2022-23 BTC Calendar: Katrina Gobetz

“I could not have done this without JMU,” says biology professor Katrina Gobetz, after patenting an innovative Animal Monitoring Station that stores video and measurements of tiny creatures like mice and shrews — without trapping the animals. Her 3-D printed devices are currently recording the elusive wildlife underfoot in Carrier Arboretum without exposing the fragile creatures to possible starvation, hypothermia or harm from humans. Gobetz credits the “energy and support” of investors from Madison Trust, a group of donors who fund faculty ideas, with pushing her forward. “They believed in our project and its potential. They were really part of the reason this could take off,” she says. The investment from Madison Trust enabled Gobetz to perfect prototypes, file for a U.S. patent and begin designs for mass production. “The resources available to us here, anytime, those have been so incredible to me.”