Yasir Ahmed is hosting Dr. Scott Taylor’s visit this Friday.  A Cornell Center for Comparative and Population Genomics Fellow, Dr. Taylor has been an avid birder since childhood.  He received his B.S. in wildlife biology from the University of Guelph and his Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. At Queen’s he studied the evolutionary genetics of blue-footed and Peruvian boobies and spent a few months in Peru and Chile living on the Guano Islands.

During his summers as an undergrad, Scott worked as a naturalist at Rondeau, a provincial park in Ontario, and he returned there as the natural heritage education specialist before starting his postdoc at Cornell’s Laboratory of Ornithology. Rondeau is a major migration stopover on the north side of Lake Erie, and Scott continues to lead beginner and advanced bird hikes there.

Dr. Minckley is hosting Dr. Shannon Hedtke, Research Associate in the Department of Entomology at Cornell University.  She is presenting a talk titled, “The pleasures and pitfalls of bee phylogenetics.”  Per her web site, she says about herself and her research:  “I study the evolution of complex traits in invertebrates. My developing research program focuses on the ecology and evolution of immune system defense in wild bees and their pathogens. I am using molecular laboratory techniques and bioinformatic research to identify and characterize pathogens, examine their evolution across landscapes, and to evaluate genome evolution in their bee hosts.”

She goes on further to say, “Bees are extremely important pollinators in natural and agricultural settings. Most people know about the importance of the European honey bee in pollination, but there are thousands of bee species that vary considerably in their life history. For example, some bees are solitary rather than living in colonies, some specialize on particular flowers, some nest in the ground while others in wood. Evolutionary changes in these life history traits can affect speciation rates, genome evolution, and evolution of other traits. Because similar traits have independently evolved multiple times within bees, I can use phylogenies to examine patterns of selection, speciation, and genome evolution. In particular, I am interested in immune responses in wild bees to novel and evolving pathogens, and how these responses are affected by agrichemicals. This work is relevant to evaluating the robustness of wild bee communities to our changing environment.”

Dr. Jack Werren is host to Dr. James Costa, Professor in the Department of Biology at   Western Carolina University and Director of the Highlands Biological Station.  He is presenting a talk entitled, “On the Organic Law of Change ~ Insights from Alfred Russel Wallace’s “Species Notebook” of 1855-1859,” on Friday, September 20.

Dr. Costa’s interests lay in the ecology and evolution of social insects, in particular the social Lepidoptera and Symphyta.  He is also a scholar of the history of Evolutionary Biology, and has published several articles and books on Darwin, including “The Annotated Origin: A Fascimile of the First Edition of On the Origin of Species”.  Jim has a book on Alfred Wallace coming out this autumn, and will be telling us about his interesting discoveries from Wallace’s “Species Notebook.”

For more information on Dr. Costa and his research, please click on these links:  Dr. James Costa, or the Highlands Botanical Station.

Please join us Monday in Hutchison 473 for Dr. John Doebley’s talk called “The genetic architecture of maize domestication: low hanging fruit and dark matter”

Donuts, coffee and tea will be provided.

Dr. Fry is hosting Dr. Amanda Moehring, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology at the University of Western Ontario.  She is presenting a talk titled, ” Sex, flies and video tape:  The genetics of female mate choice and species isolation in Drosophila,” on Friday, September 13.  Dr. Moehring studies the genetics of complex traits. Primarily, her research focuses on the genetic basis of variation in behavior and the genetics of species isolation. She uses the model system of Drosophila due to the extensive genetic and molecular tools this species offers, as well as the availability of species that can be hybridized in the laboratory.  A mixture of quantitative genetics, molecular genetics, behavioral assays and genomics is used in order to understand these complex traits. For more information on Dr. Moehring’s research, please visit her website!