Happy New Year!

In 2007 we travelled to seven different countries - India, Sweden, New Zealand, France, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom - to give thirteen talks (one per four weeks), published twelve papers (one for each month), received four awards (one for each season), got married (once, Becca), published our thirty fifth cover, had our first pro wildlife photo exhibit, and counted the twenty thousandth visitor to the lab's main website on November 18th... Happy 2008!

December 2007

Jerod Merkle to start graduate school at the University of Montana

Having spent his summer disturbing house finches in our recently established Gardiner study site by chasing wolves in nearby Yellowstone, Jerod will now start his graduate work at the University of Montana. So now we won't have to hire expensive winter techs to take care of our finch study populations near UM campus in Missoula...

November 2007

Голубaя сиалия around the world

Insightful and intelligent radio program by Dr Marina Astvatsaturyan "Rapid evolution of behavior facilitated range expansion" on one of the largest stations in Europe features our recent PNAS paper. Coverage also appears in the Academy of Science Newsletter, Science News, and reprinted in usual sources. Upcoming issue of The National Wildlife Magazine publishes a photo report about the study.

October 2007

"Amazing journey "added

A gallery showing the unique behavior of male spotted sandpiper and his brood of one-day old chicks is added to the Feature category of TenBestPhotos.com.

September 2007

Three Papers, Three Covers

Lab and collaborators' research is on three! covers of major scientific journals this month! Becca's paper is featured on the cover of Evolution, Libby's paper is the cover of Intergrative and Comparative Biology, and Renee's paper is the cover of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of USA.

|Original photo for PNAS cover | Original photo for Evolution cover | Original photo for ICB cover|

July 2007

Mike Sweeney joins the Lab; Alex Badyaev receives "2007 Distinguished Early-Career Teaching Award"; Science News publishes a cover feature on the Lab's work

Mike, a recipient of President's Award for Excellence for four consequtive years, begins his work on ecology and evolution of foraging morphology in shrews, focusing on diet specialization in relation to developmental variation in mandibles. College of Science awards the 2007 Distinguished Early-Career Teaching Award to Alex. And in an expanded report Science News cover article features both Lab's older work on sex-ratio variation as well as newer studies on the mechanisms of sex-determination in birds.

July 2007

"Dragonmasters" added

A gallery documenting never before observed behavior of Sorex shrews in the wild is added to the Feature section of TenBestPhotos.com. The gallery also contains the first-ever photographs of free-living pigmy shrews (S. hoyi) - one of the smallest (2g) mammals in the world.

June 2007

Libby Landeen wins the 2007 "Best Paper Award" of the Cooper Ornithological Society Meeting

Libby received Best Student Paper Award of the Cooper Ornithological Society Annual Meeting in Moscow, Idaho for her presentation on "Developmental evolution of sexual displays: Model and a test of feather growth and pigmentation."

May 2007

Laura Stein receives research grant from Honors College

Laura is awarded $1,400 research grant to conduct her independent study "Male provisioning of incubating females in a passerine bird: An overlooked aspect of fitness?". The award was presented at Undergraduate Research Grants Ceremony.

April 2007

Takashi Kodera accepts graduate school offer from UC-Riverside

Adding to his Master of Science in Computer Science from Osaka University and B.Sc. degree in Ecology from Arizona, Takashi will now begin his doctoral work at the Department of Biology of University of California-Riverside in the fall 2007.

March 2007

Tasha Krecek joins the Lab

Tasha's project in the lab involves study of ontogeny and evolution of biochemical pathways in animal coloration. Tasha is working on her second degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and brings with her an expertise in anthropology and classical civilization (and knowledge of ancient Greek and Latin). How about that for a diversity of perspectives...

March 2007

Kevin Oh is 2007 Galileo Circle Scholar!

Kevin is awarded prestigious 2007 Galileo Circle Scholarship of the College of Science in recognition of "truly extraordinary level of accomplishments in research, teaching, and outreach during his four years at the University of Arizona".

This is the second Galileo Award in the lab.

February 2007

University of Arizona's Museum of Natural History pages are up

Web design by Greg C Greene with photography by Alex Badyaev:

Collections home page | Invertebrate Collection | Fish Collection | Amphibian & Reptilian Collection| Bird Collection | Mammal Collection

February 2007

Renee Duckworth is among eight researchers worldwide chosen to present at the Third Annual University of Michigan Young Scientists Symposium

The prestigious symposium is sponsored by the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at the University of Michigan. Eight outstanding young scientists are selected from a worldwide pool of researchers each year. Renee, now at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology at University of Edinburgh, UK, is invited to present her research on quantitative and population genetics of competitive behaviors.

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)