Author Archives: Rich Glor

EEB Readings, Oct. 25-29

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Monday: Speciation reading group. 2PM in Hutch 341. Chapter 8 of Coyne and Orr.

Wednesday: Island biogeography discussion group. Noon in Hutch 341. Grant & Grant’s chapter in The Theory of Island Biogeography Revisited. Contact the Glor Lab if you want to get in on lunch.

Wednesday: Plant ecology and evolution journal club. 2PM in Hutch 316.  Goodell L. and Faber-Langendoen D. 2007. Development of stand structural stage indices to characterize forest condition in Upstate New York. Forest Ecology and Management 249:158-170. [[doi link]]

Friday: Elements of Evolutionary Genetics reading group. 10AM in Hutch 313. Chapter 2 of Charlesworth & Charlesworth.

EEB Seminar, Oct. 29: C. Tristan Stayton on Turtle Biomechanics

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This coming Friday, I’m excited to welcome Tristan Stayton to town for a seminar titled “Biomechanics on the half shell: the morphological and mechanical evolution of turtle shells.”  Tristan has been doing cutting edge work on morphometrics, biomechanics, and evolutionary convergence since his days as a graduate student at the University of Chicago.  Now on the faculty at Bucknell University, Tristan continues to produce thoughtful work on these topics.  Some links to recent papers are below.

Stayton, C. T. (2009) Applications of thin-plate spline transformations to finite element models, or, how to turn a bog turtle into a spotted turtle to analyze both. Evolution 63:1348-1355 [doi link]

Stayton, C. T. (2008) Is convergence surprising? An examination of the frequency of convergence in simulated datasets. Journal 0f Theoretical Biology 252:1-14 [doi link]

Stayton, C. T. (2007) Testing hypotheses of convergence with multivariate data: morphological and functional convergence among herbivorous lizards. Evolution 60:824-841 [doi link]

Come Try the NanoDrop!

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The Glor Lab is currently demoing a NanoDrop 2000C spectrophotometer.  For those of you who aren’t already familiar with this device, it provides a quick, easy platform for quantifying small volumes (1-2 ul) of nucleic acids and proteins.  For more details you can check out the NanoDrop’s homepage.  If you’d like to give this device a test run, stop by the Glor Lab sometime over the next week.  We’re considering purchasing a NanoDrop, but would like to gauge the interest of other labs in our Department before doing so.

EEB Seminar, Oct. 22: Steven Gill on the Oral Microbiome

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This week we’re pleased to welcome a colleague from across Elmwood Ave. – Dr. Steven Gill from the URMC‘s Department of Microbiology and Immunology.  Rather than being concerned with the biological diversity we see around us, Dr. Gill is interested primarily in the biological diversity that exists within us.  The best place to learn more about Dr. Gill’s research is through his web page at the University of Buffalo.

Software Site Licenses

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It’s become clear recently that not everyone knows about the University of Rochester’s Software Site License Program (requires UR NetID Login). In a nutshell, this program provides a variety of software packages at a significant discount (sometimes free) to people associated with the U of R. Of particular relavance to EEBers are two free programs: Endote X4 and Mathematica (for students only). – Anthony Geneva

Elements of Evolutionary Genetics to be Subject of New Reading Group

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A new reading group has formed to read Charlesworth and Charlesworth’s new book Elements of Evolutionary Genetics starting with Chapter 1 this week. We will be reading each chapter and going over the problem sets found at the end. Later chapters are longer and we may space those out of multiple meetings. Meeting time is 10am on Fridays in the Garrigan Lab (room 313). Also, for those of you who don’t already have the book, Amazon.com offers free memberships to Amazon Prime (read free 2-day shipping) to anyone with a .edu email address. – Anthony Geneva

EEB Readings, Oct. 18-22

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Monday: Speciation reading group. 2PM in Hutch 341. Chapter 7 of Coyne and Orr.

Wednesday: Island biogeography discussion group. Noon in Hutch 341. Clegg’s chapter on evolutionary changes following island colonization in The Theory of Island Biogeography Revisited. Contact the Glor Lab if you want to get in on lunch.

Wednesday: Plant ecology and evolution journal club. 2PM in Hutch 316.  Hale C.M., Frelich L.E., and Reich P.B. 2006. Changes in hardwood forest understory plant communities in response to European earthworm invasions. Ecology 87:1637-1649. [[doi link]]

UPDATE:
Friday: Elements of Evolutionary Genetics reading group. 10AM in Hutch 313. Chapter 1 of Charlesworth & Charlesworth.

Perfect Time to Visit “Most Beautiful Wine Region in the World”

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The October issue of Budget Travel declares the the Finger Lakes region one of the world’s most beautiful (and least pretentious) places to go wine tasting.  The winery mentioned most prominently in their article – Dr. Konstantin Frank Vinifera Wine Cellars (a.k.a. Dr. Frank’s) – is only about an hour and half from Rochester.  Fall colors are in full swing, so now’s the time to go!

EEB Seminar, Oct. 15: Thomas Kocher on Genetic Architecture of Cichlids

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Tomorrow’s EEB seminar will be presented by one of this year’s student-invited speakers: Dr. Thomas Kocher.  Dr. Kocher’s lab is part of a group at the University of Maryland interested in cichlids as a model species for a number of evolutionary questions.  His current projects include developing Lake Malawi cichlids as a genetic and genomic model species, pigementation, olfaction, coalescense, and sex determination.  In the past his lab has also worked on projects ranging from breeding behavior to morphological differences (remember Craig Albertson’s talk a few years ago?) to phylogenetics.  Please take a minute to check out his lab webpage for more details on his work and links to recent papers.  A reception at Rich Glor’s house will follow Dr. Kocher’s seminar on Friday afternoon. – Dan McNabney