"We cannont solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

Albert Einstein

E3B Masters Thesis Presentations

May 6, 2009

Miscellaneous, Science

2 comments

Yesterday, the graduating masters students in my department presented on their theses. I’m really proud of all of them and wish them luck in their future endeavors! We’ve had a kick butt 2 year run here, and we all deserve some fun now!


Here are the topics they studied:

  • Use of microsatellites to classify individuals by relatedness in introduced populations of the small Indian mongoose (Herpestes javanicus) in Jamaica
  • Present and past CO2 concentration patterns from an urban to rural gradient
  • Molecular barcoding of endangered turtles
  • Effects of climate change on bobcats (Lynx rufus) in the Northern Rockies
  • An assessment of habitat connectivity for brown bears (Ursus arctos) in Central Italy
  • Small mammal response to oak loss
  • Assessing and mitigating the demographic impacts of bycatch mortatily of endangered loggerhead turtles in Baja California Sur, Mexico
  • Learning and experiencing 6th grade science on a green roof
  • Dietary partitioning between three sympatric species coyote (Canis latrans), red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) in New York
  • Assessing fruit availability for blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis) in Kakamega, Kenya
  • The population dynamics of a threatened beach plant, Amaranthus pumilus

I enjoyed all of the presentations! It was nice to see the fruits of all the labor.


I recorded the audio of all the presentations if anyone is interested in hearing the talks. You can shoot me an email and I can see if I can get the file to you. Unfortunately, it might not make a whole lot of sense without seeing some of the slides.


Congratulations to everyone! You did a great job!

Rosemary Grant and the Galapagos finches

April 24, 2009

Commentary, Science

3 comments

As part of Columbia University’s Darwin Speaker Series, Rosemary Grant of Princeton University came to speak on April 14th, 2009 about evolution in Darwin’s finches.

galapagos-bartolome-island
This year being the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species, and the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth, it was fitting for Rosemary Grant to speak about her research on the island Daphne in the Galapagos Islands. The finches have radiated into over a dozen diagnosable species, some that share habitats and some living alone on their islands. The islands are so isolated that migrations are rare, but when they do occur, researchers are there to observe the events.

daphneRosemary is an interesting woman, and her husband and research partner, Peter, an interesting man. People may unknowingly assume they are a typical cute older couple when passing them on the street. But what they have seen during their years of research on a few small islands may surpass in scope anything we may hope to witness in any one of our lifetimes.
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