klippenstein (Biology ‘11)
who is now earning his PhD in Colorado. Many
other students have presented posters or given
oral presentations at scientific conferences. These
students include Alex Rohtla, who now teaches at
the ANC Secondary Schools, Allexx Atkins (Biology
‘14), and Ryan Landels who is currently a biology
major.1
Bryntesson and Higgins both credit much
of the success of the program to the brilliance,
humility and passion of Dr. Eugene Potapov.
Bryntesson explained, “Eugene is so integral to
this project. He can do the science and math, and
he even welds the metal for the trap.” He added,
“Eugene is a creative machine gun. He has come
up with so many ideas to investigate, like, ‘How
do deer react when PERT is open to humans?
When and where do they cross roads? How do they
react to vegetation management efforts, hunting,

1 For a complete list of Deer Study publications and presentations by BAC students and faculty and PERT personnel see:
http://www.brynathyn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Deer-Study-Presentations-and-Publications-2012.pdf

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