Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

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May 2017

Archives for May 2017

Freeberg Featured in Natural History

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The June 2017 issue of Natural History has a ½ page article featuring Adjunct Professor Todd Freeberg.  The article reports on a behavioral ecology study he conducted with colleagues on naturally-occurring flocks of over-wintering Carolina chickadees, tufted titmice, and white-breasted nuthatches to find out why some birds regularly travel in mixed-species flocks.

Author:  Wilson, Niki
Source:  Natural History. June 2017, Vol. 125 Issue 6, p8-8.

Todd, whose main department is Psychology, is very active in his adjunct position in EEB.  He participates in the Comparative Animal Behavior discussion group and mentors several EEB graduate and undergraduate students.

 

Gavrilets and the Role of Social Norms

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Sergey Gavrilets has coauthored a recent paper in PNAS called “Collective action and the evolution of social norm internalization.” Following social norms can sometimes be costly for individuals if norms require sacrifice for the good of the group. The study sheds light on the power of norms and the origins of cooperation. Read the NIMBioS press release about the article, here.

DoD Fellowship for Scott

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Shelby Scott (Gross Lab) has been awarded a three-year 2017 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship!  The NDSEG Fellowship is sponsored and funded by the Department of Defense (DoD). NDSEG selections are made by the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Office of Naval Research, and the Army Research Office. The American Society for Engineering Education administers the NDSEG Fellowship.

Congratulations, Shelby!

 

Undergrad Herbarium Research Opportunity at UT

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1) Student Assistant – Herbarium Curation Technician, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

The TENN herbarium is seeking highly organized, detail-oriented individuals, to join our team as an Herbarium Curation Technician. Students will assist members of our staff with plant specimen curation. The TENN herbarium houses over 600,000 plant and fungal specimens, which is one of the largest plant research collections in the southeastern United States. Research in the herbarium focuses on taxonomy, systematics, conservation of rare plants, floristics, and field botany.

Duties and responsibilities may include but are not limited to: Mounting dried plant specimens and labels onto archival quality paper;  Quality control: Confirming that plants and labels match each other;  Sorting and filing plant specimens by geography (TN county, state, world region) and by taxonomic relationship (family, genus, species); Assisting introductory botany students with class projects during the semester.  Training will be provided.

Qualifications: All aspects of this position require strong attention to detail and organizational skills. Strong work ethic with the ability to work independently and as part of a team is required.  Good verbal and written communication skills are required.  Students majoring or minoring in a biological science, information science, or a related field are preferred.  Previous experience with plants and familiarity with geography is preferred.

Please submit a cover letter, resume, and contact information for two references as a single document. Send applications to Dr. Jessica Budke (jbudke@utk.edu).  Please put “Student Assistant – Herbarium Curation Technician” in the subject line.

Paid hourly, approximately 8 – 15 hours per week. Work study students are encouraged to apply.

 

EEB Departmental Awards 2017

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Congratulations to all the graduate students, undergraduate students, and staff who received awards at the EEB Awards Ceremony on May 1.   To view more photos, please visit the EEB Facebook page.  For more information about any of the awards below, please visit the Departmental Awards and Scholarships page.

2017 EEB Outstanding Master’s Thesis
Alix Pfennigwerth (Schweitzer Lab)

2017 EEB Jim Tanner Outstanding Dissertation
Michael Van Nuland (Schweitzer Lab)

2017 EEB Best Progress Toward Dissertation
Sam Borstein (O’Meara Lab)

2017 EEB Sandy Echternacht Outstanding Teaching by a Graduate Student
Tyson Paulson (Fordyce Lab)

2017 EEB Outstanding Publication by a Graduate Student
Rachel Wooliver (Schweitzer Lab)

2017 EEB Tom Hallam Appreciation Award
Angela Chuang (Riechert Lab)

2017 EEB Outstanding Outreach and Community Service by a Graduate Student
Alannie-Grace Grant (Kalisz Lab)

2017 Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Award
Sarah Ottinger (Classen Lab)

2017 EEB Outstanding Undergraduate
Patrick McKenzie (Armsworth Lab)

2017 EEB Outstanding Undergraduate Research
Hannah Anderson (Riechert Lab)

2017 EEB Undergraduate for Professional Promise
Katie Plant (Williams Lab)

2017 EEB Outstanding Outreach and Community Service by an Undergraduate Student
Heiler Meek (Schweitzer Lab)

2017 EEB Outstanding Administrative Service Award
Marva Anderson

Going Above and Beyond Award
Jess Welch (Simberloff & McCracken Labs)

Division of Biology Awards 2017

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EEB congratulates our graduate students who won awards from UT’s Division of Biology!   These awards can be given to any graduate students in Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology (BCMB), Microbiology, or Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

2017 Cokkinias Award – Rachel Wooliver (Schweitzer Lab), for outstanding scholarly achievements.

2017 Teaching Award – Cassie Dresser (Fitzpatrick Lab), for outstanding teaching.

Congratulations!

Discover Magazine Interviews Burghardt, Pruitt- UPDATE

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The June 2017 issue of Discover Magazine has an article on play behavior in non-mammalian animals.  Called “The Play’s the Thing,” it features interviews with Professor Gordon Burghardt and alumnus Jonathan Pruit (PhD 2010, Riechert Lab, now on the faculty at UC-Santa Barbara). The article references a paper published in 2012 that was written by Burghardt, Pruitt, and Riechert.

The article is now available online. Tennessee Today also has a story about the article

Science Writing Award for Bush

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Graduate student Jordan Bush (Simberloff Lab) will receive the J. Paul Blakely Award of Excellence in the category of Science Writing, Graduate Division at an awards ceremony on May 4, 2017. This award from the East Tennessee Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC-ETC) recognizes students with an interest in technical/professional communication or science writing, from any accredited institution of higher education in East Tennessee.  Congratulations, Jordan!