Tidbits
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To Ken Finger who has just finished a three-year stint as editor of the Journal of Foraminiferal Research during which time he processed 120 submitted manuscripts and the journal published 1200 pages/68 articles!
To Judy Scotchmoor who has been named the 2012 recipient of the Friend of Darwin award. Each year this award is presented by the National Center for Science Education to someone who has made "substantial contributions to evolution education and/or to NCSE."
And welcome!
We will soon be welcoming Seth Finnegan to UCMP as he has accepted a faculty position in the Department of Integrative Biology. Seth is currently a postdoctoral scholar in Geology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA. Seth's research focuses on the connections between climate change and the end-Ordovician mass extinction by looking at the "clumpiness" of heavy isotopes found in fossils, which can provide information on temperature changes. Seth is also interested in broader issues, e.g., looking at the evolution of metabolism and body size. We look forward to his arrival in the fall.
Other UCMP news
UCMP kicked off the year with:
An impressive presence at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology held January 3–7 in Charleston, South Carolina. Abstracts included:
— Did social monogamy evolve as part of a sedentary lifestyle in Lysiosquilloid mantis shrimps?; presented by M. Wright, I. Steves, and R. Caldwell
— Why stomatopods are striking; presented by M.S. DeVries, J.H. Christy
— Why marine mollusks don't require larvae for dispersal; presented by C.S. Hickman
— Novel remote sensing technique assesses intertidal habitat and reveals population expansion of West Indian Topshell; presented by E.L. Meyer, N.J. Matzke, S. Williams
— Holocene biogeography of Neotoma: Mandibular geometric morphometrics and implications for climate change; presented by M.A. Stegner, E.A. Ferrer
— The origin and early evolution of terrestrial locomotion; presented by B. Swartz
— Early evolution of elevated growth and metabolic rates in archosaurs; presented by S. Werning, R.B. Irmis*, S.J., Nesbitt*, N.D. Smith, A.H. Turner, K. Padian
A three-day workshop funded by the National Science Foundation. In early January, 12 science teacher educators from eight different states joined in discussions about the importance of integrating the nature and process of science (NOS/POS) into courses for those who are preparing to teach. Ultimately these discussions will result in a new sub-section of the Understanding Science website that will meet the needs of those who instruct pre-service teachers including the rationale or importance of teaching NOS/POS, course modules, assignments and activities, assessment tools, and strategies for dealing with misconceptions about NOS/POS.
An opportunity to learn about creative strategies for sharing paleontology. Writer and illustrator Hannah Bonner paid a visit to Berkeley on January 11 to visit with Cindy Looy and Ivo Duijnstee, who served as advisers for her reconstructions illustrating the biotic recovery following the end-Permian extinction. The UCMP community was invited to her talk that featured personal anecdotes from the creative process of writing and editing a series of books that combine paleontology and art. Her goal? Make the lesser known facets of ancient life giant insects, coal swamps, the transition to land of both plants and animals, and more accessible to children and adults alike. Bonner's colorfully illustrated and intricately detailed books depict characters in all forms of terrestrial and marine life, spanning five geologic periods, including two mass extinctions.