The Mojave Desert is a great place to study reptiles. Besides being a biological hotspot of lizard diversity, it is also a beautiful place to work.
Anthony, Bob, Amber Wright, and I just got back from an 11-day field expedition in the Mojave, where we met up with Greg Pauly to collect data for a number of different projects.
We participated in the annual Tide Walks, which is a partnership between Mililani-Mauka Elementary and EECB at UH. We had a blast leading the kids and their parents on an exploration of tide pools and the creatures within. It was a piece of cake once we realized that it was basically sea-herping (i.e. flipping rocks). Our personal favorite finds were the slimy sea hares!
Pictured above: All of the happy graduate student volunteers
Photo credits: Christie Wilcox
Last night marked the end of the Department of Biology’s 40th annual graduate student research symposium named in honor of Albert Tester: three days of student talks, keynote lectures from this year’s guest speaker Jeremy Jackson, culminating in a banquet and awards ceremony at the Waikiki Aquarium. We had a great turn out this year with 75 student presentations, 170 people at the banquet, and lots of people to thank for their effort and donations. I was so busy organizing that I forgot to put a post up ahead of time, but a couple of photos from the most fun part of the symposium will suffice.
Anthony, Bob, Van, Emilie, and Caroline at the Tester Symposium Banquet.
Many people to thank and many awards to give out…that means a lot of leis.
Anthony (and co-authors) new paper on Sun Skink landscape genetics is out today on the cover of Molecular Ecology. Way to go Anthony!
Congratulations to Bob, who just received word that he has been awarded the highest research award bestowed by the University of Hawaii to assistant professors: The Regent’s Medal for Excellence in Research.
No official press release has been published yet, but information about the award can be found here. He will be publicly recognized on May 5th at the Kennedy Theater, so keep an eye out for more information. This is a highly prestigious award, way to go Bob!
May 5th, 2015 update: a picture after the award ceremony.
Congratulations to Caroline, who defended her Masters last week!
Introducing Caroline’s thesis talk.
Caroline with her proud committee (Bob Thomson, Amber Wright, and Brenden Holland).
We had a great time at Bishop Museum’s Science Alive Family Sunday!
As part of the “Talk Science” event, we shared and discussed evolution and invasive herpetofauna in Hawaii with kids and their families.
The kids were especially enthusiastic about our exhibit, and everyone learned a lot!
See you next year!
We just got back from the annual Thomson-Wright Lab camping trip.
This year we camped at Malaekahana State Recreation Area on the North Shore of Oahu. We had nice weather, delicious food… and a great time!
Thomson-Wright Lab 2015
Sunrise at Malaekahana
I wanted to highlight some great outreach work going on over at UH West Oahu. Friend of the Thomson Lab, Laci Gerhart-Barley, has a new post up over at her blog outlining the work they’re doing with undergraduates on restoration of native Hawaiian plants. They even found a herp…
RESTORATION AT KA’ALA KIPUKA
