Congrats to two lab group alumni: two students whom we knew through all four years of their Cornell experience are heading off to work on birds via their new PhD programs in the Fall. Kathryn Grabenstein will be at the University of Colorado in the lab of our own Dr.…
New paper on goose phylogeography and conservation: In this paper, visiting researcher Cecilia Kopuchian (Centro de Ecología Aplicada del Litoral, Argentina) and Leo Campagna from our lab use genomic data to explore the history of colonization of the Malvinas/Falkland Islands by the Upland Goose (Chloephaga picta) and the Ruddy-headed Goose…
We are pleased to welcome back Milene Gaiotti, a visiting researcher from the University of Brasilia, to continue her genetic work here on the extremely endangered Araripe manakin.
Grants to Grads: congratulations to graduate student Natalie Hoffmeister for a substantial travel award from the Einaudi Center for International Studies for her forthcoming pilot study of local adaptation in Argentinian seabirds, and similar congratulations to graduate student Stepfanie Aguillon for a substantial Peacock Award from the Garden Society of…
New paper on sparrow hybridization by postdoc Jen Walsh: Jen just published a neat paper from her PhD work at UNH; study looks at the genetic interplay between hybridizing Saltmarsh and Nelson’s Sparrows and finds evidence for neutral diffusion of some regions; strong selection and local adaptation in other genomic…
Cornell article on our Patagonia field course: http://spring2016.periodicals.cals.cornell.edu/students/new-ecology-course-takes-students-patagonia
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…
Congratulations to Dustin Rubenstein, who was just awarded tenure at Columbia University! Dustin is one our our group’s longest-term colleagues and alumni, dating to his PhD years here at Cornell when we worked together on starling evolution, the Kenya field course, and much more. Here is a throw-back photo of…
Art, Science, and Writing in and about the Galapagos: we just returned from the field component of our three-class curriculum for freshmen that uses the Galapagos Islands as a linked framework for training in writing, evolutionary biology, and artistic expression. My thanks to the course leaders — Liz, Nick, Scott,…
New Ornithology textbook coming this summer… just got the final cover proofs for our massively revised Handbook of Bird Biology, along with an official publication date of August 1, 2016. Very happy to finally be able to say with confidence: look for it soon in bookstores near you…! …
NSF smiles upon us. In this era of 4% funding rates, we are particularly appreciative of having been awarded a significant grant from the National Science Foundation for a new study entitled “Quantifying genomic porosity in non-model radiations.” In addition to Irby and Leo Campagna (Leo was a prime mover…
Welcome to Dr. Jennifer Walsh, a new postdoc based in our program at the Lab of Ornithology. Jen’s work on the genomics of hybridization, adaptation, and divergence in Nelson’s and Saltmarsh Sparrows is supported by a two-year NSF Fellowship she received to explore the evolutionary biology and conservation genomics of…
John Sullivan discovers and describes a new genus. John is a research associate in the Cornell Museum of Vertebrates who has spent a lot of time in our lab over the years sequencing fish samples, and even more time in the field in many parts of Africa surveying freshwater fish…
Dispatch in Current Biology by Leo Campagna: A review of the work by Tuttle et al. (2016) Current Biology on the origin and possible fate of a fascinating supergene that determines the coloration and mating behavior of a widespread North American bird. Accompanying artwork is by Liz Fuller, a Bartels…
Nick Mason lands NSF DDIG grant! Congratulations to Nick for being awarded $20K of research funding from the National Science Foundation in support of his dissertation project. Nick’s new grant is titled Integrative species delimitation, cryptic coloration, and climatic niche breadth in a widespread, recent radiation of songbirds.
Current postdoc David Toews just got the fantastic news that he has been awarded a two-year Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship! This very prestigious award from the Canadian government goes only to the very top Canadian scholars across all disciplines in science and medicine. We are very excited that David plans to…
Congratulations to Scott Taylor for garnering the Don Abbott Postdoctoral Research Award for an outstanding contributed presentation (talk or poster) by a current postdoc at the American Society of Naturalists meeting in mid-January. As seen in this photo, a widespread power failure required Scott to gave his talk on the…
Congratulations to course organizers/leaders Ben Freeman and Alexa Class Freeman, and to the student co-authors, for the first of several scientific papers arising out of their Spring 2015 Advanced Tropical Ornithology course. Back at the curriculum review stage there was some healthy push-back when peer-reviewed student publications were suggested as…
Postdocs Scott Taylor and Leo Campagna have a substantial commentary appearing in this week’s issue of Science (!) on avian supergenes, as exemplified by recent studies of ruffs and white-throated sparrows. Read it here: TaylorCampagnaScienceAvianSupergenes
Video highlights from our January 2016 field course in Patagonia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9jGu7ErMsE