News
Celebrating 150 years of evolution
In honor of the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, OEB is planning a day long celebration on Friday, December 11. The capstone event is a presentation by noted science writer Carl Zimmer.
Zimmer's talk, Darwin Gets Swine Flu: Celebrating the Origin of Species in an Age of Pandemics, will take place at 5:00 p.m. on December 11 in the Integrated Sciences Building Auditorium.
Zimmer is well known for his popular science writing, particularly his work on evolution. He has published seven books, including Evolution: Triumph of an Idea and At the Water's Edge. His latest book, The Tangled Bank: An Introduction to Evolution, has been praised by E.O. Wilson as the best written and best illustrated introduction to evolution in the last decade. In addition to frequent contributions to the New York Times, National Geographic, Discover, Science and Popular Science, Zimmer also maintains an award-winning blog, The Loom.
Santana and Dumont's work featured on Evolutionary Biology's cover
The work of OEB PhD candidate Sharlene Santana and her advisor, Betsy Dumont, is featured on the latest cover of the Journal of Evolutionary Biology. Their paper, Connecting behaviour and performance: the evolution of biting behaviour and bite performance in bats is in the November 2009 issue.Admissions and Finding a Faculty Sponsor
The deadline for applying to OEB for Fall 2010 is December 1. Acceptance into OEB is dependent upon meeting academic standards, finding faculty sponsorship and securing funding. Check our Admissions page for details on the application process. OEB faculty who have expressed an interest in taking a new student for the next academic year are listed here. Other faculty may be interested if just the right student comes along.Ted Stankowich's work featured in Nature
The reason some female hoofed animals have horns while others do not has long puzzled evolutionary biologists, even the great Charles Darwin. But now a survey of 117 bovid species led by Ted Stankowich, former Darwin Fellow and lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, suggests an answer: Females that can’t readily hide in protective cover and those who must defend a feeding territory are more likely to have horns than those who live in protective habitat or don’t defend a territory. The work, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, was highlighted in the 24 September 2009 issue of Nature.OEB Ecology Core Course
The first meeting of OEB Ecology Core Course (Org&EvBi 790E) is Tuesday, September 8 at 1:00 p.m. in the OEB Seminar Room (319 Morrill). Details are posted on the course website. PDFs of the readings for the first class can be found their under Readings in the Navigation Tree in the right column.David McMillan's Dissertation Defense
9:00 a.m., Friday, September 18, OEB Seminar Room
Dissertation Title: Functional consequences of acute temperature stress in the western fence lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis
Committee Chair: Duncan Irschick
The seminar portion of the defense is open to the public
Dumont discovers that ugly bats are built to bite
Betsy Dumont's work was recently featured in both BBC News and Nature News. A team led by Dumont has discovered that the oddly-shaped skulls of wrinkle-faced bat (Centurio senex) include jaws that are more powerful than not just other fruit bats but also much larger predatory bats.Huber Recognized as Outstanding New Faculty
At the end of her first year as Assistant Professor at Randolph-Macon College, Sarah Huber (PhD '07) was selected by students as their Outstanding New Faculty Member. Congratulations Sarah!
OEB Student Outreach in Springfield Schools
When OEB Grad Students decided that science outreach was important, Laura Parfrey and Sharlene Santana spearheaded the development of a new section within the OEB website to connect local school teachers with OEB Grad Student experts. Throughout the spring, Dan Lahr, Sharlene Santana, Laura Parfrey, Dana Moseley, Kim Ogden, Rachel Bolus and David Hof traveled to Springfield classrooms to share their interests with elementary school students. The seven recently received a big hand-made card from the students and their teachers:
Dear Scientists, Thank you for showing us bats, birds, germs and bacteria. Please come back to show us more science!
Find out more about their efforts: Student Outreach
Sinauer Associates Lecture: Robert M. Sapolsky
4:00 p.m., April 10, 2009
135 Integrated Sciences Building (Auditorium)
Gene Therapy for Psychiatric Disorders:
Do Parasites Know More Neurobiology Than We Do?
Dr. Sapolsky of Stanford University has won numerous awards, ranging from the MacArthur Award to the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization. He is an eclectic, accessible and thought-provoking speaker whose approaches to the neurobiology of behavior range from biochemical to evolutionary.
Natasha Taft's Dissertation Defense
2:30 p.m., Thursday, April 23, OEB Seminar Room
Dissertation Title: Functional and comparative morphology of the pectoral fins among benthic "scorpaeniform" fishes
Committee Chair: Cristina Cox Fernandes
The seminar portion of the defense is open to the public
Micah Dunthorn's Dissertation Defense
2:00 p.m., Wednesday, April 1, OEB Seminar Room
Dissertation Title: Ciliate biodiversity and phylogenetic reconstruction assessed by multiple molecular markers
Committee Chair: Laura Katz
The seminar portion of the defense is open to the public
OEB Celebrates Darwin's 200th Birthday
OEB will mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, February 12, 1809, with two events.
6:00 p.m., Thursday, February 12
101 Campus Center
Daniel Fairbanks, author of the 2007 book, Relics of Eden: The Powerful Evidence of Evolution in Human DNA, will sculpt a likeness of Darwin while recalling formative events in Darwin's life and discussing his importance to modern science.
4:00 p.m., Friday, February 13
319 Morrill (OEB seminar Room)
Norm Johnson, will speak about Darwin in the age of the genome.
A birthday celebration, complete with cake, will follow the seminar.
Jeremy Andersen Masters' Defense
10:00 a.m., Wednesday, February 11, OEB Seminar Room
Thesis Title: A phylogenetic analysis of armored scale insects, based upon nuclear, mitochondrial, and endosymbiont gene sequences
Committee Chair: Ben Normark
The seminar portion of the defense is open to the public
Natasha Taft wins D. Dwight Davis Award
OEB doctoral candidate Natasha Taft won the D. Dwight Davis Award for Best Student Paper in the Division of Vertebrate Morphology at January's SICB meetings in Boston, for her work on A New Twist on Bending: Properties of the Pectoral Fin Rays of the Benthic Longhorn Sculpin. Congratulations on a job well done!
Mike Jones Dissertation Defense
9:00 a.m., Friday, January 30, OEB Seminar Room
Dissertation Title: Spatial ecology, population structure, and conservation of the wood turtle, Glyptemys insculpta, in Central New England
Committee Chair: Paul Sievert
The seminar portion of the defense is open to the public
OEB Faculty Seeking New Grad Students
To help OEB applicants seeking a faculty sponsor for their applications, the faculty listed below are interested in taking on a student in Fall 2009. Keep in mind that a good match of research interests between applicants and faculty is a key part of our admissions process.Mary Doherty Dissertation Defense
1:00 p.m., Thursday, August 21, OEB Seminar Room
Dissertation Title: Distribution and diversity of planktonic ciliates in the Choreotrichia and Oligotrichia: Patterns and driving forces
Committee Chair: Laura Katz
Kara Belinsky Dissertation Defense
1:00 p.m., Friday, July 18, OEB Seminar Room
Dissertation Title: Imperfectly redundant signals: color, song, and mate choice in Chestnut-sided warblers (Dendroica pensylvanica)
Committee Co-chairs: Bruce Byers and Jeff Podos
Eric Dewar Dissertation Defense
9:30 a.m., Friday, July 18, OEB Seminar Room
Dissertation Title: Dietary ecology and community paleoecology of Early Tertiary mammals
Committee Chair: Margery Coombs
New Darwin Fellow Announced
Dr. Jaime Tanner will begin her position as OEB's 14th Darwin Fellow in mid-August. Tanner received her PhD from Michigan State University in 2007 where her dissertation research focused on ontogenetic changes in skull morphology and feeding behavior in the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta). She spent the past year as visiting faculty at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Dr. Tanner has arrived on campus and will be working with Dr. Betsy Dumont this summer until her fellowship begins.Philip Bergmann Dissertation Defense
1:00 p.m., Friday, June 20, OEB Seminar Room
Dissertation Title: A phylogenetic and functional approach to the study of the evolution of body shape in lizards (Squamata)
Christine Buckley Dissertation Defense
1:00 p.m., Thursday, April 10, OEB Seminar Room
Dissertation Title: Phenotypic plasticity, functional morphology and ecomorphology of two terrestrial ectotherms
Darwin Fellow Search
Search currently underway for positions beginning in the fall of 2008. Application information available.
Recent OEB Grads Land Positions
- Christine Buckley (PhD 2008) Communications Officer, The Ecological Society of America
- Sarah Huber (PhD 2007) Assistant Professor of Biology, Randolph-Macon College
- Leann Kanda (PhD 2005) Assistant Professor of Biology, Ithaca College
- Chad Hoeler (PhD 2005) Assistant Professor of Biology, Arcadia University
- Andrea Ward (PhD 2005) Assistant Professor of Biology, Adelphi University
- Eric Hilton (PhD 2002) Assistant Professor at Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences and College of William and Mary
Size Matters
Sarah Huber's (PhD 2007) recent paper on variation in beak size of Darwin's finches, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, was cited in Nature's Research Highlights
319 Morrill S. 
