July 7, 2025
Contact: Janese Heavin, heavinj@missouri.edu
Photos by Abbie Lankitus and Gretta Cohoon
Campus is quieter in the summer, but the work at a university is never on break. In June, the University of Missouri welcomed students for the Missouri Scholars Academy, continued research endeavors and enjoyed lots of fun wildlife. Mizzou photographer Abbie Lankitus takes us through her favorite photos of the month.
The Science of NASCAR lecture was such a fun class to photograph. Steve Keller, co-director of Missouri Scholars Academy (MSA), teaches this class each year. And this year, he had Columbia native and NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Carl Edwards join him.
In his demonstrations, Keller showed the class the difference between a regular piece of cotton and a synthetic piece designed for higher fuel output when matched with a fire source.
I absolutely loved the reactions I got from the front row. Many students gasped and covered their faces, while others refused to blink, lest they miss the reaction.
Professors and teachers like Keller make learning fun — and something I’m sure these MSA students will never forget.
An upcoming story on Show Me Mizzou will feature the birds at Mizzou’s Raptor Rehabilitation Project in the College of Veterinary Medicine will be featured. The organization’s primary goal is to capture, heal and release. For some — including Minnie Pearl, a great horned owl — release is not possible, and they become education birds for the organization.
Minnie was gorgeous to photograph. Those piercing eyes and “horns” watching your every move are quite striking. I just love the detail I was able to capture in her eyes, feathers and beak. It’s not often someone can get as close as I did to a raptor and leave without any claw marks.
Before the photo shoot, I had no idea this facility even existed. Now, I’m so glad to know not only that it exists but understand the work that they do daily for Missouri’s raptors.
Photographer Gretta Cohoon captured Jasper Holland, a student in Mizzou’s College of Engineering, for an upcoming story about how he’s applying skills he’s learned in the classroom to a new business endeavor.
This is such a good portrait. First, it’s got that classic Mizzou gold. Cohoon achieved that by putting a colored gel paper on a flash behind Holland. It highlights his hair, the computer screens and the keyboard and mat with that lovely color. And then she’s got a second flash in front of Holland to light up his face. If you didn’t know, the Gaming Lounge is a very dark space – especially if you’re trying to photograph in it. These lights create such a dynamic look while the background is still really dark.
From the “MU” behind Holland’s head, to the gold light and the killer jacket he’s wearing, it’s a branding dream. It shows Mizzou pride in this specific niche, eSports. While this portrait will be used for a story on Holland, it can also be used in marketing materials to showcase our eSports community and the Gaming Lounge to current or prospective students interested in playing eSports at Mizzou.
I attended MU Extension’s Butterfly Festival at Jefferson Farm and Garden Extension and Education Center a few Saturdays back. While there, I was focusing on the interactions between guests and butterflies, but didn’t expect one to land on me.
The next moments that occurred were quite hilarious. I put the camera out and away from me, pointed the lens down to the bottom of my shirt, and began blindly taking photos, hoping to capture the red admiral before it flew away. Eventually, I was able to turn my screen toward me so that Icouldkind of see what I was taking. I honestly had no idea whether I’d gotten into focus until I started editing the photos.
It was a great reminder that while I go to many places and events to capture what’s going on, much of the time, the experience is happening to me just as much as it is anyone else!
After this butterfly got tired of my shenanigans, it flew off me but landed on another man’s shorts in a place he couldn’t really see. His son thought that was quite funny!
I couldn’t possibly let the only butterfly photo be the one that landed on me! There were so many to capture and the full gallery is on Show Me Mizzou.
This great spangled fritillary caught my eye when it landed on this purple coneflower. The spots underneath the butterfly look pink, but they’re white. They’re simply reflecting the color of the purple coneflower. I didn’t know that until I looked up the specific species, but it just makes the butterfly cooler to me now.
I’m very thankful to MU Extension for putting on this event so that we and members of the community could experience the butterflies and the native plants they’re attracted to. Expect to see all these butterflies’ host plants in my garden next year!
The research never quits, no matter the season. And in this case, I’m thankful it doesn’t. The team of researchers photographed at the School of Medicine are trying to solve a frustrating challenge in treating lung cancer: why some patients’ drug treatments stop working after initially finding success.
I won’t give away the full secret, as that answer will be in an upcoming story on Show Me Mizzou, but it has something to do with a molecular “seesaw.”
Using that verbiage, I decided to bring three lights into the lab and take portraits with a red gelled light on the right and a blue gelled light on the left to mimic the two sides of this “seesaw.” There was also a white light in the center so that our researchers weren’t just red and blue but naturally lit as well.
The work they’re doing is heroic, and I hope that how I captured their portraits conveys not only the importance of their work, but a little bit of their heroism too.
