Departmental Picnic

Please join us TODAY at the Department picnic on the Carlson Library veranda. Chef Hiram will be flipping hamburgers, veggie burgers, and hot dogs. There will also be a variety of salads, chips, desserts and drinks.

The Department will provide the food and drink…you bring the sunshine!! See you all there!

Congrats to Dr. Yasir Ahmed

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.

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Tour de Franzia in honor of Dr. Anthony Geneva

We have a little tradition in the Biology Department where we hold a Tour de Franzia for graduate students who successfully defend their thesis. This past weekend we celebrated Dr. Geneva using brand new, big-wheel tricycles. The results were pretty stellar! Looking forward to many more defense parties in the future (including one tomorrow night at Nox in the Village Gate… come celebrate Yasir!!)
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Congrats to Dr. Anthony Geneva

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!

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Frogs and Salamanders at Mendon Ponds!

This spring the EEB department had lots of fun searching for frogs and salamanders at Mendon Ponds! Our fearless leader, Anthony, took us on multiple trips and we saw all sorts of creatures. Below are just two of the animals we saw on our trips. Seeing the salamander was particularly amazing because this species only come out once a year to mate in the ephemeral ponds, otherwise they live deep underground. We look forward to going out next year!
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Bird Watching at Mendon Ponds

Last weekend a few graduate students went over to Mendon ponds to catch a glimpse of local birds. They encountered a large mixed flock of nuthatches, titmice, chickadees and sapsuckers as well as a downy woodpecker. Many birds even came to a hand to feed. We plan to go back next week to repeat the walk and bird feeding. We are also keeping an eye on the ephemeral ponds with the hopes of seeing the salamanders emerge to breed when conditions are right.
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