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Tidbits

Congratulations!
To Sarah Amugongo, who was awarded the Wadsworth International Dissertation Write-Up Fellowship by Wenner-Gren Foundation.

To high school senior and UCMP volunteer Danny Anduza who will be starting the next phase of his paleo career as an undergraduate at Montana State University.

To Mariska Batavia, Theresa Grieco, and Erin Meyer who each won an outstanding GSI award.

To Mariska Batavia and Molly Wright on their selection as GK12 Fellows for 2010.

To Roy Caldwell on receipt of the 2010 Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior Exemplar Award.

To Marc Carrasco on the recent launch of NEOMAP, a website that is essentially a fusion of the MIOMAP and FAUNMAP databases.

To Pat Holroyd who was honored at the SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) meeting in New Orleans with the Honorable Mention for 2008 Outstanding Paper in Palaios: Clementz, T., P.A. Holroyd, and P.L. Koch. Identifying aquatic habits of herbivorous mammals through stable isotope analysis. Palaios 23(9):574–585.

To Emily Lindsey for receiving an Evolving Earth Foundation Grant, as well as an award from the Lewis and Clark Fund for Exploration and Field Research (through the American Philosophical Society), to help fund field research in Ecuador. Emily has also been invited to symposia in Argentina and Peru.

Jere Lipps is presented with the Moore Medal by Steven Driese
Jere Lipps (left) is presented with the Moore Medal by SEPM President Steven Driese.
 
To Jere Lipps, for receipt of the Raymond C. Moore Medal for Sustained Excellence in Paleontology for his contributions to the evolutionary biology of marine animals and protists in particular, to the education of a new generation of paleontologists, to the communication of science to the general public, and for service to the science of paleontology. Jere received his award at the 2010 President's Reception and Awards Ceremony of the SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) meeting in New Orleans in April. Jere was also appointed to the Planetary Protection Subcommittee of NASA for 2010. The Committee advises NASA on planetary protection issues, such as how space missions to other parts of the solar system can avoid contaminating any of those parts (moons, planets, asteroids, etc.) with Earth organisms and how any space missions that return to Earth themselves or with samples will not contaminate Earth.

To Cindy Looy whose research was highlighted in the April 2010 issue of ScienceMatters@Berkeley, in an article entitled The Persistence of Plants.

To Kaitlin Maguire for passing her oral exams and on receipt of a GeoCorps internship at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument that will support a summer of data collection for her dissertation. An Evolving Earth Foundation Grant and an NPS George Menlendez Wright Climate Change Fellowship will also help fund Kaitlin's research.

To Jenny McGuire on the publication of a paper in Nature — Small Mammal Diversity Loss in Response to Late-Pleistocene Climatic Change — with coauthors Jessica Blois and Elizabeth Hadly.

To Tiago Quental who was offered a permanent position at the University of São Paulo in Brazil.

To Susumu Tomiya on receipt of an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant.

To Sarah Werning on receipt of the 2010 George D. Louderback Award. This award is given annually to recognize both academic excellence and significant contributions to the programs of UCMP.

To Tim White on his selection as one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World!

Congratulations to our new Ph.D.s!
Dr. Jenny Maguire will be leaving UCMP to start a postdoc position at the National Evolution Synthesis Center (NESCent) in North Carolina. She will be developing methods for improving paleorange reconstructions.

Dr. Scott Fay completed his dissertation this March on the Theory of Symbiosis and Symbiosis of Symbiodinium and Larger Foraminifera and is starting on a Postdoc at Temple University studying microorganisms in Antarctic marine ecosystems using molecular and field techniques.

Dr. Michele Weber completed her Ph.D. dissertation on Symbioses in Giant Clams and is starting a Postdoc at UCLA working in the field and with molecular methods to study biodiversity on Indonesian reefs.

New funding to UCMP outreach efforts!
UCMP is pleased to announce the receipt of a $25,000 gift from The Whitman Institute for ongoing support of the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) project.

Evolve or Perish

The Evolve or Perish game
 
This delightful new board game was designed by UCMP Faculty Curator Cindy Looy and Visiting Scientist Ivo Duijnstee in collaboration with illustrator Hannah Bonner. It is a product of the Evolution of the Terrestrial Ecosystems Program at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The game is similar to Chutes and Ladders, but begins 635 million years ago with the first multi-celled organisms and proceeds through Earth's major milestones. The game can be downloaded free.
 

Photo courtesy of Jere Lipps