Announcing our student awards
UCMP has been extremely fortunate to have received donations in the form of an endowment from individuals dedicated to the support of graduate training and research, especially field work. Each year we use the earnings from these endowments to make research awards to our graduate students, and we are proud to announce this year's recipients and offer them congratulations.
From the Dorothy K. Palmer Fund:
Lindsey Dougherty to undertake phylogenetic and transmission electron microscopy work to support her research on the evolution of the blue flashing display behavior that occurs in "Disco Clams."
From the Doris O. and Samuel P. Welles Fund:
Elizabeth Ferrer to observe and photograph fossil and extant varanid specimens from both Australia and Africa. She is looking at the interaction of morphological disparity and diversity.
Theresa Grieco to conduct field research at Olduvai Gorge and to visit the National Natural History Museum in Dar es Salaam to examine bulk microvertebrate samples.
Ashley Poust to visit two museums in China and collect histology samples from an oviraptor with associated eggs. This animal provides insight into the ancestral condition of reproduction in birds.
From the Remington Kellogg Fund:
Jenny Hofmeister to examine shellmound material from Emeryville to determine the sex ration of sea otter specimens and if that changes over time.
Rosemary Romero to secure training at the Friday Harbor Marine Labs in techniques to improve sampling design and analysis of the bioinformatic data generated with field samples.
From the Joseph T. Gregory Fellowship:
Allison Stegner to locate and collect end-Pleistocene/Holocene-aged fossil deposits in order to shed light on small mammal faunal dynamics in the Colorado Plateau region.
UCMP was also able to offer UCMP Graduate Student Research Grants to the following students:
Jean Alupay to compare tactile sensitivity in autotomized (shedded) and intact arms of the octopus, Abdopus aculeatus, to gain more information on the evolution of autotomy.
Darko Coteras to research what speciation mechanism is responsible for the creation of three ecomorphs of the Tetragnatha spider on Maui.
Jenna Judge to use modeling, colonization experiments, and phylogenetics in her study of the evolution of gastropods that have successfully colonized a diversity of deep-sea substrates.
Joey Pakes for her research to determine whether crustaceans in anchialine systems harbor chemosymbiotic bacteria.
Susan Tremblay to support her research on the early evolution of liverworts through field work in New Zealand that will focus on a comparison of the thalli of Paleozoic liverworts.