Niesenbaum Named Class Of 1932 Research Professor At Muhlenberg
Richard A. Niesenbaum, Ph.D., associate professor of biology at Muhlenberg College, has received the Class of 1932 Research Professorship for the 2003-04 academic year.Wednesday, January 29, 2003 11:03 AM
Richard A. Niesenbaum, Ph.D., associate professor of biology at Muhlenberg College, has received the Class of 1932 Research Professorship for the 2003-04 academic year. Niesenbaum, who holds a B.A. and Ph.D. in biology from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.S. in biological oceanography and coastal ecology from the University of Connecticut, joined the Muhlenberg faculty in 1993. Previously, he taught at Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania. Niesenbaum’s research project, “The Ecological Uncertainty Principle – How experimenter visitation and measurement affect herbivory and plant growth,” studies the way the act of entering a field and measuring plants in order to study them may actually affect those plants’ interactions with other organisms and their environment. His research, which has been funded by a two-year grant from the National Science Foundation, will challenge the long-standing assumption that field researchers are “benign observers.”
The Class of 1932 Professorship provides released time at full salary for up to one academic year, with an additional budget of up to $2,000 for research and publication expenses.
