January 2007

December 2006

Jerod Merkle receives the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences' Outstanding Senior Award!

Jerod is among seven 2006 graduates to be chosen by the College for this prestigious award. His nomination letters emphasize his "exceptional drive to succeed in his passion to do scientific research in biology". Can't quite get away from the finches yet: Jerod's new project -- on the ecology of Yellowstone wolves -- is based right next to one of the Lab's recently established house finch study populations in Gardiner, MT.

Jerod is the second graduate of the lab to receive the Outstanding Senior distinction.

November 2006

National weekly features Joanna Rutkowska's research; Nature publishes her Letter

Polish weekly WPROST's feature article covers sex adjustment in birds and mammals focusing on Joasia's past and present work. Nature (Dec 7) publishes her letter on evolutionary biology and creationism in science and education.

September 2006

The Lab's current research is on the NSF's Frontpage, Nature's Research Highlight, and TV/Radio networks

Lab's recent paper "Sex-biased maternal effects..." in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is selected for NSF News (NSF.gov), Nature's Reasearch Highlights, and also featured in Science, UA News, Arizona Daily Star, MSNBC, Tiede (Finland), Radio "Echo of Moscow" (Russia), Discovery Channel-Daily Planet, Poisk Science Newspaper, NetWorld Directory, Discovery Channel-Canada, LiveScience, GSMNews (Russia), El Colombiano (Columbia), Membrana, MixFM Radio (Latvia), PhysOrg News, Netzeitung Wissenschaft (Germany), NTNews.ru, Wiedza i Zycie (Poland), ABS News, Scientific Frontline, Mybirds.ru, SoftPedia, Rumbler-TV.ru, StudentsNation (Israel), BioResearch Information Centre (Korea), NewsRin.ru, SurfBirds. com, Le Nouvel Observateur, SpektrumDirect (Germany), ScienceDaily, Innovations Report (Germany), FoxNews, and ABS News.

July 2006

Kevin Oh receives NAOC Travel Award, Alex Badyaev is elected a Director of Cooper Ornithological Society

Kevin's research proposal "The evolution of age-dependent reproductive strategies and implications for sexual selection" was selected for a Travel Award to present at the 4th North American Orhithological Congress in Veracruz, Mexico. Alex's three-year tenure as a Director of Cooper Ornithological Society will start at the end of the Veracruz congress.

June 2006

Joanna Rutkowska wins two national awards and joins the lab

Joanna was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Foundation for Polish Science and Fellowship from the Kosciuszko Foundation for her postdoctoral grant application addressing the ecology and evolution of meoitic drive in house finches.

May 2006

Kevin Oh wins Silliman Award in Ornithology, Rebecca Young receives American Society of Mammalogists grant

Kevin Oh's proposal "Age-dependent genetic variance in mate choice" is awarded $1,000 Siliman Award in Ornithological Research. Meanwhile, the American Society of Mammalogists has announced its selection of Becca Young as a 2006 recipient of $1,417 Research Grant for her proposal "Influence of masticatory functional requirements on morphological integration in the shrew mandible".

April 2006

News about news. Science (x2), news media cover Kevin Oh, Renee Duckworth's recent work

Renee's paper "Aggressive behavior affects selection..." in Proceedings B is featured in Science, Duke News, Science Daily, and also UPI, M&C Science & Nature, PhysOrg.com, BioBlog, DailyIndia, Berkeley Planet, Kompass News...

Kevin's paper "Adaptive genetic complementarity..." in Proceedings B is featured in Science, UA News, Scientific American, CBC Radio interview, Quirks & Quarks site, Arizona Daily Star, Image of the Day-LiveScience, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, ABS News, Terra Daily, Noorderlicht Online, VPRO, Biology-Blog, Die Zeit, Die News in Kürze-3Sat, and also InnovReport, NewsWise, Enel Magazine-Italy, Noticias21

Most importantly, a single issue of Science features two! news items from The Lab with four!! photos by yours truly. Got to be a record. Not bad...

April 2006

Rebecca Young receives NSF DDIG grant!
(and publishes a paper in Evolution)

Becca's proposal "Developmental origins and evolutionary consequences of modularity" (Population & Evolutionary Processes Panel, National Science Foundation) was awarded full two-year funding of $12,000!! Earlier in the week, Becca's paper on "Evolutionary persistence of phenotypic integration" was accepted in Evolution and is now coming out in June issue.

April 2006

Erin Lindstedt, Libby Landeen accept graduate school offers

After almost three years in the lab, and a number of independent projects, Erin will now start her graduate work at the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology at The Ohio State University. Libby will begin graduate studies at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of the University of Arizona continuing her research on the evolution of allometry in sexual displays.

March 2006

Renee Duckworth is awarded Ph.D. and a two year postdoctoral position at Edinburgh and Harvard...

...all on the same day. 30 March, 10AM Renee defends her dissertation with flying colors and officially receives Ph.D. from Duke University for her studies of the evolution of behavior. As champaign rans out, around 12PM, NSF program chair calls to award full funding for two year research project at Institute of Evolutionary Biology at University of Edinburgh in Scotland and Department of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Just another Thursday around here...

March 2006

Rebecca Young is 2006 Galileo Circle Scholar!

Becca receives the 2006 Galileo Circle Scholarship of the College of Science in recognition of "her accomplishments and productivity in research and teaching at the University of Arizona".

March 2006

Joanna Hubbard starts graduate school at the College of William & Mary

After working for Smithsonian, USGS, and Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission, Joanna is awarded graduate assistantship and will now start her research in August 2006.

February 2006

Kevin Oh, Renee Duckworth, Becca Young, Alex Badyaev publish four papers in latest Proceedings B

Renee's paper "Aggressive behavior affects selection on morphology by determining the environment of breeding..." shows that lack of behavioral plasticity can strongly affect evolution of morphology. Kevin's work "Adaptive genetic complementarity in mate choice coexists with preference for elaborate sexual traits..." reveals that sex-biased immigration produces fluctuations of mating patterns in an absence of actual choice of genetic complementarity. Becca's paper "Adaptive sex differences in growth of pre-ovulation oocytes..." capitalizes on her method of marking lipid layers in growing finch oocytes and discovers crucial mechanism in avian sex-detemination. Alex reviews "Stress-induced variation in evolution: from behavioral plasticity to genetic assimilation...".

January 2006

Louise Misztal, Maja Udovcic, Clayton Addison join the lab

Louise is involved in design and implementation of all aspects of fieldwork at the main study population in Arizona, enhancing the efficiency of data collection and increasing productivity of research projects in the lab. Maja's project integrates biochemical and anatomical aspects of ornament ontogeny in birds. Clayton researches ecomorphological correlates of acoustic displays in two study populations and also helps with projects on anatomy and morphometrics of shrew foraging.

January 2006

Libby Landeen presentation at the 17th UBRP Conference is on the frontpage of Arizona Daily Wildcat

Libby presented her work on "Evolution of avian sexual ornamentation: Developmental co-regulation of feather growth and coloration" focusing on organism-wide consequences of trade-offs in pigmentation allocation among feather types in birds.

(roll over for other conference photos)