Spring 2012
April 28– Congratulations to our graduating seniors Keith Garmire and Tyler Stipack! Good Luck! We will miss you!
April 26– Alexis Fitzgerald joined oiur lab as an undergraduate researcher.
March 22– We are excited to announce that Graduate student Alison Hale won an outstanding presentation award at the 2012 Graduate Student Exposition. Congratulations Alison!
March 1– Graduate student Nathan Brouwer passed his comprehensive exam in pursuit of his Ph.D. Excellent job, Nathan!
January 4– Ashley O'Conor joined our lab as an undergraduate researcher.
January 4– Keith Garmire joined our lab as an undergraduate researcher.
Fall 2011
October 10 – Alison Hale is officially a PhD candidate! Congratulations, Alison, on a great overview meeting.
October 8 – Alison Hale gave a public talk on her research at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden to an audience of 200+ people.
October 7 – Alison Hale gave an interview for the local radio show the Saturday Light Brigade. She was also interviewed about her research and life as a scientist by Pittsburgh area high school students.
September 22 – Katie Abele joined our lab as an undergraduate researcher.
September 14 – Katy Stark joined our lab as an undergraduate researcher.
September 1 – Adam Sinder, an undergrad researcher in our lab from Carnegie Mellon University left the Kalisz lab to become a research tech in Dr. Steve Tonsor’s lab. We miss you Adam, but we know where to find you!
Summer 2011
August 25 – Rebecca Callodonato takes over the job of Kalisz Lab Web Czarina, succeeding the former Web Czar, Cory Kohn. She is doing a fabulous job! Thank you, Becca.
August 7-12– Dr. Rachel Spigler, Alison Hale, Nathan Brouwer and Dr. Kalisz had a great time while attending the Ecological Society of America National meeting in Austin, Texas. Our lab presented three talks. Rachel’s talk was entitled "Selection for selfing in Collinsia verna? Evidence from the past and implications for the future." Alison’s paper was entitled “Testing the "mutualism disruption" hypothesis for invasion: Impacts on a long-lived native herb.” Nathan presented his first conference talk, "There must be 50 ways to leave your population: herbivores, dormancy and plant population dynamics."
July – Dr. Rachel Spigler and Nathan Brouwer traveled to the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany to take part in a course entitled Introduction to Evolutionary Demography. Nathan and Rachel received travel and housing awards to attend this course. Sehr gut!
July 5 – Aaron Cantor left for Australia. Aaron was chosen to be a prestigious Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar for one year. Congratulations, Aaron! You can follow his travels through Australia on his blog. Check It Out!
Spring 2011
May 1 – Nathan began fieldwork based at the University of Pittsburgh’s Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology (PLE). He is investigating the phenomena of whole-plant dormancy in multiple populations near PLE. This work is possible thanks to Nathan’s NSF Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, the collaboration and permission of numerous private landowners, and Firth Maple Products of Saegertown, PA.
April 22-24 – Dr. Kalisz and Dr. Rachel Spigler participated in the NSF sponsored MicroMORPH working group workshop entitled “Microevolution of Development: processes within populations and species” at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Check It Out!
April 25 – We said farewell to Cory Kohn and Aaron Cantor, both HHMI funded undergraduate researchers who worked in the Kalisz lab for three years. Cory is now is a graduate student in the Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior Program of Michigan State University. Aaron will begin Medical School at Penn State University in the fall of 2012.
March 31 – Three graduate students from the Kalisz lab were awarded Outstanding Paper Presentation Awards at the University of Pittsburgh Grad Expo for their presentations. Alison Hale won for her paper “Testing the "mutualism disruption" hypothesis: a physiological mechanism for invasion of intact perennial plant communities.” Nathan Brouwer won for his paper entitled “Deer Herbivory induces Dormancy and creates Population Cycles in Perennial Plants.” Christopher Heckel won for his paper entitled: “Assessing the consequence of non-consumptive effects of herbivores for unpalatable plant population dynamics.” The triple crown!
March – Alison Hale is awarded the Botany-in-Action Grant of Phipps Conservatory ($3000) and the Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research ($937) to continue her research!