EEB Graduate Students at Cornell
Home of the Cornell Graduate Student Association in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Last April’s Diversity Recruitment Weekend in EEB and NBB was a wonderful success, with students arriving from across the country to learn about graduate school and the application process. Organization of the 2018 Diversity Recruitment Weekend – now including the departments of Plant Science and Entomology – is already under way. Spread the word!
The 2018 application website: http://www.inclusivecornell.org/
Meet the dynamic duo who led the effort:
Meet the attendees and explore the weekend:
The Fall 2017 semester has begun! We celebrated the return of most of Ithaca’s population with our annual Department Picnic. Faculty, graduate students, post-docs, and staff brought delectable dishes, fired up the grill, and admired the sunset over Cayuga Lake at Taughannock Park. Welcome back!
I’m a second year PhD student in David Winkler’s lab studying the role of bird migration on parasite-host interactions. I am interested in the role that host migration plays on the transmission of avian malaria and how it affects the diversification of parasitic organisms. Long-distance migrants such as Tree Swallows have the capacity tocarry around different strains and connect parasite communities across large regions. I work with two species of swallow – Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) in the US, and White-winged Swallows (T. albiventer) in Peru – to compare how different migratory regimes, and life histories affect transmission of avian malaria and connectivity of parasite communities.
Besides my research, I’m very interested in encouraging and strengthening science, conservation, tropical biology, and education in my home country: Peru. I mentor students through the REPU program and actively look for new ways to contribute in Peruvian organizations. In my free time I like taking pictures, watching movies, TV shows and YouTube, reading, and playing volleyball. Lastly, I’m – relatively – active in social media (@davidchvo) to talk science, nature, graduate school, and Peru!
I am a third year PhD student studying hybridization in birds in Irby Lovette’s lab. Hybridization is extremely common in nature, and we can use naturally hybridizing organisms to understand speciation–or how and why new species arise. I am currently working on this problem in the northern flicker (Colaptes auratus), a common woodpecker across North America. The northern flicker includes two main subspecies – red-shafted and yellow-shafted flickers – that hybridize in a large hybrid zone from northern Texas to southern Alaska, following the Rocky Mountains. I use a combination of field and molecular methods, but also spend a good deal of time on the computer analyzing data.
Outside of my dissertation research, I’m interested in increasing diversity in the sciences, research on teaching, and mentoring students. I like to spend time with my partner and our dog, cross-stitching, reading comics, and watching movies and TV shows. I tweet about science and life with the handle @s_m_aguillon.
How do indirect interactions structure plant-insect communities and drive the evolution of plant traits? This is the question I am excited to pursue with my thesis research. In the common evening primrose (Oenothera biennis), I study the function of flowers in an asexual species. In the absence of a need for pollinators, does the genetic variation provided by a low level of outcrossing maintain floral display? Or do flowers convey a fitness benefit by attracting predators, a form of indirect defense against herbivores? In another project with spotted Joe Pye weed and white boneset (both of Eupatoriinae), I am interested in how competition among neighboring plants is impacted by associational susceptibility and resistance to herbivores. Understanding the relative strength of such neighbor effects could help explain the ecology and evolution of plant growth and defense traits.
I also work in community outreach and science education, hoping to increase public access and understanding of science. I like to practice talking science, from teaching second-graders about insect communication to guiding high-school students through their science projects. My other pursuits include political advocacy and helping recruit a more diverse cohort of new ecologists. In my free time I experiment with baking, read science fiction and fantasy, and explore virtual worlds like Breath of the Wild. Oh yeah, and I work on this website!
This year’s Grilled Cheese competition was particularly remarkable: first, Harry Green himself was present to judge the best sandwich.
Second, our Cornell mascot Big Red emerged from hibernation to artfully place sandwiches between his teeth.
Third, most shockingly but most welcome, our brand new Cornell University President Martha E. Pollack came to judge our very silly but beloved event.
Teams ranged dramatically in style and names, from The Glutentag to The Really Really Really Ridiculously Good Tasting Grilled Cheese. Congratulations to all for a fantastic, delicious event!
Cornell EEB just hosted our first annual Diversity Recruitment Weekend! Together with grad students in the NBB (Neurobiology and Behavior) department, we welcomed 22 interested students (and post-grads) to Corson-Mudd. The weekend was full of workshops on how to identify potential mentors and apply for graduate school, as well as meetings with faculty and post-docs. The enterprise was led by Sue Pierre and Cait MacDonald, and supported by the hard work of more than 20 graduate students who gave tours, developed workshops, hosted recruits, and organized all catering and event planning. Thanks to the Graduate School for your support, and we are excited to see a more diverse pool of applicants to our program next year!
For more photos and tweets, search #CUPhDDRW17 on Twitter, or check out @CUEEBDiversity
This Saturday, EEB grad students volunteered at Expanding Your Horizons! EYH is a campus-wide annual outreach event that introduces middle-school girls to STEM topics and research. Graduate students work hard to design workshops for multiple groups of young students throughout the day. Check out photos below from the Bug Zoo set up by our neighbors in Entomology and hosted by students from both our departments. At the Lab of Ornithology, grads taught attendees about the evolution and behavior of birds and showed off the Lab of O’s incredible collections.
We’ve transitioned to a blog format for event updates. Please check out our old page here for events prior to April 2017!