Postdoc Shawn Billerman recently started an impactful new job here at the Lab of Ornithology related to the recently announced merger between the Handbook of Birds of the World and Cornell. Shawn will be a science editor for the new Birds of the World project, which will involve, among other things managing species accounts and keeping track of taxonomy changes. Shawn may have now set a record for different ways to work at the Lab, as he was very active in the Lab community as an undergraduate, stayed on for 1.5 years as a temporary employee while he researched and wrote the great majority of the Bird Families of the World book, came back after his PhD to work here as a postdoc, and is now in an academic employee position with the exciting Birds of the World initiative. Shawn, we are happy for you and also happy that you aren’t moving far from our group!
Here is a rare photo (from 2008) of Shawn in the field admiring a non-avian vertebrate…