Safran Lab conference tour part 2 - Gordon Speciation conference in Italy!
January 2023 has been a whirlwind, but so fun to attend the biannual Gordon Speciation Conference in Barga, Italy with Becca, Drew, Sara, and Heather in attendance. Drew, Heather, and Sara attended the early-career portion (Gordon Research Seminar - GRS) during the first 2 days of the conference where Drew gave a research talks and Heather and Sara presented posters. Drew's talk was one of 4 early-career talks from the GRS voted by people's choice to be featured during the main conferences as well. Excellent job, Drew! Becca was an invited speaker at the main GRC event, and we all had a great time talking about the barn swallow system and learning about some many different organisms and aspects of Speciation at this meeting. We also enjoyed some very quick site seeing and delicious food in Florence on either end of the conference.
January 2023 has been a whirlwind, but so fun to attend the biannual Gordon Speciation Conference in Barga, Italy with Becca, Drew, Sara, and Heather in attendance. Drew, Heather, and Sara attended the early-career portion (Gordon Research Seminar - GRS) during the first 2 days of the conference where Drew gave a research talks and Heather and Sara presented posters. Drew's talk was one of 4 early-career talks from the GRS voted by people's choice to be featured during the main conferences as well. Excellent job, Drew! Becca was an invited speaker at the main GRC event, and we all had a great time talking about the barn swallow system and learning about some many different organisms and aspects of Speciation at this meeting. We also enjoyed some very quick site seeing and delicious food in Florence on either end of the conference.
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Safran Lab attended the American Society of Naturalists 2023 meeting in Asilomar!
We had a great time bringing grad students and postdocs to our first in-person conference since the pandemic started. Rental car and all! It was wonderful to see old friends and meet some new, network, attend an excellent symposium about the History of Eugenics in EEB, and take in the beautiful Northern California coast. Sara and Heather presented posters, and Drew and Zach both gave awesome research talks! This meeting is always a lab favorite! What a great way to start the new year!
We had a great time bringing grad students and postdocs to our first in-person conference since the pandemic started. Rental car and all! It was wonderful to see old friends and meet some new, network, attend an excellent symposium about the History of Eugenics in EEB, and take in the beautiful Northern California coast. Sara and Heather presented posters, and Drew and Zach both gave awesome research talks! This meeting is always a lab favorite! What a great way to start the new year!
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Congratulations to PhD Candidate Heather Kenny-Duddela!
On Dec 12, 2022 Heather passed her advancement to candidacy exam. We had fun celebrating together in the lab with treats and of course new decorations!
On Dec 12, 2022 Heather passed her advancement to candidacy exam. We had fun celebrating together in the lab with treats and of course new decorations!
Art + Science Outreach Events - Fall 2022
Isabelle participated in the UROP Sidewalk Symposium and worked with experienced chalk artists to illustrate her cool project about the correlations between barn swallow nest height, temperature, and reproductive success.
Some members of the lab helped at a Side by Side event at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science - Bird's Eye View!
Isabelle participated in the UROP Sidewalk Symposium and worked with experienced chalk artists to illustrate her cool project about the correlations between barn swallow nest height, temperature, and reproductive success.
Some members of the lab helped at a Side by Side event at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science - Bird's Eye View!
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Fall 2022 - welcome Toni, processing DNA samples, lab decorations, and more!
We are excited to welcome Antonia (Toni) Schuerg into our lab as a visiting Fulbright fellow from Germany. Toni is also part of the McAdam lab here at CU, and is researching paternity patterns an infanticide in red squirrels and possibly also barn swallows. Toni jumped into our group's activities right away and has been helping to map barns and prepare swallow blood samples for DNA extraction and sequencing. Heather and Toni also attended the GREEBS meeting at the beautiful Mountain Research Station!
We are excited to welcome Antonia (Toni) Schuerg into our lab as a visiting Fulbright fellow from Germany. Toni is also part of the McAdam lab here at CU, and is researching paternity patterns an infanticide in red squirrels and possibly also barn swallows. Toni jumped into our group's activities right away and has been helping to map barns and prepare swallow blood samples for DNA extraction and sequencing. Heather and Toni also attended the GREEBS meeting at the beautiful Mountain Research Station!
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We always have fun adding to the many decorations in our lab. This time we made some origami cranes and used dried cacti that Becca brought back from a trip to New Mexico!
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Field Season 2022 was a success!
Congrats to Sara on her first barn swallow season, and great job crew! Kudos to Natalie and Isabelle for their BSI and UROP independent projects, and many thanks to Aleea and Avani for being excellent team leads!
Congrats to Sara on her first barn swallow season, and great job crew! Kudos to Natalie and Isabelle for their BSI and UROP independent projects, and many thanks to Aleea and Avani for being excellent team leads!
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Avani and Aleea gave great poster presentations!
Aleea presented her continuing BSI project about parental care and nestling immune status at the spring 2022 BSI student poster session.
Avani presented her cool project on barn swallow habitat preference at the CU Boulder Spring Research Symposium 2022, and won a best poster award.
Congratulations to both!
Aleea presented her continuing BSI project about parental care and nestling immune status at the spring 2022 BSI student poster session.
Avani presented her cool project on barn swallow habitat preference at the CU Boulder Spring Research Symposium 2022, and won a best poster award.
Congratulations to both!
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Spring 2022
Lots to celebrate in the Safran lab lately!
Dr. Molly McDermott successfully defended her dissertation, and we all appreciated getting to see her in person for the great talk and some celebrations! Molly was also honored with the Adrian Wenner Strong Inference Award for her talk at SICB. Way to go! Congratulations (belatedly) to Molly on becoming a mom!
In other lab news, the Council of the American Genetic Association selected Zach's project for the 2022 Evolutionary, Ecological, or Conservation Genomics (EECG) Research Award! Heather passed her 3rd semester exam, and some folks from the lab attended a wonderful Side by Side planning retreat.
Lots to celebrate in the Safran lab lately!
Dr. Molly McDermott successfully defended her dissertation, and we all appreciated getting to see her in person for the great talk and some celebrations! Molly was also honored with the Adrian Wenner Strong Inference Award for her talk at SICB. Way to go! Congratulations (belatedly) to Molly on becoming a mom!
In other lab news, the Council of the American Genetic Association selected Zach's project for the 2022 Evolutionary, Ecological, or Conservation Genomics (EECG) Research Award! Heather passed her 3rd semester exam, and some folks from the lab attended a wonderful Side by Side planning retreat.
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, Fall 2021
So much happening around here!
In August, the lab welcomed new PhD student Sara Garcia, and computer science/EBIO undergrad Isabelle Meredith. Avani was awarded a NSF postbac fellowship to work with our group for another year (hooray!), Sage started her PhD at UC Davis in Gail Patricelli's lab, and Angela began a new job! Javan and Briana welcomed their twin babies in July and.... as of 1 November 2021, Javan is now Dr. Javan Carter!
We all took covid tests and celebrated Dr. Carter with a fun lab dinner!
So much happening around here!
In August, the lab welcomed new PhD student Sara Garcia, and computer science/EBIO undergrad Isabelle Meredith. Avani was awarded a NSF postbac fellowship to work with our group for another year (hooray!), Sage started her PhD at UC Davis in Gail Patricelli's lab, and Angela began a new job! Javan and Briana welcomed their twin babies in July and.... as of 1 November 2021, Javan is now Dr. Javan Carter!
We all took covid tests and celebrated Dr. Carter with a fun lab dinner!
Where did spring break 2020 go? Its already late August 2020!
Unbelievably, time has flown since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will eventually get around to updating our lab website on all the great news that has happened since March 2020 (and thankfully, there has been some great news!) but until then: welcome to new lab members Dr. Michael Gil (CU Chancellor's Fellow), Heather Kenny (PhD student), and Avani Fachon (new honor's thesis student). We are so glad to have Jonte Allen join us as a MA student and for Marina Ayala to stick around after working with our team over the summer, also as an honor's student. Yep, this is what our first lab meeting today looked like (see zoom pic above). Thanks for being so amazing, everyone! Let's make the most of our time together!
Unbelievably, time has flown since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will eventually get around to updating our lab website on all the great news that has happened since March 2020 (and thankfully, there has been some great news!) but until then: welcome to new lab members Dr. Michael Gil (CU Chancellor's Fellow), Heather Kenny (PhD student), and Avani Fachon (new honor's thesis student). We are so glad to have Jonte Allen join us as a MA student and for Marina Ayala to stick around after working with our team over the summer, also as an honor's student. Yep, this is what our first lab meeting today looked like (see zoom pic above). Thanks for being so amazing, everyone! Let's make the most of our time together!
Fall celebrations!
Nov 2019. So much great work and great news to celebrate! We had a lab dinner, complete with rice-themed dishes, a rice ID contest featuring 11 different varieties and a rice trivia game!
Nov 2019. So much great work and great news to celebrate! We had a lab dinner, complete with rice-themed dishes, a rice ID contest featuring 11 different varieties and a rice trivia game!
Congratulations to PhD Candidate Molly McDermott!
30 October 2019. Molly passed her advancement to candidacy exam today! Thanks to Pete Marra for coming all the way from D.C. for a few days of great science and amazing food! Shown below, some after-exam celebration with (from left to right, Becca, Molly, Andy Martin and Pete Marra).
30 October 2019. Molly passed her advancement to candidacy exam today! Thanks to Pete Marra for coming all the way from D.C. for a few days of great science and amazing food! Shown below, some after-exam celebration with (from left to right, Becca, Molly, Andy Martin and Pete Marra).
Congratulations to PhD Candidate Javan Carter!
14 October 2019. Javan passed his advancement to candidacy exam this morning! Hirundo phylogenomics: here we go! Thanks to committee members Garth Spellman (Denver Museum of Nature and Science), Stacey Smith, Sam Flaxman, and Andrew Martin for a terrific discussion!
14 October 2019. Javan passed his advancement to candidacy exam this morning! Hirundo phylogenomics: here we go! Thanks to committee members Garth Spellman (Denver Museum of Nature and Science), Stacey Smith, Sam Flaxman, and Andrew Martin for a terrific discussion!
End of summer round up, 2019
Molly and Angela continue to be busy with various experiments in the field and Javan and his crew are busy in the lab!
After a bit of travel and with a slowdown in fieldwork, it’s that time of the summer when I am starting to plan for the upcoming academic year. It will be a great year ahead with a sabbatical visit by Arnon Lotem in late August, and visits by Scott Edwards and Pete Marra later in the fall.
Three new postdocs will join the group this coming year: Zach Laubach will join us in late August, Drew Schield in early winter and Mike Gil in summer 2020.
I’ve already provided an update on what current lab folks are up to! I also thought to share a bit about our awesome lab alumni!
This time around, I asked folks to send me a short summary to share with the rest! Here is what I got (below). Everyone is up to amazing things and it’s fun to keep in touch to hear how well things are going. Congratulations to all!
Will Dube, honor’s thesis 2017
Will just finished MPH at Emory and is taking the MCAT next month before applying to med school! Will is currently a clinical research coordinator, working on various infectious disease projects at Emory University.
Matt Aberle honor’s thesis 2016
Matt completed his master’s thesis in Dana Hawley’s lab at Virginia Tech last summer and has been working in Guam and now in West Virginia! Matt reports: “I have a new job with the WV department of natural resources and the NRCS working on Cerulean Warbler habitat management! A big part of the job will involve talking with private landowners and working with them to develop good warbler habitat on their property and I think a big part of the reason I was able to get the job was my experience talking with landowners while working on the barn swallows.” Matt and his girlfriend are living on a property in West Virginia with a lot of barn swallows all over the place!
Liz Scordato, postdoc 2012 – 2017, Assistant Prof, Cal Poly Pomona
Liz writes:
Ah, lab news! Sure, would love to be included, but I don't know if I have anything super exciting share- lab is filling up with students, I did fieldwork in Sri Lanka this spring, busy summer grant writing & analyzing data. I got a couple small grants for projects here, which is nice. Migratory divide paper is up on bioRxiv and hopefully will move forward at Ecol Lett. I still feel like stuff is in the process of getting off the ground in my lab, but I think it will be a good year!
Amanda Hund, PhD 2017, Postdoc, Univ Minnesota
Amanda spent the spring in Dan Bolnick's lab in Connecticut doing an experiment comparing parasite resistance (fibrosis) in three different stickleback populations. Initial results are really cool! She is now back in MN with Emilie Snell-Rood learning to work with Monarch butterflies.
Amanda reports: This summer I am doing a project with tradeoffs between heavy metal exposure and immunity (building on Emilie's previous work, but adding immune measures). The hope is to get coinfection experiments up and running next summer with nosema and OE in monarchs. Still plugging away on barn swallow papers, one currently in review at Behavioral Ecology!
In other news, she has also been working with Yoni Vortman to plan a week-long field course in Israel that they will co-teach this fall. Announcement link here: http://english.telhai.ac.il/avian-parasitology-on-a-migratory-flyway/
Iris Levin, postdoc 2014 – 2016, Assistant Professor, Kenyon College
Iris has moved to Kenyon College, where she is now Assistant Professor in the Biology Department! She and Toshi arrived in late May and have already identified a number of excellent barn swallow breeding sites! No one will be surprised to learn that Iris has hit the ground running and is quickly setting up her new lab and field sites! Iris will be working closely with Becca and stats collaborator Bailey Fosdick on a new NSF grant, starting with our first trip to China in May 2020.
Joey Hubbard, PhD 2014, Assistant Professor, Truman State University
Joey reports:
Thanks for doing this...I sat down to think about news I had to share and realized it's been a really great year.
- MS student Patrick Moranville successfully defended his thesis (I presented on this at AOS last month) and he and I are working on turning this into a manuscript
- UG student Katie Baker got a TruScholars award (summer stipend and research funds from Truman) and a research grant from Webster Groves Nature Study Society for her honors thesis research on barn swallows
- UG student Melissa Bailey got a TruScholars award and she and I received a Wilson Ornithological Society Undergraduate Mentorship grant for her honors thesis research on eastern bluebirds (for which we have ~ 60 nest boxes put out, and ~ 50 more to put out for next spring)
- UG student Elsa Schenk got a MoLSAMP REU to fund her while doing summer field work with the barn swallows
This fall, we'll be getting a winter feeder study up and running to look at how dominance and other social interactions might impact exploratory behaviors in sparrows, finches, and other common feeder birds.
Matt Wilkins, PhD 2014, Postdoc, Vanderbilt University
Matt spent some time at UVA's Mountain Lake Biological Station giving an invited talk and running a workshop on teaching the evolution of communication for teachers from around the country. He also just got an award for Leadership in Sustainable Teaching from Urban Green Lab! Matt is working on a really cool paper on female barn swallow song while doing hugely important work in Science Communication! He plans to start a company called Galactic Polymath in the next two years that will help scientists achieve their Broader Impacts by translating research into K-12 classroom materials. Matt and Emily are getting married in the fall!
Yoni Vortman, PhD 2013, Assistant Prof, Tel-Hai College, Israel
Yoni’s report:
Update - the usual - trying to have fun along the way :) - nothing too fancy:)
one cool update is that Amanda and I are teaching a course this coming fall in Israel! - http://english.telhai.ac.il/avian-parasitology-on-a-migratory-flyway/
The recent nice paper I took part in is this one: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10452-1
Yoni reports: basically, trying to have fun, teaching a lot and on the way trying to do some science!
Brittany Jenkins, MA 2013, PhD candidate, Montana State University
Brittany reports several (what she calls ‘small’, but what I would call ‘amazing’) victories as she nears the finish line of her PhD!
Small victory #1: My abstract was chosen for a talk at a conference that's coming up at the end of July in Steamboat, CO (FASEB: The Gastrointestinal Tract Xviii Conference: Integrated Biology of the GI), and it's the first talk that I've given at a conference, so I'm looking forward to that!
Small/semi-victories (soon-to-be-bigger victories) #2: I am a co-author on 2 manuscripts that are in review right now. I already have one co-authored paper that was published last year (Alexeev, E.E., Lanis, J.M., Kao, D.J., Campbell, E.L., Kelly, C.J., Battista, K.D., Gerich, M.E., Jenkins, B.R., Walk, S.T., Kominsky, D.J., Colgan, S.P. 2018 Microbiota-derived indole metabolites promote human and murine intestinal homeostasis through regulation of interleukin-10 receptor. Am J Pathol 188, 1183–94.)
Small/semi-victories (soon-to-be-bigger victories) #3: I definitely have a solid foundation for 2 first-author papers that I hope to have written up and submitted by the end of this year/early Spring 2020!
If all goes according to plan (with cautious optimism), I just might be defending Spring 2020 or soon thereafter, which surprisingly hits the targeted defense/graduation date.
I still love living in Bozeman, and with the weather finally becoming more summer-like, there is so much to do in/around Bozeman to enjoy the outdoors and socialize.
Ciao for now!
Brittany
Rachel Bradley, BA-MA 2013
Rachel and family are still living in southern California. She reports Lily (1.5 years!) as her biggest accomplishment! Rachel runs her own a graphic design and paper good business, RBWordDesign, that she operates by moonlight!
Rachel runs a JPL family group and enjoys getting into the toddler mindset every day. :) Pictured below: Rachel and Lily!
Maren Vitousek, postdoc 2009 – 2012, Assistant Professor, Cornell University
Maren, along with Matt Wilkins, was one of the very first members of the lab!
Maren writes: Things are going very well in the lab. We've got a big group now (currently six grads, four postdocs, a tech and lots of undergrads), working on a diverse set of topics. I was recently awarded the DARPA Directors Fellowship Award to continue studying how social interactions and stressors influence the individuals that experience them. I was also very excited to receive Cornell's Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Award this spring.
I'm also in the process of going up for tenure now - fingers crossed I will have an update on that front to share next year!
Molly and Angela continue to be busy with various experiments in the field and Javan and his crew are busy in the lab!
After a bit of travel and with a slowdown in fieldwork, it’s that time of the summer when I am starting to plan for the upcoming academic year. It will be a great year ahead with a sabbatical visit by Arnon Lotem in late August, and visits by Scott Edwards and Pete Marra later in the fall.
Three new postdocs will join the group this coming year: Zach Laubach will join us in late August, Drew Schield in early winter and Mike Gil in summer 2020.
I’ve already provided an update on what current lab folks are up to! I also thought to share a bit about our awesome lab alumni!
This time around, I asked folks to send me a short summary to share with the rest! Here is what I got (below). Everyone is up to amazing things and it’s fun to keep in touch to hear how well things are going. Congratulations to all!
Will Dube, honor’s thesis 2017
Will just finished MPH at Emory and is taking the MCAT next month before applying to med school! Will is currently a clinical research coordinator, working on various infectious disease projects at Emory University.
Matt Aberle honor’s thesis 2016
Matt completed his master’s thesis in Dana Hawley’s lab at Virginia Tech last summer and has been working in Guam and now in West Virginia! Matt reports: “I have a new job with the WV department of natural resources and the NRCS working on Cerulean Warbler habitat management! A big part of the job will involve talking with private landowners and working with them to develop good warbler habitat on their property and I think a big part of the reason I was able to get the job was my experience talking with landowners while working on the barn swallows.” Matt and his girlfriend are living on a property in West Virginia with a lot of barn swallows all over the place!
Liz Scordato, postdoc 2012 – 2017, Assistant Prof, Cal Poly Pomona
Liz writes:
Ah, lab news! Sure, would love to be included, but I don't know if I have anything super exciting share- lab is filling up with students, I did fieldwork in Sri Lanka this spring, busy summer grant writing & analyzing data. I got a couple small grants for projects here, which is nice. Migratory divide paper is up on bioRxiv and hopefully will move forward at Ecol Lett. I still feel like stuff is in the process of getting off the ground in my lab, but I think it will be a good year!
Amanda Hund, PhD 2017, Postdoc, Univ Minnesota
Amanda spent the spring in Dan Bolnick's lab in Connecticut doing an experiment comparing parasite resistance (fibrosis) in three different stickleback populations. Initial results are really cool! She is now back in MN with Emilie Snell-Rood learning to work with Monarch butterflies.
Amanda reports: This summer I am doing a project with tradeoffs between heavy metal exposure and immunity (building on Emilie's previous work, but adding immune measures). The hope is to get coinfection experiments up and running next summer with nosema and OE in monarchs. Still plugging away on barn swallow papers, one currently in review at Behavioral Ecology!
In other news, she has also been working with Yoni Vortman to plan a week-long field course in Israel that they will co-teach this fall. Announcement link here: http://english.telhai.ac.il/avian-parasitology-on-a-migratory-flyway/
Iris Levin, postdoc 2014 – 2016, Assistant Professor, Kenyon College
Iris has moved to Kenyon College, where she is now Assistant Professor in the Biology Department! She and Toshi arrived in late May and have already identified a number of excellent barn swallow breeding sites! No one will be surprised to learn that Iris has hit the ground running and is quickly setting up her new lab and field sites! Iris will be working closely with Becca and stats collaborator Bailey Fosdick on a new NSF grant, starting with our first trip to China in May 2020.
Joey Hubbard, PhD 2014, Assistant Professor, Truman State University
Joey reports:
Thanks for doing this...I sat down to think about news I had to share and realized it's been a really great year.
- MS student Patrick Moranville successfully defended his thesis (I presented on this at AOS last month) and he and I are working on turning this into a manuscript
- UG student Katie Baker got a TruScholars award (summer stipend and research funds from Truman) and a research grant from Webster Groves Nature Study Society for her honors thesis research on barn swallows
- UG student Melissa Bailey got a TruScholars award and she and I received a Wilson Ornithological Society Undergraduate Mentorship grant for her honors thesis research on eastern bluebirds (for which we have ~ 60 nest boxes put out, and ~ 50 more to put out for next spring)
- UG student Elsa Schenk got a MoLSAMP REU to fund her while doing summer field work with the barn swallows
This fall, we'll be getting a winter feeder study up and running to look at how dominance and other social interactions might impact exploratory behaviors in sparrows, finches, and other common feeder birds.
Matt Wilkins, PhD 2014, Postdoc, Vanderbilt University
Matt spent some time at UVA's Mountain Lake Biological Station giving an invited talk and running a workshop on teaching the evolution of communication for teachers from around the country. He also just got an award for Leadership in Sustainable Teaching from Urban Green Lab! Matt is working on a really cool paper on female barn swallow song while doing hugely important work in Science Communication! He plans to start a company called Galactic Polymath in the next two years that will help scientists achieve their Broader Impacts by translating research into K-12 classroom materials. Matt and Emily are getting married in the fall!
Yoni Vortman, PhD 2013, Assistant Prof, Tel-Hai College, Israel
Yoni’s report:
Update - the usual - trying to have fun along the way :) - nothing too fancy:)
one cool update is that Amanda and I are teaching a course this coming fall in Israel! - http://english.telhai.ac.il/avian-parasitology-on-a-migratory-flyway/
The recent nice paper I took part in is this one: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10452-1
Yoni reports: basically, trying to have fun, teaching a lot and on the way trying to do some science!
Brittany Jenkins, MA 2013, PhD candidate, Montana State University
Brittany reports several (what she calls ‘small’, but what I would call ‘amazing’) victories as she nears the finish line of her PhD!
Small victory #1: My abstract was chosen for a talk at a conference that's coming up at the end of July in Steamboat, CO (FASEB: The Gastrointestinal Tract Xviii Conference: Integrated Biology of the GI), and it's the first talk that I've given at a conference, so I'm looking forward to that!
Small/semi-victories (soon-to-be-bigger victories) #2: I am a co-author on 2 manuscripts that are in review right now. I already have one co-authored paper that was published last year (Alexeev, E.E., Lanis, J.M., Kao, D.J., Campbell, E.L., Kelly, C.J., Battista, K.D., Gerich, M.E., Jenkins, B.R., Walk, S.T., Kominsky, D.J., Colgan, S.P. 2018 Microbiota-derived indole metabolites promote human and murine intestinal homeostasis through regulation of interleukin-10 receptor. Am J Pathol 188, 1183–94.)
Small/semi-victories (soon-to-be-bigger victories) #3: I definitely have a solid foundation for 2 first-author papers that I hope to have written up and submitted by the end of this year/early Spring 2020!
If all goes according to plan (with cautious optimism), I just might be defending Spring 2020 or soon thereafter, which surprisingly hits the targeted defense/graduation date.
I still love living in Bozeman, and with the weather finally becoming more summer-like, there is so much to do in/around Bozeman to enjoy the outdoors and socialize.
Ciao for now!
Brittany
Rachel Bradley, BA-MA 2013
Rachel and family are still living in southern California. She reports Lily (1.5 years!) as her biggest accomplishment! Rachel runs her own a graphic design and paper good business, RBWordDesign, that she operates by moonlight!
Rachel runs a JPL family group and enjoys getting into the toddler mindset every day. :) Pictured below: Rachel and Lily!
Maren Vitousek, postdoc 2009 – 2012, Assistant Professor, Cornell University
Maren, along with Matt Wilkins, was one of the very first members of the lab!
Maren writes: Things are going very well in the lab. We've got a big group now (currently six grads, four postdocs, a tech and lots of undergrads), working on a diverse set of topics. I was recently awarded the DARPA Directors Fellowship Award to continue studying how social interactions and stressors influence the individuals that experience them. I was also very excited to receive Cornell's Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Award this spring.
I'm also in the process of going up for tenure now - fingers crossed I will have an update on that front to share next year!
Summer Research 2019!
As usual, the transition from spring to summer was an abrupt one, during which we had our eyes out for the return of barn swallows and began the usual mad dash to get finished with the spring term and started with field work. The birds arrived in early April during a fairly warm spring and we thought we had an earlier than usual field season on our hands. Alas, several snowstorms pushed through Boulder in May, delaying the start of the field season.
We are now in full, full swing with a huge and talented field crew run by postdoc Dr. Angela Medina-Garcia and PhD student Molly McDermott. PhD student Javan Carter is running his own team in the lab working on several genomics projects.
Field Crew
Crew Leaders
Dr. Angela Medina Garcia: social cognition
PhD student Molly McDermott: phenotype - environment interactions
Amazing Crew Members
Sage Madden, honor's thesis student, UROP award recipient, foraging behavior
Sabela Vasquez- Rey: research assistant extraordinaire!
Christian Testerman, BSI fellowship, nestling-human interactions
Noah Goodkind: BSI fellowship, spatial use via GPS pinpoint tags
Emily Vander Pol: UROP award recipient, research assistant extraordinaire!
Ellen Scherner: BSI fellowship, information transfer in variable social contexts
Mackenzie Borum, SMART program, Agnes Scott College undergrad and assistant extraordinaire!
Genomics Lab Crew
Crew Leader
PhD student Javan Carter: phenotype evolution across Hirundo and within Hirundo rustica
Amazing Crew Members
Justine Meese: genomics research
William Williston: genomics research
Lea Hibbard, high school student, CU Science Discovery Program.
Alexandra Dalton, high school student, CU Science Discovery Program.
Click on an individual photo to see a short caption.
As usual, the transition from spring to summer was an abrupt one, during which we had our eyes out for the return of barn swallows and began the usual mad dash to get finished with the spring term and started with field work. The birds arrived in early April during a fairly warm spring and we thought we had an earlier than usual field season on our hands. Alas, several snowstorms pushed through Boulder in May, delaying the start of the field season.
We are now in full, full swing with a huge and talented field crew run by postdoc Dr. Angela Medina-Garcia and PhD student Molly McDermott. PhD student Javan Carter is running his own team in the lab working on several genomics projects.
Field Crew
Crew Leaders
Dr. Angela Medina Garcia: social cognition
PhD student Molly McDermott: phenotype - environment interactions
Amazing Crew Members
Sage Madden, honor's thesis student, UROP award recipient, foraging behavior
Sabela Vasquez- Rey: research assistant extraordinaire!
Christian Testerman, BSI fellowship, nestling-human interactions
Noah Goodkind: BSI fellowship, spatial use via GPS pinpoint tags
Emily Vander Pol: UROP award recipient, research assistant extraordinaire!
Ellen Scherner: BSI fellowship, information transfer in variable social contexts
Mackenzie Borum, SMART program, Agnes Scott College undergrad and assistant extraordinaire!
Genomics Lab Crew
Crew Leader
PhD student Javan Carter: phenotype evolution across Hirundo and within Hirundo rustica
Amazing Crew Members
Justine Meese: genomics research
William Williston: genomics research
Lea Hibbard, high school student, CU Science Discovery Program.
Alexandra Dalton, high school student, CU Science Discovery Program.
Click on an individual photo to see a short caption.
Spring travels! April 2019
April was a busy month! Becca had a great time visiting colleagues at Harvard and Uppsala Universities! In Uppsala, Becca served as the opponent (external examiner) for PhD candidate William Jones, whose dissertation on avian malaria is awesome! During the visit, Becca got some time to spend with Anna Qvarnström and lab group at Anna's summer home on the Baltic Coast. Thanks so much for hosting, Anna, and for the wonderful invitation to be a part of your defense, Will!
Mug shots. Lab folks and their mugs, near and far! Email Becca if you want a mug of your own! Mugs kindly brought to you by Georgy Semenov, featuring a painting he commissioned from the talented Kathryn Chenard
April 2019. Thanks again, National Science Foundation! and huge congratulations to Drew Schield for his NSF postdoctoral fellowship award!
March 2019. Thank you, National Science Foundation! Iris Levin, Bailey Fosdick and I have some seriously fun work to do on our newly funded grant: Linking process to pattern through an experimental network approach to identify the behavioral mechanisms of reproductive isolation.
March 2019. Gordon Conference on Speciation!
Katie Peichel and I just co-ran the third Gordon Research Conference on Speciation in Ventura, CA. So many great talks and people!
January 2019. We're hiring!
We're looking for motivated undergraduate students interested in research for our summer field crew! Check out the Join us! page for more information and a link to apply.
December 2018. Congratulations to Molly and Javan!
Molly (November) and Javan (December) passed their third semester exams! This is an important rite of passage for a graduate student - a three hour oral exam on anything related to Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Well done!
November 2018. Javan co-leads panel at CU Diversity Summit.
CU recently held the Fall Diversity & Inclusion Summit: Intent vs. Impact: Improving Inclusive Interactions [November 13-14],
Javan Carter, Christine Chang, Maria Ruiz-Martinez, Juan Garcia Oyervides and other members of the United Government of Graduate Students ran an extremely helpful panel discussion on increasing diversity in graduate programs titled:
Start Small: What Departments Can Be Doing to Be More Inclusive. This session examined how small scale changes can have a broad impact on the success of students from marginalized backgrounds. Great work, all!
Learn more about the summit here and see photos from the summit here
CU recently held the Fall Diversity & Inclusion Summit: Intent vs. Impact: Improving Inclusive Interactions [November 13-14],
Javan Carter, Christine Chang, Maria Ruiz-Martinez, Juan Garcia Oyervides and other members of the United Government of Graduate Students ran an extremely helpful panel discussion on increasing diversity in graduate programs titled:
Start Small: What Departments Can Be Doing to Be More Inclusive. This session examined how small scale changes can have a broad impact on the success of students from marginalized backgrounds. Great work, all!
Learn more about the summit here and see photos from the summit here
October 2018. Our study on demographic history of barn swallows is featured in the Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine! Check out a write up about our recent paper led by Chris Smith.
September 2018. Side by Side: Coexisting in The Built Environment
Becca, PhD student Molly McDermott, and Aaron Treher (MFA, Art & Art History) recently hosted a community art and science event at the Cargill Ranch, a longtime Safran lab research site and home of Barb and Richard Cargill. Over the summer at the Cargill’s, Aaron and Molly collaborated on a structure that is both art installation and barn swallow habitat: The Observation Station. Aaron designed and built the structure, and Molly studied visitation rates of barn swallows to the structure under various conditions.
Becca, PhD student Molly McDermott, and Aaron Treher (MFA, Art & Art History) recently hosted a community art and science event at the Cargill Ranch, a longtime Safran lab research site and home of Barb and Richard Cargill. Over the summer at the Cargill’s, Aaron and Molly collaborated on a structure that is both art installation and barn swallow habitat: The Observation Station. Aaron designed and built the structure, and Molly studied visitation rates of barn swallows to the structure under various conditions.
Side by Side included a series of presentations from artists and scientists including Becca, Aaron, and other researchers from the Safran Lab: postdoc Georgy Semenov and undergraduates Elena DeAndrea and Abby Marynowski. Guests enjoyed light lunch, kids activities, a poster session, and a tour of the nesting area including the Observation Station.
Side by Side and the Observation Station were made possible by the generosity of the Cargills, NEST Studio for the Arts, The Art and Rural Environments Field School, The Sculpture and Post-Studio Practice Area, and Inside the Greenhouse. Read CU Boulder Today’s feature on the project here. Check out more of Aaron's work here.
Side by Side and the Observation Station were made possible by the generosity of the Cargills, NEST Studio for the Arts, The Art and Rural Environments Field School, The Sculpture and Post-Studio Practice Area, and Inside the Greenhouse. Read CU Boulder Today’s feature on the project here. Check out more of Aaron's work here.
Lots of lab folks, in and out! We had the opportunity to celebrate some visits from lab alumni (Iris and Toshi from Georgia, a surprise visit by Joey from Missouri, Kyle from not so far away), to celebrate the return of Javan from his month-long trip in Mongolia, and to wish Liz and Amanda farewell! Its been a busy and productive summer. Glad we could have one more dinner (Morrocco-themed) to celebrate everyone's successful summer!
Farewell to Peter and family! Peter Pap and family have been visiting the Safran Lab through a Fulbright Fellowship since January 2018. They arrived on a very cold and wintry night and will depart during a fairly dramatic heat wave! We've had so much fun working with Peter, meeting his terrific family, and continuing our collaboration on barn swallows. Last night we celebrated his time here with a get together, complete with traditional Hungarian and Jewish foods!
Field Season 2018. We've been busy catching and tagging hundreds of barn swallows and observing their reproductive activities. Huge thanks goes to Safran Lab members Angela Medina-Garcia [postdoc] and Molly McDermott [PhD student] who have been co-running this field season and Georgy Sememov [postdoc] and our amazing set of undergraduate assistants pictured above. From left to right: Hannah Dezara, Elena Deandrea [CU BSI student], Liz Gallegos [CU Smart student from CSU Monterey Bay], Abby Marynowski [CU BSI student], Katie Sanko [U CA- Berkeley].
In the meanwhile, other lab alum are working on barn swallow or other swallow projects of their own! Check them out here [Iris Levin, Agnes Scott College], here [Joey Hubbard, Truman State University], here [Maren Vitousek, Cornell University], and here [Liz Scordato, Cal Poly Pomona]. Check out fun blog posts from the field by recent lab PhD Amanda Hund and Liz Scordato who recently traveled to Malaysia to work on Pacific swallows, a close relative of the barn swallow.
Finally, Javan Carter is off for a month of field sampling in Mongolia with Scott Edwards and the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology! Stay tuned for more news from Javan.
In the meanwhile, other lab alum are working on barn swallow or other swallow projects of their own! Check them out here [Iris Levin, Agnes Scott College], here [Joey Hubbard, Truman State University], here [Maren Vitousek, Cornell University], and here [Liz Scordato, Cal Poly Pomona]. Check out fun blog posts from the field by recent lab PhD Amanda Hund and Liz Scordato who recently traveled to Malaysia to work on Pacific swallows, a close relative of the barn swallow.
Finally, Javan Carter is off for a month of field sampling in Mongolia with Scott Edwards and the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology! Stay tuned for more news from Javan.
First day of banding 2018! The birds are making their way back from migrating thousands of miles south of Boulder and starting to breed earlier than they have in the past few years! A combination of warm rain and sunny weather is good news for barn swallows! Javan, Molly, Georgy, Becca and Ayla (Becca's 11-year old) were out to catch the first birds of the season!
Javan handling his first ever barn swallow!
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Javan and Molly measuring a barn swallow
Georgy with his first North American barn swallow! He has banded plenty of Asian barn swallows in Russia and Mongolia.
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3 May 2018 Lab organization day!
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When and how does the field season get started? Long before the birds arrive! Everyone pitched in to completely inventory and organize all our lab and field equipment for our busiest time of the year: summer field research!
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Thanks for all the great help everyone!
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- May 2018. Sheela passed her comprehensive exam and she is now officially a PhD candidate! Congrats!
Safran lab grad students were very successful in getting research and travel awards this spring. The list of funders includes American Ornithological Society, American Genetics Association, Beverly Sears, British Ornithologists’ Union, Colorado Field Ornithologists, American Museum of Natural History, National Geographic, University of Colorado United Government of Graduate Students, Center for the Study of Origins, NEST Studio for the Arts and CU Ecology & Evolutionary Biology department. Well done, team!
In the meanwhile, the lab is getting ready for upcoming field season - Barn Swallows are back to Colorado and are waiting for keen researchers to unravel their evolutionary secrets.
April 2018. We had an awesome time at the AOS 2018 meeting in Tucson! Becca, Sheela and Georgy gave talks spotlighting the topics of avian hybridization and speciation, and Molly presented a poster discussing connections between migratory behavior and sexual signals. We also had some fun checking out the local birds!
Feb 2018. Welcome to new lab members, postdocs Angela Medina-Garcia, Georgy Semenov and Fulbright Fellow, Peter Pap. Lots of birthday celebrations this month!
One of many February birthday celebrations! From left to right: Javan Carter, Sheela Turbek, Peter Pap, Angela Medina-Garcia, Georgy Semenov, Molly McDermott, Amanda Hund, and Becca Safran.
Presenting.... Dr. Hund! Amanda defended her PhD yesterday (5 September 2017)! Amanda gave an awesome dissertation seminar on 7 September! Way to go, Dr. Hund! From left to right: Molly, Scott, Liz, Dr. Hund, Becca, Javan.
August 2017. As usual, we've all been so busy that its been hard to find the time to update this website! So much good news to share: Liz and Joey both got tenure track jobs last spring! Joey is now an Assistant Professor at Truman State University! Liz will join the faculty of Cal Poly, Pomona in January 2018! Matt has recently moved to Vanderbilt University to take as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Science Outreach! Amanda was awarded not one but TWO different dissertation completion fellowships! She is defending her dissertation on 5 September; her dissertation seminar will take place on 8 September! Many of us traveled to Minnesota in August for Amanda's wedding on her family farm [pictured here]. Sheela and I traveled to China and worked with Liu Yu for about a month in May where we recaptured geolocator tags placed on barn swallows along a transect in the Gansu Province. Check out various blog posts related to this amazing and successful adventure and the slideshow below!
Last but not least: we have several new members of the lab to welcome this fall: Javan Carter and Molly McDermott joined the lab as new PhD students! Angela Medina Garcia has moved to Colorado and will officially start her NSF postdoctoral fellowship in January.
Last but not least: we have several new members of the lab to welcome this fall: Javan Carter and Molly McDermott joined the lab as new PhD students! Angela Medina Garcia has moved to Colorado and will officially start her NSF postdoctoral fellowship in January.
field work in China [Becca and Sheela and Liu Yu May - June 2017]
Sheela aces her third semester exam and is off to Argentina to study Capuchino seedeaters. Congratulations, Sheela!
Fall 2016. Well, we have been BUSY! So busy, that there hasn't been too much time to update this part of the website. What's been happening? All kinds of great travel for field work on barn swallows including to Egypt (Amanda, Liz), Morocco (Liz, Sheela), China (Liz, several times, and more recently, Sheela and David).
The barn swallow genome is now complete and our first genomics papers are now in print (see Safran et al. 2016, Molecular Ecology, and Wilkins et al. in press, Journal of Evolutionary Biology). Much more to come, very soon with a very cool new paper on hybrid zone dynamics led by awesome postdoc, Liz Scordato.
Iris is off to her new amazing job as Assistant Professor of Biology at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. Kyle completed his BA-MA degree in May and spent a summer working in Alaska. Sheela was awarded the NSF Graduate Fellowship and did fieldwork in Morocco, Colorado, and China during summer, 2016. Amanda received a NSF DDIG grant to do a huge gene expression field experiment which she completed in summer, 2016 with a huge crew of two NSF REU students and three NSF RET teachers. During the spring and summer of 2016, David continued his cool work on hybridization in quail in the deserts of California.
The barn swallow genome is now complete and our first genomics papers are now in print (see Safran et al. 2016, Molecular Ecology, and Wilkins et al. in press, Journal of Evolutionary Biology). Much more to come, very soon with a very cool new paper on hybrid zone dynamics led by awesome postdoc, Liz Scordato.
Iris is off to her new amazing job as Assistant Professor of Biology at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. Kyle completed his BA-MA degree in May and spent a summer working in Alaska. Sheela was awarded the NSF Graduate Fellowship and did fieldwork in Morocco, Colorado, and China during summer, 2016. Amanda received a NSF DDIG grant to do a huge gene expression field experiment which she completed in summer, 2016 with a huge crew of two NSF REU students and three NSF RET teachers. During the spring and summer of 2016, David continued his cool work on hybridization in quail in the deserts of California.
Evolution, 2016. Austin, Texas! With (left to right): Liz Scordato, Becca Safran, Joey Hubbard and Matt Wilkins and Aaron Commeault (behind Becca and Joey)
The entire lab and some recent alums [Joanna Hubbard and Matt Wilkins] attended the American Society of Naturalists stand alone meeting in Asilomar, California in January 2016. Everyone gave great presentations!! Yep, that's Wilkins up to his usual shenanigans :)
Trevor Price comes to hang out! [spring 2016]. Just in time to congratulate Kyle Donahue on his MA defense! Well done, Kyle!
with (left to right): Chris Smith, Sheela Turbek, Liz Scordato, Trevor Price, Kyle Donahue, and Iris Levin
with (left to right): Chris Smith, Sheela Turbek, Liz Scordato, Trevor Price, Kyle Donahue, and Iris Levin
Congratulations Dr. Hubbard!
Joey successfully defended her dissertation in October 2014!
Joey successfully defended her dissertation in October 2014!
Fall 2014. Its been a wonderful term! Our lab went to the Ornithology meetings in Estes Park in September where we introduced two visitors to our lab (Liu Yu from China and Georgy Semenov from Russia) to the Rocky Mountains!
Summer 2014
Iris Levin joins the lab as a NSF postdoctoral fellow. We had a lot of fun learning the ropes of deploying encounternet proximity tags on barn swallows during May and July!
June 2014
Matt received a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Biological Sciences. He will be leaving the world of the barn swallow to work with Drs. Dai Shizuka and Eileen Hebets in studies of complex signal evolution in Schizocosa wolf spiders. Congrats, Matt!
April 2014. Amanda, Joey and Becca travel to the Czech Republic to visit with our collaborator Tomas Albrecht and his wonderful group.
Matt received a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Biological Sciences. He will be leaving the world of the barn swallow to work with Drs. Dai Shizuka and Eileen Hebets in studies of complex signal evolution in Schizocosa wolf spiders. Congrats, Matt!
April 2014. Amanda, Joey and Becca travel to the Czech Republic to visit with our collaborator Tomas Albrecht and his wonderful group.
May 2, 2014. Joey gives her exit talk! she will defend her dissertation in early October 2014.
April 2014
Introducing... Dr. Wilkins!
Matt successfully defended his dissertation on April 18th and gave a terrific public talk on April 25th!
Introducing... Dr. Wilkins!
Matt successfully defended his dissertation on April 18th and gave a terrific public talk on April 25th!
March 2014
Its been a busy month around here! We (finally) moved in to our newly renovated lab space (lots of room for benchwork) and are getting settled in.
Great news from many lab members
David Zonana is awarded a National Evolutionary Synthesis Center fellowship for Fall 2014.
Joanna Hubbard is awarded a teaching position in our department for the Fall 2014 as part of our new GTPI program!
Rachel Bradley's (formerly Wildrick) first chapter of her BA/MA degree is OUT in Ethology!
Amanda Hund is awarded a Beverly Sears Research Fellowship
Its been a busy month around here! We (finally) moved in to our newly renovated lab space (lots of room for benchwork) and are getting settled in.
Great news from many lab members
David Zonana is awarded a National Evolutionary Synthesis Center fellowship for Fall 2014.
Joanna Hubbard is awarded a teaching position in our department for the Fall 2014 as part of our new GTPI program!
Rachel Bradley's (formerly Wildrick) first chapter of her BA/MA degree is OUT in Ethology!
Amanda Hund is awarded a Beverly Sears Research Fellowship
Oct 6, 2013
Inside the Greenhouse hosts the Climate Wise Women!
20 September 2013
Thank you to the editors of Science for highlighting our current paper in Biology Letters!
Thank you to the editors of Science for highlighting our current paper in Biology Letters!
August 25 2013. Everyone is back safe and sound from a busy busy summer of research near and far!
Summer sampling expedition across Russia!
May 16, 2013-- Matt Wilkins and Liz Scordato are now in Russia, undertaking a 2.5 month transect across Siberia. They will be sampling across contact zones between three subspecies for our ongoing research on sexual selection and speciation. Read more and follow their progress at: barnswallowproject.com!
9 May 2013 Rachel Wildrick successfully defends her BA/MA and graduates from CU!
Joey and Amanda in the Czech Republic from April - June
Check out their awesome blog at http://www.colorado.edu/ebio/hubbard/Joey_Hubbard/Blog/Blog.html
Inside the Greenhouse collaborators Beth Osnes, Max Boykoff and Becca Safran roll out their first presentation on creative climate communication, featuring James Balog. See our handout below.
All three Safran Lab Ph.D. students are awarded Beverly Sears Grants for summer research! Go Amanda, Joey and Matt!
Matt and Joey at their finest!
Amanda Hund aces 3rd semester exam! and is awarded research funding from the American Museum of Natural History!
March 2013: Matt's first dissertation chapter: Cover article of Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Congrats to Matt Wilkins!! His first dissertation chapter is featured on the cover of TREE! Read the article by clicking on this link
January 2013: We're moving!
Just down the hall into a bigger space where everyone and everything can fit comfortably. And we had to add some of our own touches to the place...
Joey and Amanda go crazy with the orange paint while Matt personalizes his office in assorted blues! Yes, these are barn swallow colors!
Dec 2012. Brittany graduates with her M.A. in EBIO!
Here is a photo of Mike Breed hooding Brittany at the December graduation ceremony in EBIO! Congrats Brittany! Brittany is headed to the University of Wyoming where she will be a professional research assistant doing work in endocrinology!
Nov 2012 Brittany defends her MA thesis!
Brittany did a super job on her MA thesis defense! She will graduate in December. Congratulations Brittany!
Nov 2012 Maren Vitousek moves to Cornell
A fond farewell to Dr. Maren Vitousek who has recently moved to Cornell. We'll miss you Maren!
Nov 2012 Liz Scordato joins the lab!
Liz Scordato recently completed her PhD with Trevor Price at the University of Chicago and joined us to work on the genomics of speciation. Welcome Liz!
Nov 2012 Rachel Wildrick aces her qualifying exam!
... and is now completing her BA-MA degree and planning her wedding!