Seminars

Fall 2008 OEB Seminars

All seminars take place at 4:00 p.m. on Friday in the OEB Seminar Room (319 Morrill Science Center 2), University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Refreshments precede seminars at 3:45 p.m.

Following each seminar, all are invited to the University Club’s Lounge for further refreshments and continued conversation.

Sep 19

From Darwin to Dover and beyond: Overcoming obstacles to teaching evolution
LOUISE S. MEAD, Education Project Director, National Center for Science Education, Inc. & OEB Alum

Sep 26

Demystifying the mythical Mendel
DANIEL F. FAIRBANKS, Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences, University of Massachusetts

Oct 3

Sex, lies and sperm sorting: The resolution of sexual conflict in anoles
RYAN CALSBEEK, Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College

Oct 17

Biogeography, phylogeny, and function of a sexually selected combat-display structure: Fiddler crabs
JEFFREY LEVINTON, Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University

Oct 24

Do ecologists have GUTs
SAMUEL SCHEINER, Program Director, Division of Environmental Biology, National Science Foundation

Oct 31

Why shark bites hurt: Adventures with cartilaginous skeletons
ADAM P. SUMMERS, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Irvine and OEB Alum

Nov 7

Environmental variability and nonrandom dispersal: Effects on the evolutionary potential of wild animal populations
DANY GARANT, Département de Biologie, Université de Sherbrooke

Nov 14

Galápagos finches and the unfinished business of Charles Darwin
JEFF PODOS, Department of Biology and OEB, University of Massachusetts

Nov 21

Evolution of developmental pathways: Can evo-devo paradigms be applied to the germline?
CASSANDRA EXTAVOUR, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University

Dec 5

Clonality: The genetics, ecology, and evolution of sexual abstinence in vertebrate animals
JOHN C. AVISE, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of California Irvine