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 a ‘flicker of hope’ for differentiating taxa in the Northern Flicker complex.”
Postdoc Dr. Jen Walsh gave a great presentation on the “genomics of admixture and asymmetrical introgression between two ecologically divergent sparrow species.” Jen was also a core contributor on a number of other sparrow genomics/genetics talks given by her collaborators from UNH and elsewhere.
Postdoc Dr. Shawn Billerman gave an insightful update on the challenges of measuring “introgression across the Great Plains towhee hybrid zone characterized by historical DNA.”
Research Associate Dr. Leo Campagna added an intriguing new fitness component in presenting his work on how “selection on pigmentation genes leads to rapid phenotypic evolution in a finch radiation.”
Not from our lab (yet), but incoming PhD student Amelia Demery gave a great talk on “convergent morphological evolution within the largest radiation of Neotropical songbirds” based on her MS work with Kevin Burns at SD State.
Postdoc Dr. Daniel Hooper took us to northern Australia in his sophisticated presentation on “chromosomal inversions and reproductive isolation in an avian hybrid zone.”
Recently graduated Dr. Nick Mason talked about his ongoing and multifaceted studies of “rapid phenotypic and trophic change in Horned Larks after conversion of the Colorado desert to agriculture.”
Lab Manager Dr. Bronwyn Butcher had a large and intrigued audience for her poster on “Paternity testing made* easier” via ddRAD approaches over traditional microsatellite markers. *far
There were dozens of additional talks and posters by alumni of our lab group and by our current broader lab group members whose home bases are in other Lab programs, far more than I can summarize here. Kudos to everyone for contributing to a really great conference!!!