Dr. J

 


Dr. Jennifer Mansfield-Jones

222 Life Sciences
j0mans02 (at) louisville (dot) edu

 

B.A. - Cornell University
Ph.D. - University of Michigan

 

cardiovascular systemMy primary role is undergraduate teaching in the Human Anatomy and Physiology sequence.  When I engage in research, it tends to be collaborative.  My professional role ties into some of my amusements, so both are reflected here.

Human Anatomy and Physiology

I teach a two-semester lecture sequence in anatomy and physiology, and manage a laboratory associated with the second semester lecture course.  The 262 laboratory is a course in its own right, numbered separately from the Human Anatomy and Physiology I (260) and Human Anatomy and Physiology II (261) courses.  These are courses introducing how humans work, exploring both structure and function from the molecular level on up.  For University of Louisville students in the Biology Department, I should point out that this course mostly serves students aspiring to enter nursing programs.  It does not count for biology elective credit in the major.

Anatomical Art

Photography is another of my interests, and I usually Cranial_nerves_1solve the problem of artwork permissions for general distribution by taking my own pictures of pre-1920s material.  Lithographers and steel plate engravers were cheap in the nineteenth century, and human anatomy hasn't changed noticeably since then.  One has to keep an eye on accuracy, but the usual pattern is that structures are correctly and painstakingly shown, bearing names alien to current usage.

Other Biology Teaching

Avian_CousinI'm intrigued by many creatures besides humans, and sometimes teach a vertebrate biology course at the University of Louisville.  [Biology 308; Vertebrate Zoology.]  The alarming facial portrait reflects vertebrate biology, evolution, and travel interests: the fossil is a Torvosaurus specimen on display at the Mesalands Community College museum in Tucumcari, New Mexico.  For anyone with a little extra time driving along highway 40, this museum is a worthwhile stop.  Because of a convenient cross-pollination between their sciences and fine arts faculty, the museum displays many highly detailed bronze casts made from fossil originals.

 

The lizard is a fence lizard (genus Sceloporus)Sceloporus While I could make dramatic claims about his size, anyone familiar with the body proportions and adult head shape of these lizards will just chuckle (and maybe say aawww...); this is the lizard equivalent of a puppy portrait.

Cameras and Photography

I take pictures of more than bones and artwork; anything that strikes my eye may show up on pixels or film.  What I post is of course digital by the time it appears on the web, but my best lenses are still on film cameras.  I'm also intrigued by film cameras that are just plain odd.  Two_KodaksOn this page you see a paired portrait of two very different cameras that both bear the Kodak name.  The black plastic (digital) one is very inexpensive, but produces results quite adequate for web work.  It has fully manual settings, so it can be used for things like the fireworks image.  How did I do that?  By putting the light plastic camera on a tripod that cost about three times what the camera did, and weighed about twenty pounds.fireworks The other camera comes from a very different era  -- you can see a lot of metal -- and was a costly one one in the 1950s when new.   That is a Retina IIa, and it actually folds up into a tidier and more pocketable package than the Easyshare next to it.  These days, second-hand or "N-th hand",  it would be in the same price range as the Easyshare.  It's a mechanical wonder, with all kinds of nifty features including a coupled rangefinder for setting focus.  The flip side, of course, is that the user is responsible for all the details.  Nothing is automatic, and the camera neither knows nor cares what speed of 35 mm film you have put in it.

Other interests