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…
Lots of familiar faces in this photo of 15 (of 24 total at the moment!) Lab of Ornithology postdocs who recently gathered to help welcome newcomer Ryan Germain:
Postdoc Shawn Billerman led off by talking about his studies of avian suture zones (locations where multiply hybrid zones overlap in space) on the first morning of the American Ornithological Society Conference. Shawn used models of past and present climate to show that different bird species respond in different ways…
The current members of our lab group who are at the Evolution meeting in Portland this week: Leo Campagna, Nick Mason, Gavin Leighton, David Toews, Petra Deane-Coe, Shawn Billerman, Jen Walsh, Stepfanie Aguillon, and Eliot Miller. Add in a few talks by researchers from other countries who visited our lab…
Postdoc Shawn Billerman is presenting his work at the Evolution conference in Portland. This component of Shawn’s study compares the climate niches of several Great Plains hybrid zones and tracks how they have changed over the past 60 years.
Postdoc Shawn Billerman has a new paper out in The Auk based on his PhD work with his advisor Matt Carling (himself a former postdoc here) at the University of Wyoming. The punch-line of this study has to do with their finding that Red-naped Sapsuckers are more aggressive towards simulated…
Our lab group enjoyed an all-day retreat today, with a break to attend the Lab of Ornithology holiday party. We covered lots of ground in discussing research, outreach, and professional development topics. But perhaps the most important outcome of the sillier part of the late afternoon was the anointing of…
We are all very excited that Shawn Billerman has just arrived back at the Lab in his new role as an NSF postdoctoral fellow! Shawn will be working on the genomics of birds that hybridize in the Great Plains region, taking advantage of the extensive collections from that region that…
Shawn Billerman is the recipient of an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship and we are all accordingly very excited about his forthcoming return to Cornell! In the Fall Shawn will begin working here on the genomics of hybrids zones in the Great Plains, based in part on the CUMV’s large collection of…