by wpeeb
Adjunct Assistant Professor Ben Keck just published two articles, each describing a new species of fish that relied on specimens from the David A. Etnier Ichthyological Collection at UT. Congratulations, Ben!
by wpeeb
The EEB Collections Committee is pleased to announce the following three awards from the Hesler Fund to support and enhance herbarium-based research at UTK. Please share these award announcements with any students, colleagues, and collaborators who might be interested in applying.
Student Research Awards – http://tenn.bio.utk.edu/HeslerInternalFacultyAwards.pdf
Awards are available for research in the areas of systematics, ecology, biogeography, conservation, and biodiversity of plants and fungi to undergraduate and graduate (Masters and Ph.D.) students currently working under the supervision of a faculty member affiliated with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. Projects must be herbarium-based, either using or vouchering herbarium specimens or analyzing herbarium specimen data. This includes but not limited to, taxonomic revisions using herbarium specimens, phylogenetic analyses using data from herbarium specimens, ecological studies that will result in vouchers deposited in the TENN herbarium, and biogeographic studies using spatial data from herbarium specimens. A maximum of four Undergraduate (up to $1000 each) and six Graduate Student awards (up to $2000 each) will be given out in the 2018 competition.
Visiting Scholar Fellowships – http://tenn.bio.utk.edu/HeslerVisitingResearcherAward.pdf
Visiting Scholar Fellowships provide opportunities for scientists to use the collections at the University of Tennessee Herbarium (TENN) to enhance and facilitate a biodiversity-focused research project in collaboration with an EEB-affiliated faculty sponsor. Graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, and independent researchers from any country are eligible to apply. Funds are for travel, housing, and other visit-related expenses while conducting research at the TENN Herbarium. A maximum of two awards ($3000-$5000 each) will be given out annually.
Internal Faculty Awards – http://tenn.bio.utk.edu/HeslerStudentAwards.pdf
Internal Faculty Awards are available to support activities that directly result in improvements to the TENN herbarium. Possible uses include funding of student workers to database specimens, costs associated with improving collections management, and validation of species designations using DNA or other procedures. One to two awards will be granted annually for a period of one year for a maximum of $5000.
If you have any questions about these awards, including the fit of your proposal for the award, please contact Jessica Budke <jbudke@utk.edu>.
by wpeeb
Tyler Poppenwimer (Gross & Bailey Labs) won an award to develop online teaching resources to enhance the teaching of Math 152 in spring 2018.
The award, offered by UT’s Office of Information Technology, is open to Graduate Teaching Associates (GTA). The grant is awarded for the enhancement of a course by utilizing OIT-supported technologies and innovative instructional strategies in the redesign of a course or course component to be delivered via the web.
More information about the grant can be found at https://oit.utk.edu/instructional/gtaoit/gtaoit-call/.
by wpeeb
Professor Gordon Burghardt has a new article out in Journal of Comparative Psychology with Akira Mori called, “Do tiger keelback snakes (Rhabdophis tigrinus) recognize how toxic they are?” (DOI: 10.1037/com0000075)
The findings of the article have been picked up by places like New Scientist. Tiger keelback snakes do not make their own venom; they store and use toxins from the food they eat. Individuals that have been fed a diet of toxic toads display more aggressive behavior when threatened, unlike their non-toxic brethren, who typically slither away. This raises the question of how the snakes know whether they are toxic or not.
by wpeeb
Austin Milt (PhD 2015, now a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin) won third place in Conservation Biology’s ‘Rising Star’ award for his manuscript, “The Costs of Avoiding Environmental Impacts from Shale-Gas Surface Infrastructure.” The Rising Star award considers all student led papers published in Conservation Biology in 2016. This award is judged by a group of Senior Editors and aims to recognize outstanding student researchers and communicators.