Newsletter Vol. 2 No. 2 August, 2008

 

In this issue:

A Message from the Director

Science and Synthesis

NESCent Post-doctoral Fellows

New Sabbatical Scholars

Call for Proposals

Informatics

Ontology workshop at SICB

R Resources

Education and Outreach

NESCent at NABT

NESCent at SACNAS

NESCent Contributes to Undergraduate Diversity at Evolution 2008

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A Message from the Director

Kathleen Smith

Kathleen Smith

It is hard to believe that NESCent is nearing the end of its fourth year of funding.  During this period we have welcomed thousands of scientists to the Center in a variety of sponsored and hosted meetings and other activities.  Their efforts have led to important new papers, software products and databases, all available on our website.  In addition to our wide array of normal activities, we will be particularly busy this fall, as NESCent will be submitting an application for a further five years of funding.  As a part of planning for our renewal, we have invited an array of scientists to the Center for a community summit to help us discuss how NESCent might better enable synthetic research in evolutionary biology.  We will also be reaching out to our constituencies through surveys and other forums to assess our impact and improve our programs.  We hope that all of you will participate in the efforts to assess the ways that NESCent might best serve our community.  Beyond this, we always welcome feedback or suggestions on our programs.

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Science and Synthesis

 

NESCent Post-doctoral Fellows

Kidd, Price, Fisher

NESCent accepted its first cohort of post-doctoral fellows in Fall 2005.  Since then, there have been twenty-one fellows accepted at NESCent, including five new fellows starting this Fall.  The NESCent post-doc position is an unusually independent position, and even warranted a section in a Nature article on novel post-doc positions.  A NESCent post-doc provides an opportunity for researchers to interact with scientists from around the world in NESCent working groups, as well as members of the rich community of evolutionary biologists in the Triangle area.  In addition, daily interaction with other post-docs and sabbatical scholars from a wide range of disciplines provides NESCent post-docs with unique opportunities to explore different fields.  One post-doc stated, "My time as a postdoc at NESCent has afforded me the opportunity to develop professionally, both in terms of refining and expanding my own research interests, as well as forming valuable contacts and collaborations with researchers outside my immediate area of specialization."  This bZanne, Hoeksema, Hopkins, Granekroad exposure has allowed NESCent post-docs to be very successful in the next steps of their careers.   Another post-doc said, “My time at NESCent really helped me get my independent research program going, getting me used to doing research with no one looking over my shoulder. It also helped me get past the non-collaborative mindset that graduate school tends to foster. I think NESCent also contributed to my getting the job; the department … was really interested in the sound of Hereford the center and the kind of research it supports.”

Of the twenty-one NESCent post-docs, six are currently at NESCent, although Brian Sidlauskas has already secured a tenure track position at Oregon State University for Fall 2009.  Five new post-docs have received awards and will be starting their positions through the Fall.  Of the remaining post-docs, five have accepted tenure track positions.  Amy Zanne is at the University of Missouri, St. Louis.  Samantha Hopkins is at the University of Oregon.  Jason Hoeksema is continuing his work in the Biology department at the University of Mississippi.  Kirsten Fisher will be at the Cal State Los Angeles, and Gordon Burleigh will be joining the faculty at the University of Florida this Fall.  Five more former post-docs are in new post-doctoral positions.  Josh Granek has moved to Duke in Paul Magwene’s lab.  Derrick Zwickl is continuing his research in a post-doc with Mark Holder at the University of Kansas.  Joe Hereford is at the University of Maryland.  Samantha Price will be starting a post-doc with Peter Wainwright at UC Davis in October, 2008 and David Kidd begins a post-doc at Imperial College in London this Fall.

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New Sabbatical Scholars, Visiting Scholars and Short Term Visitors

NESCent will host four Sabbatical Scholars this Fall.  Michael Antolin is coming from Colorado State University to work on his book on genetics of small populations.  Elizabeth Lacey, from UNC-Greensboro, will be addressing "Temperature and the Evolution of Floral Design" and George Gilchrist, of the College of William and Mary, will be working on "The Evolution of Performance Curves in Seasonal Environments." Christian D’Orgeix, from Virginia State University, will be doing a targeted sabbatical in Fall 2008 on “Evolution Courses, Mountaintop Lizards and a View Toward Future Research.”

Short Term Visitors come to NESCent for a few days to three months to work on a project.  In some cases, the visitor was working with local scientists.  In other cases, collaborators came to NESCent together to work.  This Fall NESCent will host ten Visitors.  Michael Alfaro, from Washington State University, will be working on "Integrating Fossils and Molecular Data in the Study of Diversification",  with Luke Harmon from the University of Idaho, and Gene Hunt from the Smithsonian Institution.  Jessica Gurevitch, from Stony Brook University, will be working with Gordon Fox, of South Florida University, Glenda Wardle, of Sydney University, Inderjit, from the University of Delhi, and James Hamrick, from the University of Georgia, to move "Towards a General Theory of Biological Invasions."  David Houle, of Florida State University, will be at NESCent to work on “Measurement Theory and Evolutionary Rates."  Tal Dagan, from the University of Duesseldorf, has been at NESCent this Summer working on "The Frequency and Evolution of Lateral Gene Transfer by DNA Repair Mechanisms" with NESCent post-doc Einat Hazkani-Covo.  NESCent also hosts Visiting Scholars and this Fall we are pleased to have Robert Peet, from UNC-Chapel Hill, working on "Application of Taxon Concepts in Biodiversity Informatics."

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Call for Proposals

The next round of proposals for post-doctoral fellowships, sabbatical scholars, working groups and catalysis meetings is December 1, 2008.  Applications for short term visitors are accepted four times a year: January 1, April 1, July 1 and September 1.  For more information, visit the Science and Synthesis site.

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Informatics

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Ontology workshop at SICB

NESCent will be cosponsoring a workshop on the application of ontologies to comparative biology at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) in Boston next January.  Stay tuned at http://www.nescent.org/wg/phenoscape for more information.

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R Resources

Readers of previous newsletters will be aware that a highly successful "Comparative Methods in R Hackathon" was held last December at NESCent to address issues of data exchange standards, code interoperability, usability, documentation quality, and the breadth of functionality for comparative methods available within R. Outcomes included a new base package for phylogenetic trees and data, a public wiki with tutorials and overviews of existing packages, code to allow Mesquite and R to interact, improvement of existing packages, and increased interaction within the community.  A poster describing the event is now available from Nature Precedings.  It was initially presented by NESCent post-doctoral scholar Brian O'Meara at the 2008 Evolution Meetings in Minneapolis.

 

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Education and Outreach

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NESCent at NABT

NESCent is involved in many events at the NABT (National Association of Biology Teachers) conference this year.  The annual Evolution Symposium, which NESCent co-sponsors with AIBS (American Institute of Biological Sciences), is “Illuminating Biology: an Evolutionary Perspective."  The four speakers, Joram Piatigorsky, Trisha Wittkopp, Georg Streidter, and Robert Blankenship will talk about how an evolutionary perspective has provided valuable insights in their research.  The following day, Understanding Evolution and BioQUEST will present a workshop of educational resources in line with the symposium theme.  As in previous years, a CD of educational resources will be available at the conference or by request.  The CD content will also be available online.  This year’s CD includes “Discovering the Great Tree of Life”, a video produced by the Peabody Museum at Yale, as well as various lessons that support the Symposium. 

In addition, NESCent has worked with SSE to present a workshop by Robert Kuzoff and Jeff McKinnon on “Using Free, Intuitive Software to Explore Mysteries of Evolutionary History in the High School Biology Classroom."  Joel Cracraft and Mark Sidall’s NESCent working group “Developing an Integrative Algorithmic Method for Historical Biogeography” will be offering a mini-symposium on biogeography, as well. 

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NESCent at SACNAS

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For the third year in a row, NESCent is taking the lead on organizing outreach activities at the annual SACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) Conference, which will be held this year in Salt Lake City, Utah, from October 9-12.  These events are being co-sponsored by The National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), The Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) and The Ecological Society of America (ESA).  The events focus on Evolution and Ecology and are designed to generate excitement and share knowledge with SACNAS students, with the ultimate goal of encouraging under-represented students to pursue graduate study and careers in these disciplines.  Events at this year’s conference will include:

  • “Conversations with Scientists: Exploring Careers in Evolution and Ecology” – An informal mentoring session in which several professionals in these disciplines will answer students’ questions and share their thoughts on the rewards and challenges of careers in Evolution and Ecology.
  • Scientific Symposium: “Evolution and Ecology: What Can We Learn from Slime-Sucking Fish, Long-Tailed Voles and Overheated Lizards?” – Postdoctoral fellows from NESCent and NCEAS will provide scientific presentations on their research, share some general information on their fields of study and describe the life of an evolutionary biologist/ecologist.
  • Movie Night at SACNAS: “Exploring Issues in Evolution and Ecology through Film” – We will host a screening of the recent documentary “11th Hour”, which is produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio and explores the challenges of dealing with climate change and global warming, and what every citizen can do to help deal with these challenges.  After the screening, scientists will lead the audience in a discussion of the implications and significance of the film.

Past years’ events have been extremely popular and feedback from both student participants and SACNAS leaders/conference organizers has been overwhelmingly positive, so we are excited to be participating for a third consecutive year.

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NESCent Contributes to Undergraduate Diversity at Evolution 2008 2008_logo

For several years, Dr. Scott Edwards (Harvard evolutionary biologist and NESCent Senior Advisory Board member) and Dr. Rich Kliman (Cedar Crest College biology professor) have run an NSF-funded program which identifies promising undergraduate students, primarily from under-represented groups, and awards them travel grants to attend the annual Evolution (SSE/SSB/ASN) meetings.  While at the meetings, the students receive scientific and professional mentoring, attend scientific sessions, present their own research during an undergraduate poster session, and get the opportunity to meet and network with top evolutionary biologists from around the world. 

For this year’s evolution meetings, which were held at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in June, NESCent combined efforts with Edwards and Kliman, helping to recruit and sponsor students and contributing to planning, organization and facilitation of programs and activities in which the students participated.  In addition, several NESCent scientists served as mentors for the undergraduates.  Said one student participant: “I cannot thank you enough for giving me this opportunity to attend Evolution 2008…This experience has reconfirmed my love for biology and has given me a glimpse of what I want to do and who I want to be in the future.”

As a result of the success of this year’s event, NESCent will be increasingly involved in organizing and sponsoring this travel award program in the future, and is already looking forward to next year’s meeting at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho.

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