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2005 OUTSTANDING THESIS AWARD
Matt Ashworth
M.S., Biology
The Division of Graduate Studies recognizes
the very fine thesis work being accomplished by its graduate students
through the annual granting of the Outstanding Thesis Award, in the
amount of $1,000. This award also accords a high profile to faculty
mentoring of graduate student research. For 2004-2005, the committee
of emeritus faculty judges selected
Matt Ashworth's thesis from the Biology
program in the College of Science and Mathematics. 
Matt's faculty thesis
committee chair was Frederick Zechman, and his thesis
committee members were Paul Crosbie and James Prince. The award was presented at the Graduate Degree Hooding
Cermeony in the Save Mart Center at Fresno State the evening of May
20.
Matt’s thesis, A Multigene Approach to the Phylogeny of the Dasycladales (Chlorophyta, Ulvophyceae), was focused on the molecular evolution of a fascinating group of tropical marine green algae called the Dasycladales. These are ancient organisms with their origin in the Precambrian era--more than 550 million years ago. These algae are comprised of single large intricate cells and have been used by biologists to understand the molecular control of development. They are model organisms in a number of different sciences. Matt used DNA gene sequences to uncover the pattern of ancestor and descendant relationships among species of these ancient marine plants. From his data he was able to confirm their taxonomic classification system, assess the evolution of their cell shapes and forms, and measure the rates and patterns of their DNA sequence evolution.
Matt's research was creative, novel, and important, and he performed it with sustained effort. He presented the results of his work at several local, regional, and National meetings, won best student poster award at the Central California Research Symposium and his work has received much attention from internationally known scientists at meetings he attended. Matt's work ethic and dedication to his studies contributed greatly to the culture of graduate research in the Department of Biology and on the CSU Fresno campus.
Below: Matt with Dean K.P. Wong, Provost Jeri Echeverria, Frederick Zechman, and Paul Crosbie
