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October 2006-Holy cow it's been a long time since we've updated these web pages. We're all just having so much fun doing research, that we haven't wanted to stop and do the more mundane tasks! -Congratulations to Brian Allan for recently being awarded an EPA star Fellowship! We're especially happy, because it means we get to keep him around for a while longer. He also received an American Philosophical Society Lewis and Clark Grant for Field Exploration this past summer. -In case you didn't see it, B. Allan's research on the effects of forestry practices on tick abundance was featured on the FRONT PAGE of the local paper, the St. Louis Post Dispatch. We've heard that the story was picked up by the Columbia, MO paper, and that NPR is even interested in doing a story on Brian's research... -We want to welcome our newest lab members, Amber Burgett and Beth Biro. -We want to say goodbye to some of our other lab members; Rachel Shulman left us to be a grad student in sunny Santa Barbara, Pete Van Zandt is now at the University of Alabama Binghamton, and Leon Blaustein is now in New Jersey. Frankly, based on where they ended up, we think Rachel must be the smartest of the bunch.
-Yippie, another school year has started! Is there anything better than classes? I think not. -Damn, Rachel S., Theo V., Alex H., and Crystal Y. kicked some mighty butt at this year’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute undergraduate research fellow’s symposium. In my completely unbiased opinion, they were the absolute best there! Long live ecology! -Brian Allan, Wade Ryberg, Rachael Katz, Khrysti Smyth, Nick Griffin and the rest of the West Nile Virus urban assault team continued their study of the ecology of the disease along urban gradients by pulling some insane hours and driving that poor Ford Exploring ragged. Give Brian props for organizing such a major project with so many collaborators! -Jon went off to the institute for ecosystem studies (www.ecostudies.org) to give a seminar….Brian came along to talk ticks and disease with Dr. Rick Ostfeld, and party like a rock-star! -Wade and Orjan sampled their experiment on old-field fragmentation in Tyson’s south field. Hmm….hours of vacuuming bugs out of their plots….vacuuming bugs?? What’s up with that?
August 2004- Sure, it happened in May, not August, but here’s a picture of Jon in Sweden with Lauri Oksanen, the famous food web ecologist. What’s wrong with this picture? It was taken at Midnight!! - A bunch of us went off to Portland for this year's ESA meeting. Some flying, and others driving cross-country (for several days in a cramped car). Guess which of us have grants, and which don't.
- The lab canoe trip was an awesome time....except, the beer ran out too early! Pete caught a fish, but it was pretty pathetic. - Jon went into hiding for a couple of weeks to make the July 9 NSF deadline....gotta love procrastination! - Dr. John Faaborg, of the University of Missouri, gave the second Tyson. Talk. - The lab said a bitter-sweet goodbye to technician, Khrysti Smyth, by eating lots of grilled food and drinking lots of beer at the Bunker Bar. Khrysti's moving on to start her M.S. at SLU. Go Khrysti!! - The 4th season of the Simpsons is out on DVD....no time for work. - Jon and Tiff are buying their first house...just down the street from School! It's gonna be a total party pad. Wade and Becky also just bought a new house. Gotta love those mortgages. - The lab said goodbye to Jamie K., who's off to start an assistant professorship in California! Don't do it Jamie, stay a postdoc forever!! The goodbye lunch was fun....can't go wrong at Blueberry hill!
- The new field season is in full gear, and there's tons of activity going on out at Tyson. Over 20 new projects, and counting! - Brian Allan has put together a crack team of graduate students and collaborators to conduct a huge and really cool project exploring the role of urbanization, bird diversity, mosquito diversity, and West Nile Virus. The team is cranking on getting bird diversity data this month, waking up way too early, and putting a ton of miles on their cars. - Dr. Megan Gibbons, Assistant Professor at Birmingham Southern College, has graced us with her presence for the summer, and is doing a cool project on fish and frogs (and hanging out with Pete, her Fiance) - Dr. Peter Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden, gives the inaugural seminar at Tyson expounding on the values of research at field stations, encouraging us to forge links with research at the Shaw Nature Reserve, and admonishing us to keep our Garlic Mustard seeds the @#$%*& away from his reserve! - Immediately following Dr. Raven's talk, we had an awesome 'after party', inaugurating the bunker bar (you have to see it to believe it). Way to go to everyone who put the effort into putting it together, especially Brian and Wade! - Pete and Jon got an supplement to their Monsanto grant looking at the Ecological Costs of Transgenic plants.
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