Gavrilets' work on monogamy featured in Slate

UTK Distinguished Professor Sergey Gavrilets' work on the evolution of monogamy, published in PNAS, has been featured in an article in the online magazine Slate. In his model, low-ranked males begin providing resources to females, who begin selecting them rather than higher-ranked males. Such behavior then becomes optimal for males higher and higher up the hierarchy.

EEB grad students and NIMBioS staff meet with Se. Corker staff

(From left) Kelly Sturner (NIMBioS), Jessica Bryant (EEB), and Emily Austin (EEB) met with Hunter Bethea, a legislative assistant of Sen. Corker.

Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EEB) Department graduate students Emily Austin and Jessica Bryant along with Kelly Sturner, NIMBioS Education & Outreach Coordinator, were invited to visit the office of U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) to talk about NIMBioS’ and EEB’s involvement in the USA Science & Engineering Festival. The group spoke with Hunter Bethea, legislative assistant to Corker, about how participation in federally-supported science education and outreach programs, such as NSF research experiences for undergraduates and Department of Energy education programs, led them to pursue science careers, and now inspire them to give back through participating in science outreach.

EEB/NIMBioS at USA Science and Engineering Festival

Sarah Wood, undergraduate in the Classen lab, teaches elementary students how to measure plant traits.

The USA Science and Engineering Festival on April 28 and 29 in Washington, DC brought the excitement of science to people from around the country. EEB and NIMBioS teamed up and presented two booths in the festival. Emily Austin and Jessica Bryant, Classen lab graduate students, taught Science Fest attendees about fungal decomposition of wood using decaying logs in terrariums. Sarah Wood, an undergraduate in the Classen Lab, and Kelly Sturner, education and outreach coordinator in NIMBioS, taught visitors about intra- and inter-specific variation in Solidago plants by having them measure stem and leaf traits. Both booths encouraged observations, data collection and graphical analysis. Many Science Fest attendees were families with elementary or middle school-aged children, but several teachers were there to pick up science project ideas for their classrooms. In all, an estimated 300,000 people left the event having learned at least one thing: science is exciting!

Paul Ehrlich addresses UT

Famed ecologist Paul Ehrlich addressed an audience at UT as part of the Baker Center Interdisciplinary Group on Energy and Environmental Policy series. For more information, see this article in UTK's student newspaper, The Daily Beacon.

Wildflower pilgrimage begins

The Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage is an annual five-day event in Great Smoky Mountains National Park consisting of a variety of wildflower, fauna, and natural history walks, motorcades, photographic tours, art classes, and indoor seminars. Most programs are outdoors in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, while indoor offerings are held in various venues throughout Gatlinburg, TN. Many UTK faculty, staff, and students participate in and organize these events.

Phyloseminar on "Making comparative methods as easy as ABC"

Faculty member Brian O'Meara is giving a phyloseminar on March 30 at 2 pm eastern on "Making comparative methods as easy as ABC" based on work by him and postdoc Barb Banbury. A phyloseminar is a seminar delivered online virtually -- people around the world can log in to watch and ask questions. For more information, see http://phyloseminar.org/.

Update: The seminar is over. You can see a recording at http://phyloseminar.org/recorded.html and the slides at http://www.brianomeara.info/talks.

UT EEB undergraduate at STEM Education Research Conference

Sarah Wood, an EEB sophomore, was one of 9 undergrads from across the state of TN selected to present a poster and attend the MTSU 5th annual STEM Education Research Conference Funded by Tennessee Space Grant and MTSU. For more information see this article in the Tennessean.

UT EEB undergraduate teaches science on the National Mall

UTK EEB undergraduate Sarah Jeanne Wood recently participated in a 2-day Science Expo on the National Mall, where half a million people came to learn about science and engineering. Sarah presented on her research on intraspecific variation in Solidago, done in collaboration with postdoc Lara Souza and EEB assistant professor Aimée Classen. For a detailed story, please see this article from UTK's Arts and Sciences magazine, Higher Ground.