Welcome!

This is Owen Howard's personal site. Here you can learn about work I've done, along with work I am interested in doing.

My name is Owen Howard (he/him), and I am currently a junior undergraduate student at DePaul University (Chicago, IL). I am majoring in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology. I am minoring in French Language and Japanese Studies. I was a intern for the Lincoln Park Zoo's Animal Welfare Program in summer 2022. I am currently a member of Dr. Windsor Aguirre's laboratory, where I study the relationship between body shape and select vertebral anomalies in the Mexican tetra (Astyanax mexicanus). In autumn of 2023, I will attend DePaul again to pursue a Master's of Biological Sciences.I am fascinated by and always have harbored a curiosity for the natural world. Biology provides a means for me to investigate the mysteries of life; biology equips me with the tools to understand myself, other organisms, and the human connection to the world in an unbelievable capacity. I aspire to spend my life doing field and/or lab research in the eco/evo domain.I am currently interested in freshwater fishes and urban ecology, although I am eager to learn and study all facets of biological life. After graduating, I would like to start on a PhD program.

Outside of academia, I enjoy venturing to new neighborhoods in Chicago, listening to music, watching films, and drawing. I am active in the Jewish community as a board member of Hillel at DePaul. I am a Marxist-Leninist communist (ask me about it, I don't bite!), and I am always bettering my political education. My political beliefs, unfortunately, do not represent those of my employers or institutions. However, biology occupies much of my free time too; I run a blog which allows me to practice species identification and taxonomy. Follow me on iNaturalist!I am also an aquarium enthusiast. At the moment, I have a 10 and 20 gallon tank with several freshwater fishes. My favorite species of fish are Perca flavescens, Devario aequipinnatus, and Trichogaster lalius.Recently, I have been becoming acquainted with native plant species in the Chicago area.

Courses

Publications

Claudio, Ryan; Howard, Owen; Jurkowski, Stephanie M.; Kharas, Gregory B.; Kriebel, Charlie W.; Le, Tuyet Anh H.; Leung, Anne; Rios, Oscar; Rocus, Sara M.; Schjerven, William S.; Sevald, Paige E. (2021): Synthesis and styrene copolymerization of novel trisubstituted ethylenes: 10. Ring-monosubstituted octyl phenylcyanoacrylates. ChemRxiv. Preprint. https://doi.org/10.33774/chemrxiv-2021-k812v-v21.

Other Academic Writing

Helpful Programs & Websites

• Aguirre Lab Website: Lab page for Dr. Aguirre's research• BioRender: Create biology-related presentations & figures• MorphoJ: Geometric morphometrics• SB Morphometrics: Geometric morphometrics data acquisition

Interesting Publications

Harrington, C., Al Hafid, N., Waters, A. (2022): Butyrylcholinesterase is a potential biomarker for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. eBioMedicine, (80), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104041Santangelo, J., Ness, R., Cohan, B., Fitzpatrick, C., Innes, S., Koch, S., Miles, L., Munim, S., Peres-Neto, P., Prashad, C., Tong, A., Aguirre, W., Akinwole, P., Alberti, M., Álvarez, J., Anderson, J., Anderson, J., Ando, Y., Andrew, N., Angeoletto, F., ... Johnson, M. (2022): Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover. Science, (375), 1275–1281. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk0989.Lafuente, A. & Valverde, N. (2004). Linnaean Botany and Spanish Imperial Biopolitics. In L. Schiebinger & C. Swan (Eds.), Colonial Botany. Science, Conmmerce, and Politics in the Early Modern World. University of Pennsylvania Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/2.1.4541.7600.

Communist Resources

Just for Fun ^_– ☆

• Cameron's World: Web-collage/archive of old GeoCities pages• The Deep Sea: Visualizing the ocean• EasyUSSR Guides: Pirating guides• Every Noise: Algorithmically-generated scatterplot of music genres• Health Insurance Glossary: Glossary of health insurance terms• Louvre Collections: Collections database of the Louvre• Obscure Film Archive: Free archive of cult films and obscure videos• Photopea: Free Adobe program alternatives• Sewing Resource Archive: Free archive of sewing tools and patterns• watabou itch.io: Architecture and map generators• 12ft.io & archive.today: Bypass paywalls