The Western New York chapter of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society is hosting a lecture on Nov. 8th that might be of interest to EEBers interested in ecological data emerging from modern remote sensing technology.  The lecture by Jan van Aardt of RIT addresses the use of waveform lidar for understanding complex signals for ecolgoical applications such as “structural unmixing, species classification, and biomass estimation.”  An abstract of the talk is available in PDF format.

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]

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.

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

Vicky will be presenting the her latest work on the genetics of hybrid inviability in D. maurtiana today at 3PM in the Howard Bryant Room.

Jack Werren introduces Mollie Manier's talk on sperm precedence.

Mollie Manier from Scott Pitnick’s Lab at Syracuse University just gave an excellent talk on sperm precedence to a packed house.  If you missed the talk, be sure to check out the videos of sperm behavior within the female reproductive tract that are posted on the Pitnick Lab’s web page.

©2009 Sean McCann All Rights Reserved Contact: www.cirrusimage.com/copyright.htm

Our first seminar of the fall semester happens this Friday at 3PM, when we’ll hear from new Jaenike Lab post-doc Quinn McFrederick on Evolution of nematode associates of solitary and social halictid bees. See you there!

We’re going to have some excellent seminars this fall, including a nice mix of distinguished visitors (Mollie Manier, Syracuse University; Angela Douglas, Cornell University; Thomas Kocher, University of Maryland; Tristan Stayton, Bucknell University) and updates from students (Cattani, McNabney, Laport), postdocs (McFrederick), and faculty (Orr, Glor, Seluanov, Garrigan) in our group. PDF version of schedule

Daniel Matute from the University of Chicago will be here on Friday, July 23 to present a seminar in Hutch 316 titled “A test of the snowball theory for the rate of evolution of hybrid incompatabilities.” For more on Daniel’s work, here are links to some of his recent papers:

Matute, D. R., J. Coyne. 2009. INTRINSIC REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATION BETWEEN TWO SISTER SPECIES OF DROSOPHILA. Evolution [doi link]

Matute, D. R. 2010. Reinforcement of Gametic Isolation in Drosophila. PLoS Biology [doi link]