A biological and physical sciences major with an interest in genetics, Gillem has been open to exploring ecology, environmental physiology and other disciplines in the research work, said her faculty mentor Michael Finkler, associate professor of biology.

Finkler received a 2004 Undergraduate Research Summer Institute (URSI) grant to support his initial mentoring work with Gillem, a project titled “Total Bacterial Content in the Eggs of Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina) and Midland Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta marginata).” Impressed by Gillem’s work, Finkler invited her to conduct an alternative study under a spring grant-in-aid he received from IU Kokomo.

The student and teacher have developed and made several public presentations of their findings. Finkler delivered a paper jointly authored with Gillem to the Indiana Academy of Science meeting in October, and both presented additional research results at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting in San Diego in January. In February, Gillem presented a poster on “Sex-Related Differences in Stored Energy Reserves in Spring-Breeding Hylid Frogs” at the IUPUI undergraduate research conference.

Gillem will assist Finkler on a 2005 URSI project on turtle egg microbiology. “The plan is to have Ashley conduct her graduate thesis research here on campus, so she will still be around IU Kokomo for the next couple of years,” Finkler said.