Irby Lovette, Author at Lovette Lab

Articles posted by Irby Lovette (Page 3)

Nati on sparrow songs at the International Ornithological Congress

Postdoc Natalia Garcia presented the first results of a project studying vocal performance in the Rufous-collared Sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis). This species shows vocal dialects that, contrary to what happens in other Zonotrichia species, seem to be shaped by habitat type: their song trills are slower in closed environments and are…

Shawn on towhee hybrids at the International Ornithological Congress

At the IOC in Vancouver, Shawn presented a portion of his postdoctoral work from the lab, describing how genetic data were generated from museum specimens using the HyRAD protocol. These data were used to characterize a hybrid zone between Eastern and Spotted Towhees, which showed extensive genetic introgression and low…

Signals of Adaptive Introgression Between Saltmarsh and Nelson’s Sparrows

Postdoc Jen Walsh is the lead on a new study published in Evolution that leverages whole genome data from Saltmarsh and Nelson’s sparrows to investigate the genomic landscape of introgression between these species. By comparing populations in allopatry and sympatry, Jen’s paper shows that contemporary introgression is shaping the genomic…

Natalie on starlings at International Ornithological Congress

At the IOC this week PhD candidate Natalie Hoffmeister presented some of her work on the population genomics of European (Common) starlings. Her poster covered 1) genome-wide differentiation within North American starlings, and 2) evidence for local adaptation within starling invasions in Australia and the U.S. This work is part…

Dave on warblers at International Ornithological Congress

At the IOC this week Postdoc Dave Toews presented new golden-winged and blue-winged warbler genomic results. Data come from over 100 re-seqeunced genomes sampled across the range of both groups. He discussed finding some genomic ‘weirdos’ in Appalachia that appear to ‘genomic relicts’, somehow avoiding admixture. He also announced recruitment…

Really Big News about our Littlest Lab Group Member!

Enormous congratulations to postdoc Jen Walsh and her husband Marc on the birth of their first child, Griffin Leo Emond!!!! We are greatly looking forward to having this very cute little guy join our lab group events when the time comes, and wish Jen and Marc all the best as they experience the innumerable joys of parenthood!

Jake wins SSB Publisher’s Award for Best Paper!

Congratulations to PhD candidate Jake Berv for winning the 2017 Publisher’s Award for the best paper authored by a student in the journal Systematic Biology. Jake won this honor for his paper on the Genomic Signature of an Avian Lilliput Effect across the K-Pg Extinction, and the award was presented…

NSF, Lyrebirds, ComicCon, and Fantastic Beasts!

We think it is really, really neat that our colleagues at the National Science Foundation are featuring our newly funded project on cultural and genetic evolution in lyrebirds at their exhibit on real-life “Fantastic Beasts and where to find them” at the San Diego ComicCon! — thereby taking public outreach…

St. Matthew Island expedition: McKay’s Buntings and much more

Irby just returned from a month-long adventure on St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea. This island is the most remote location in the 50 United States as measured from its distance to the nearest permanent human settlement. The trip was a partnership between the Lab’s Conservation Media Program and…

New book chapter: Population Genomics of Birds: Evolutionary History and Conservation

Postdocs Dave Toews and Jen Walsh and Research Associate Leonardo Campagna have contributed a chapter on avian genomics to the new population genomics book series. The chapter reviews conceptual advances of avian genomics, along with key examples from the literature. The authors review the utility of genome-wide data in addressing…

Small class sizes reduce performance gaps in STEM

Grad student Stepfanie Aguillon co-authored a new paper with collaborators from multiple institutions (led by former Cornell EEB postdoc Dr. Cissy Ballen) looking at the influence of class size on performance of women and underrepresented minority (URM) students in STEM classes. They found that small class sizes reduce gaps in…

50 years of bird research at Hubbard Brook

Over the past weekend Irby joined a large group of project alumni to celebrate the bird research program that has run continuously for half a century at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This project was initiated by Professor Dick Holmes, Irby’s undergraduate mentor…

Jake at SMBE in Yokohama

From July 8-13, graduate student Jake Berv attended the annual meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE) in Yokohama, Japan. The 2018 meeting celebrated 50 years of one of the founding ideas of molecular population genetics, The Neural Theory. Jake’s abstract was accepted for oral presentation in…

Stepfanie’s fieldwork in the Great Plains

Stepfanie recently completed three very successful weeks of fieldwork in Nebraska and Colorado with Vanya Rohwer, Tayler Brooks, and Augie Kramer to continue the CUMV’s work on the Great Plains hybrid zones. She has since extracted DNA, prepped, and sequenced 24 of the hybrid flickers for use in her next…

Stepfanie and grad diversity preview weekend featured by Grad School

The Cornell graduate school just posted an nice article about this year’s EEB graduate student diversity preview weekend, which was co-led by Stepfanie Aguillon from our lab group. This event is a stellar example of the graduate students self-organizing to work together in a targeted, highly effective way to increase…

Great talks and posters from our lab at AOS!

Cornell researchers past and present were everywhere in this year’s presentations at the American Ornithological Society meeting in Tuscon, including these strong contributions by current or very recent members of our own core lab group: Graduate student Stepfanie Aguillon led off with her strong talk on how “genomic data provide…

Nick Mason wins Jenkins Award at AOS!

Warmest of congratulations to recently degreed Dr. Nick Mason for being recognized with the 2018 Marion Jenkins Award by the AOS! This award recognizes “an early or mid career ornithologist who has performed continued extensive service to the society, which includes holding elected offices but emphasizes volunteered contributions and committee…

Our paper wins inaugural ‘best paper’ Kessel award

We were surprised and delighted to find that our 2015 phylogeny paper in the Auk has won the first Brina Kessel Award, which will be given every two years to recognize “an outstanding paper published in the four preceding years in The Auk.” A fun element of the backstory is…

Dr. Jen Walsh and others are AOS Elective Members!

Congratulations to Dr. Jen Walsh, a postdoc in our lab group, for being voted in as an Elective Member of the American Ornithological Society. This professional honor is based on having made “significant contributions to ornithology,” which Jen has certainly done through her large body of research and through mentoring…

Scott Taylor wins Johnson Award

Congratulations to Dr. Scott Taylor, until recently a postdoc in our lab and now an assistant professor at U. Colorado, for winning the 2018 Ned K. Johnson Young Investigator Award, which recognizes “outstanding and promising work by a researcher early in his or her career in any field of ornithology.” Scott’s…

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