Dr. Margarita Lopez-Uribe will be giving a talk titled, “Genetic signatures of range expansion of the host-plant specialist squash bee, Peponapis pruinosa,” on Friday, January 31.  She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Biology at Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) in 2004 and her Masters degree in Genetics and Evolution at Universidade Federal de São Carlos (Brazil) in 2006 under the supervision of Dr. Marco Antonio Del Lama. Currently, she is a PhD student of the Entomology Department at Cornell University researching genetics and population structure of solitary bees.  Her particular interest is in understanding the historical and current role of geography and landscape in shaping gene flow patterns and population structure of bees.  For more information on this research, please visit her website.

Our own Dan Garrigan will be giving Monday seminar on February 2nd at noon in Hutch 473. Dan will be speaking about comparative population genomics in Drosophila.

Adam Johnson, a member of the Lambert lab, will be giving a talk titled, “Posterior patterning in Spiralia: caudal’s role in Ilyanassa” on Friday, January 24. Adam received his Biology BA at the University of Kansas, and worked with Jennifer Gleason and Paulyn Cartwright on mating behavior and Cnidarian sensory evolution, respectively.  Adam is a 3rd year PhD student.

Jeffrey Vedanayagam, a fifth-year graduate student in the Garrigan lab, will be giving a talk entitled, “Genomic conflict and the evolution of small RNA-guided genome defense in Drosophila” on Friday, January 17th.  For more information on Jeffrey’s research, please visit Garrigan website.

Yasir Ahmed is host to Dr. Kevin Oh, Postdoc Associate in the 
Shaw Lab at Cornell University.  He is presenting a talk titled, “Rapid evolutionary divergence via sexual selection: from process to pattern in a Hawaiian species radiation.”   In his own words, this is what Dr. Oh says of his research:

“The overarching theme of my research is understanding the role of dynamic natural and sexual selection in the evolution and maintenance of phenotypic diversity. In particular, I investigate (1) the contributions of social, genetic, and demographic contingencies to variable and context-dependent patterns of selection on secondary sexual morphologies and behaviors within populations, and (2) the consequences of such variation to intraspecific divergence between populations. To this end, my work integrates long-term field studies, molecular techniques, quantitative genetics analysis, and behavioral experiments in both wild and laboratory-reared vertebrate and invertebrate populations.”

Dr. Jim Fry will be hosting Dr. Walter Eanes’ visit on Friday, November 22.  Dr. Eanes is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University.  He is presenting a talk titled, “Selection on central metabolism in Drosophila melanogaster.”

Dr. Eanes received his Bachelors degree from Cornell University, a Masters degree in Marine Science from the College of William and Mary and his Ph.D. from the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook. He is a member of the graduate program in Ecology and Evolution and the graduate program in Genetics at Stony Brook and is a former member of the GENETICS and EVOLUTION Editorial Boards. For more information on Dr. Walter Eanes’ research, please visit his website.

Dr. John Jaenike will be hosting Dr. David Duneau’s visit on Friday, November 15.  Dr. Duneau is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Entomology at Cornell University.  He is presenting a talk titled, “Host sexual dimorphism and its consequences on parasite evolution.”

Dr. Duneau did his undergraduate studies in France at the University of Montpellier where he received his master degree in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology in 2006. He then did his PhD at the University of Basel (Switzerland) under the supervision of Dieter Ebert.

Next week we will be reading papers about maternal effect of plasticity. The two papers are listed below:

Dr. Vince Martinson, a post-doc in the Jaenike Lab, is presenting an EEB seminar entitled “The gut microbiota of bees and wild drosophilids.” Vince completed his Ph.D. at the University of Arizona under Nancy Moran, where his research centered on the gut bacteria of honey bees.