Feb. 21, 2007

Presbyterian College biology professor Dr. Bob Hudson is a not a part of the athletics department, but that does not stop him from working with mussels.

The Charles A. Dana Professor of Biology and 2003 South Carolina Professor of the Year has been studying artificial propagation of freshwater mussels for many years, and some of his past research was recently published in a resource book entitled Freshwater Bivalve Ecotoxicology.

Hudson contributed to a chapter entitled "Propagation and Culture of Freshwater Mussels" with Jerry Farris, a professor at Arkansas State, and Cristi Bishop, a research scientist with EA Engineering, Science and Technology.

Hudson began his research on mussels in 1980 when he published a paper on breeding fish in an artificial culture. This paper caught the attention of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which was interested in artificially obtaining mussel larvae for toxicology research.

According to Hudson, mussel larvae attach themselves to fish for development, which makes collecting them for research difficult. The TVA offered him a full-time research position, but he was more interested in teaching and was hired as a consultant instead. When they left the research business in the early 1990's, Hudson began to do contract work here at PC during the summer.

Hudson's contribution to Freshwater Bivalve Ecotoxicology was due to an event a few years ago, which he describes as "providential." By the time he went of sabbatical in the fall of 2002, he had published several papers and made several presentations at conventions about artificial mussel propagation. However, there was a great deal of material that had not been used, so he started putting this old material together for publication. It was during this time that he received the phone call about Freshwater Bivalve Ecotoxicology, and the material he had been putting together was "exactly what was needed for this chapter."                                                                  

Because of the time and effort that had been required usually left him with little time to prepare for another semester, Hudson is no longer doing research on a contract basis.  Instead, he is now free to do work with his students. He is currently involved in a project with senior biology majors Ashley Ragan and Amy Grove and colleagues Dr. Troy Nash and Dr. Jim Wetzel. They are currently using an electron microscope to determine if the gill structures of mussels filter different sizes of algae.

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