Congratulations to the 2015 Department of Biology retreat award winners:
“Team Cara” poses with the Golden Pipette
Golden Pipette Award: Sophea Chhim, Adil Khan, Chuck Hutti, Cara Brand (EEB), Jovany Martinez (pictured left to right).
Poster competition: Emerson Khost (EEB) and Matthew Johnson (CDM)
Spirit Award: Cara Brand (EEB), Vince Martinson (EEB), Jingyuan Zhang, Tian Zhang
Emerson Khost, EEB poster contest winner
If anyone is looking for a postdoctoral research position, check out this interesting research at Penn State:
The Baums lab at The Pennsylvania State University is looking for a postdoc to work on coral hybridization genomics, funded by the National Science Foundation. The only widely accepted coral hybrid system consists of the once dominant but now threatened Caribbean species, Acropora cervicornis and A. palmata. In the past, hybrid colonies originating from natural crosses between elkhorn and staghorn corals were rare, and evidence of hybrid reproduction was limited to infrequent matings with the staghorn coral. Recent field observations suggest that the hybrid is increasing and its ecological role is changing throughout the Caribbean. These hybrids appear to be less affected by the disease that led to the mass mortality of their parental species in recent decades. Research will address how the increase in hybridization and perhaps subsequent introgression will affect the current ecological role and the future evolutionary trajectory of Caribbean acroporids.
If interested, apply here!
Congratulations to Yasir Ahmed from the Orr Lab who successfully defended his dissertation about “The genetics of species differences in the Drosophila virilis group”. There will be a party to celebrate Dr. Ahmed in the grad student lounge today at 2pm. Yasir will be heading a short distance to Cornell to begin a post-doc in Andy Clark’s lab.
Congratulations to Anthony Geneva from the Glor and Garrigan Labs who successfully defended his dissertation about “Integrative analyses of speciation in Anolis lizards”. There will be cake and champagne to celebrate Dr. Geneva in the grad student lounge today at 2pm. Anthony will be heading off to Harvard to start a post-doc in Jonathan Losos lab.
There will also be a party tonight at Bob’s house to celebrate both Anthony’s successful defense and Yasir’s (impending) successful defense!
This year’s UR Biology retreat concluded with a musical creation by the 2nd-year graduate students. Click the link to watch them “break free” in this music video.
One of our EEB graduate students was featured 
on the UR Graduate Studies website. Click here to read about Cara Brand, a student in the Presgraves Lab.
The Department of Biology retreat held this week at Long Acre Farm was a huge success! Thanks to all those involved in organizing the event. We kicked off the day by hearing excellent talks from our alumni guest speakers, Dr. Harmit Malik (Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center) and Dr. Yali Dou (University of Michigan). After talks, we carved pumpkins, competed in games, tasted wines, had a great poster session and dinner. We closed the evening with a hilarious music video created by our 2nd year graduate students and prize announcements. 
Congratulations to the winners:
Teaching award winners- Matthew Johnson and Jeffrey Vedanayagam
Poster award winners- Sophea Chhim and Aisha Siebert
Stop by the Department of Biology open house in HH316 on Friday, Oct 17. The event runs between 2 and 4 pm and is open to all alumni, parents, students, staff and visitors. 
Congratulations to Dan Scantlebury from the Glor Lab who successfully defended his dissertation on “Patterns of adaptive radiation in insular reptiles and amphibians.” There will be a party tonight at Bob’s house to celebrate!
Congratulations to Jing Zhu from the Fry Lab who successfully defended her dissertation on “Costs and benefits of sexual selection in Drosophila.” There will be a party for Jing on tomorrow to celebrate!