I am serving as President of the Benthic Ecology Meeting Society this year, accepted at last years  BEM in Quebec with encouragement from Ladd Johnson and one too many merlots! The president gets to run the meeting, and this year we are happy to host at the Westin Harborview in lively downtown Portland, Maine. I’m lucky to have Steve Allen as the meeting organizer; and Sarah Kingston (Bowdoin), Bob Steneck (U. Maine), and Graham Sherwood (GMRI) on the scientific committee. We have some great activities planned, including a plenary by Boris Worm of Dalhousie and a fun Friday tour of the Coastal Studies Center with libations donated by Oxbow Brewery. Check out the BEM website: http://www.bemsociety.org, and see the story Bowdoin ran last week: http://community.bowdoin.edu/news/2016/01/bowdoin-to-host-big-marine-science-conference-in-portland/

This summer I will be transitioning from Hawaii to Maine to start a new position at Bowdoin College. At Bowdoin, I have been appointed Director of the Marine Laboratory at the Coastal Marine Center on Orr’s Island, and Associate Professor in the Biology Department. My graduate students will all stay at the University of Hawaii, and I will continue to play an active role in their research as a cooperating member of the Graduate Faculty. My family and I are excited about this new chapter in Maine, but at the same time we will all miss our friends, colleagues, and unique natural environments here in the Hawaiian Islands.

Emilie Richards will be presenting her undergraduate honors research this Saturday, April 27 at the East West Center, Kaneila Room (upstairs), @ 1:15 (Session starts at noon)

Phylogenetic insights into the Indo-Pacific parrotfish Scarus rubroviolacues

The Carlon lab cannot receive orders during spring break next week, since the Biology Office is on furlough. If you place an order during March 25-29 it will most likely be returned to Qiagen. We suggest waiting until April 1 to place new orders.

Kristin Halbert will be defending her MS thesis tomorrow:

Genetic Isolation in the Open Sea: Cryptic Diversity in the Pleuromamma piseki – P. gracilis Species Complex

George Hall (GRG, left of Crawford looking Mauka), Room 215 @ 3:00 pm.

STRI Programs

Short-term Fellowships
The STRI Short-Term Fellowship Program allows selected candidates to come to STRI year-round and is an excellent resource to provide support for graduate students and introduce them to tropical research. Although focused primarily on graduate students, awards are occasionally given to undergraduate and postdoctoral candidates. These fellowships enable selected candidates to work in the tropics and explore research possibilities at STRI. The Ernst Mayr Fellowship is awarded to an outstanding Short-Term Fellowship candidate every year. Deadlines: January 15, April 15, July 15 and October 15.

Application at:

http://www.stri.si.edu/english/education_fellowships/applications/application_for_fellowship.php

The Biology Department is hosting a two seminars this week by Rasmus Nielsen of UC Berkeley (http://cteg.berkeley.edu/~nielsen/).

Wednesday, Feb. 6, Biology/Botany series, Crawford Hall, Room 105, 12:30.

“Inferring natural selection from DNA sequence data: applications to human evolution.”

Thursday, Feb. 7, Webster Hall, Room 203, starting at 10:30.

“Inferring demography from genomic data”

The Department of Statistics at the University of Washington will
provide an online offering of the course STAT 550 A

Statistical Genetics I; Discrete Mendelian Traits

Dates: Spring 2013 Quarter, April 1 – June 14
Number of credits: 3

Instructor: Professor Elizabeth Thompson ([email protected])
(http://www.stat.washington.edu/thompson/)

This course provides an introduction to the models and methods of
Statistical Genetics for students with little Genetics background
but with some knowledge of Probability and Statistics. The course
provides a basis for further study in Statistical Genetics, whether
in Quantitative Genetics, Human and Medical Genetics, Population
and Evolutionary Genetics, or Computational Molecular Genetics.

This class will be given online (audio and slides) in conjunction with
the regular on-campus class offering of the class in Spring Quarter
2013.  The class will be available to registered University of
Washington non-matriculated students (NM):

For information on registering for NM status:
see http://nondegree.washington.edu/nondegree/register/
For information on UW course fees for this 3-credit 500-level class:
see http://nondegree.washington.edu/nondegree/fees/`

For qualified students, the Department of Statistics will approve both
NM status (if not already obtained) and course entry: contact
Elizabeth Thompson ([email protected]) for more information.

Some information about the 2010 offering of the online version of this
course is available
at: http://www.stat.washington.edu/thompson/Stat550/Online_2010/
Additional information on the 2012 on-campus offering is
at: http://www.stat.washington.edu/thompson/Stat550/

The 2013 class is expected to follow a very similar schedule.

Molecular Ecology 2012

Congratulations to Moon, Raphael, Kaho, Mark, Annick, Sean, Deena, Aki, Rachel, and Caroline  for making Molecular Ecology a great success this year. The presentations this morning on our  “mystery samples” were of very high quality, and I appreciate everyone’s hard work in making discussions illuminating and the labwork fun. Enjoy the holidays and we will see you around campus next year!

If you are planning on ordering Qiagen products for your research through our service during the holiday break, please note that the Biology Office closes between December 14 – January 5.  We cannot receive courier packages during this time.

The last day to place orders by the web or electronic form is tomorrow, December 11. This will insure we receive orders by this Friday, December 14.