Tomorrow is a big day for EEBers. Werren Lab PhD student Rhitoban Ray Choudhury kicks things off by defending his thesis on “The evolutionary genetics of the parasitic wasp Nasonia” at 11:15 in Computer Sciences Building 209. Later in the afternoon we have a seminar from Tristan Stayton at 3PM, with a reception to follow at Glor’s house at 6 PM.
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.
Monday: Speciation reading group. 2PM in Hutch 341. Chapter 8 of Coyne and Orr.
Wednesday: Island biogeography discussion group. Noon in Hutch 341. Grant & Grant’s chapter in The Theory of Island Biogeography Revisited. Contact the Glor Lab if you want to get in on lunch.
Wednesday: Plant ecology and evolution journal club. 2PM in Hutch 316. Goodell L. and Faber-Langendoen D. 2007. Development of stand structural stage indices to characterize forest condition in Upstate New York. Forest Ecology and Management 249:158-170. [[doi link]]
Friday: Elements of Evolutionary Genetics reading group. 10AM in Hutch 313. Chapter 2 of Charlesworth & Charlesworth.
We’ve noticed recently that many EEBers have being going on walkabout to fulfill their coffee needs and thought it would be nice to use our caffeine addictions as a regular excuse to socialize. Let’s get together today (Monday, October 25th) at 3:30 in the lounge (341). Garrigan and Glor labs will provide the coffee and cream so just bring a mug.
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]
The Glor Lab is currently demoing a NanoDrop 2000C spectrophotometer. For those of you who aren’t already familiar with this device, it provides a quick, easy platform for quantifying small volumes (1-2 ul) of nucleic acids and proteins. For more details you can check out the NanoDrop’s homepage. If you’d like to give this device a test run, stop by the Glor Lab sometime over the next week. We’re considering purchasing a NanoDrop, but would like to gauge the interest of other labs in our Department before doing so.
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.
Due to the 10AM Charlesworth & Charlesworth reading group tomorrow morning, some parties have requested an early 8PM start tonight. Let’s convene at Dicky’s!
It’s become clear recently that not everyone knows about the University of Rochester’s Software Site License Program (requires UR NetID Login). In a nutshell, this program provides a variety of software packages at a significant discount (sometimes free) to people associated with the U of R. Of particular relavance to EEBers are two free programs: Endote X4 and Mathematica (for students only). – Anthony Geneva
A new reading group has formed to read Charlesworth and Charlesworth’s new book Elements of Evolutionary Genetics starting with Chapter 1 this week. We will be reading each chapter and going over the problem sets found at the end. Later chapters are longer and we may space those out of multiple meetings. Meeting time is 10am on Fridays in the Garrigan Lab (room 313). Also, for those of you who don’t already have the book, Amazon.com offers free memberships to Amazon Prime (read free 2-day shipping) to anyone with a .edu email address. – Anthony Geneva