Da_BossMain

[See some pictures from a trip to Germany and France that Mannie and Taylor took in conjunction with Plant Photobiology 2003 - can be seen as a QuickTime movie, or downloaded as a PowerPoint presentation]

Brief Biography

A native of Copenhagen, NY (pop. ~600), situated in the Town of Denmark (The King of Denmark once visited the little village of Copenhagen in NY) on the Tug Hill Plateau which borders Canada, the 1000 Islands region and the Adirondack Mountains, Mannie received his B.S. (In Vitro Cell Biology and Biotechnology) from SUNY-Plattsburgh in 1988 and Ph.D. (Plant Biology) from The Ohio State University in 1992. At the end of 1992, Mannie and Janet (his better half!) packed up their stuff and moved to Northern California. From then until early 1996, Mannie was a postdoc with Winslow Briggs at the Carnegie Institution - Department of Plant Biology, and Janet was a Research Associate in Stanford University's Department of Medicine/Hematology. Although they now call Columbia, Missouri home, they will forever consider the Bay Area (where their first child, Taylor, was born) as their second home.

Typical winter day in upstate NY - shot Jan. 2000 just outside Copenhagen village limits (photo by E. Liscum, Jr.)

Not upstate NY, but rather McClure's Beach at Pt. Reyes Natl. Seashore north of San Francisco, CA (photo by M. Liscum)

In May of 1996 Mannie joined the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia as an Assistant Professor. In 2000 the Liscum family welcomed the arrival of Taylor's little sister Kasey. Taylor was not the only one to start school (kindergarten in her case) around the turn of the new millennium, Janet also got to begin living out her academic dreams, starting Medical School at MU in 2001 - not an easy task given a hectic family life. Also in 2001, t hanks in large part to all the hard work of members of his laboratory, Mannie was promoted to Associate Professor.

Liscum family enjoying the 2001 Pumpkin Festival in Hartsburg, MO in October (photo by C.A. Esmon)

[More pictures of the Pumpkin Festival and other fall events at the Halloween Page]

If starting Med School were not enough, things got even more hectic for the family with the arrival Emmanuel Liscum IV, on April 16, 2002. As can be seen in the Life in Columbia section below, the Liscum kids are growing up fast!

In the fall of 2003 Taylor moved from Morningside Community School (a small mixed-grade private elementary school) to Lee Expressive Arts Elementary School (Columbia's sole public elementary school catering to "artsy" kids!). Given Tay's love and passion (not to mention talent - not an unbiased statement!) for dance this seemed like the appropriate move. Janet got some GREAT news in of Spring of 2004 - she was accepted into MU's Pediatric Integrative Residency Program. Phewwww...no crazy lottery and likely time apart for the family.

While going to Med-school, taking care of three kids and big Mannie, Janet still found time and energy to remodel little Mannie's room. Check it out - if Medicine gets dull maybe she has a future in interior decorating and remodeling? (Janet's multi-talented nature is one the many reasons Mannie married her!)

2006 has also brought some changes. First, Taylor has moved from Lee Elementary to Gentry Middle School - it's a much bigger school (both physically and in number of kids - ~800 total, grades 6 & 7), Kasey moved into 1st grade at Lee, and Mannie IV is just one year from Kidergarten. Second, Janet started her second year of Pediatrics residency and is now on the job hunt. Third, thanks again to the hard work of his laboratory, Mannie was promoted to Professor 1 Sept 2006.

2008 ushered in some more new things: 1) Taylor (13 yrs old) started junior high at Jefferson Junior High School; 2) Janet finished her residency and is planning to go into private practice with Doug Beale in town (once licensing stuff is final); 3) Kasey (8 yrs old) had a poem published in a book for young poets in a national competition and had one of her water-color paintings sold in a benefit art show in Columbia; 4) Mannie IV has come into his own as a young man (6 yrs old), doing extremely well in school and playing like a boy at home.

Spring/Summer Fun 2008 - (l to r) Bubba and Kas on their new bikes (April); Bubba enjoying the pool; Kasey enjoying sun at the pool; Tay warming up at the pool

Fall 2008 - (l to r, top row) Bubba talking to a honey?; Kas and Bubba at Hartsburgh Pumpkin Festival; Tay at Pumpkin Festival

(bottom row) Tay and Bubba have fun; Kas and Bubba being nice to each other; all three jumping in the pile; Kas and Tay being nice (WOW!); all three being nice (WOW again)

Tay and Kas on 30 Oct 2008, waiting in line on the MU campus to see Barark Obama speak - I'm glad they got to see him BEFORE he was elected President! History and they were part of it!

Tay's love of dance keeps the family moving all the time (no pun intended). She has been dancing at Dancearts of Columbia since 1998 (Kasey started classes in 2004) and since 2003 Tay has danced on the Dancearts Competition Team. It's amazing to see how much she can do at her age, but that's what comes from motivation, practice and awesome training!!! She's so comfortable dancing that she has performed a solo in front of a packed Missouri Theatre two years running (2003 and 2004; in 2005 she conned the entire Competition Team into performing) at the Cultural Heritage Festival of Lee Elementary - amazing!!!

As of the 2008-09 season Kasey has joined the team so no at least when she has to go along on Competition weekends she really does NEED to go along now!!

The team has completed two of its three competitions thus far, NYCDA and DanceOlympus/DanceAmerica. The kids did pretty well in their season opener (NYCDA) but absolutely killer in their second competition (DanceOylmpus/DanceAmerica). Our third and final competition of the year - the BIGGY, Tremaine - is this weekend in KC. The kids are pumped, the teachers are pumped and the parents are pumped!!! I'll be posting some of the details soon...

(l to r) Kasey in her ballet piece (front right); Tay in her 07-08 Jr Tap Competition piece (second from right).

Taylor is also working on her own web site dedicated to Dance - go here to see how it's going. With her hectic school and dane schedule she has had little time to work on the site - maybe this summer?

When Mannie's not functioning as a small-time administrator (aka, lab PI) and teacher, he most enjoys being a husband and father (is the latter surprising given the sections above?). Camping trips with the kids are being expanded in scope all the time. Having done the car-camping thing a few times now in MO and NY, "real" camping trips like Mannie and Janet did in their DINK (Double Income No Kids) days (example here) should be just around the corner.

The Liscum Lab now has two camping adventures under it's belt, one in Spring of 2002 and one in April 2004. While a 2006 adventure never came to fruition, hopefully something will happen in 2008!

Camping trip in 2000 to Finger Lakes State Park north of Columbia (photo taken by T. Liscum at age 5)

Aside from spending time with his family Mannie enjoys solitary time with a good non-science book, especially books on WWII history.

Mannie is reading this as background on the book project he is working on - tale of the Liscum brothers in WWII - his great uncle Frederick served in 2nd Batt/13th Armd Reg (later 13th Tank Batt)/1AD. The Nazi 88 Made Believers is written by one of the Chaplains in the 13th.

More academically, Mannie also writes book reviews for the Journal of Military History and World War II Quarterly

Click HERE to see the 'card catalog' of Mannie's personal library of WWII books

In consultation with Lt. Col. (US Army, ret) Keith Bonn, Chief Executive Officer and Editor-in-Chief at Aberjona Press Mannie developed a working idea for a historical book project. Basically Mannie would like to tackle the on-going historical debate surrounding the so-called "broad front versus narrow thrust" strategies of the Western Allies in Northwest Europe in 1944-45. Ultimately the broad front vision of Eisenhower won out and was the strategy of choice. Although the Allies were victorious the arguments over which was the "right" strategy to employ in order to end the war quickly with the least loss of life continues sixty years after the facts! Many authors/researchers have tackled pieces of this debate but Keith and Mannie felt that it has not been done thoroughly and rigorously enough. Both felt that Mannie's scientific training and historical leanings might make this a perfect project for him. At present Mannie is trying to define the players, places, time-lines and various views so that he can develop a solid thesis which to test. Updates on progress will be given occasionally - It should go without saying that this is a side project which will take some time to come to fruition as Mannie has a job and family that place heavy demands on his time!

Note added 16 Dec 2005: Sadly Keith (Kit, as friends called him) Bonn passed away 8 Dec 2005. He will be sorely missed. Mannie considered Kit a friend and mentor. With Kit's untimely passing the book project is a bit less certain. Finding a mentor to replace the void left by Kit's passing will not be easy.

Update 24 Mar 2006: Much to Mannie's pleasure he has just heard from Kit's widow and current CEO at Aberjona Press, Patti Bonn, that interest in Mannie's book project is still high at Aberjona and that Patti will continue to provide contacts and mentoring as this project grows. Patti's support is greatly appreciated - Aberjona Press has and continues to be a class act dedicated to producing the BEST historical works. As Mannie's (passive) search for a historical mentor continues he hopes that his continued relationship with the Bonn family and contacts via Kit and Patti aid that search.

If you like the WWII genre here are some books Mannie has read that he can recommend - organized by "topic" (determined by the webmeister of course and woefully in need of an update!).

Nazi Elite - Without Them None of the Rest of These Books Would be Necessary!

Click here to read all the reviews Mannie has written for Amazon.com on WWII

Also see Mannie's "Listmania" lists of favorite WWI books at Amazon.com (three categories: ETO, Desert, Nazi Leadership)

Click HERE to see the 'card catalog' of Mannie's personal library of WWII books

[Check out Mannie's Halloween, Space, Music/Movies/Books, and Camping pages for more fun stuff! ]