I’m just back from some field work on Lana’i. Lots of lizards, beautiful landscapes, a dead sperm whale, and more aloha than I’ve experienced in a long time.
Photos below!
Luke and fellow UH graduate student, Sarah Tucker, getting ready to judge a local science fair.
I recently volunteered to judge at the annual science fair for a local middle school. It was really inspiring to see all the creativity in the room. The whole experience was a good reminder of why I got into science in the first place. I feel that as we get more and more focused on a single subject (e.g., speciation of island birds), we tend to forget that our work should still be fun and exciting. These kids reminded me of that. What a great experience!
Luke recently returned from conducting fieldwork in the upper reaches of the island of Kauai. Here, in some of the last remaining intact Hawaiian forests, native birds actually outnumber introduced birds!
Seen here is ‘anianiau, a Hawaiian honeycreeper endemic to Kauai.
The view from camp!
Val is conducting herpetological surveys on Oahu’s windward offshore islets and is also sampling two species of lizard to gain insight into introduction rates and population structure.
Luke and colleagues represent the University of Hawaii College of Natural Sciences at the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science conference in Honolulu this week.
Val has a new popular article out in the University’s student newspaper Kaleo on bioplastics. Check it out here.
Becky Chong and I had the chance to visit the Burgess Shale the other day, which has been a career-long dream of mine. It’s an incredible hike high up in the Canadian Rockies with beautiful views and many many fossils. It seemed like every other rock had something in it.
Some of us will be in Snowbird, Utah July 24-28 for the 2019 Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. If you’re around, please come say hi and check out these talks!
11:30 am. Sean Harrington, Riley Parks, Robert Thomson. Tip-dated phylogenetics and biogeography of Xenosaurus (Ballroom 3 – Cliff Lodge)
2:45 pm. Van Wishingrad, Robert Thomson. Sceloporus occidentalis lizard landscape genetics in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. (Primrose A&B)
