News Archive
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015 (2015 was not a good year for posting news. Whoops!)
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2019
- Big news: Jessica will be teaching Field Mammalogy at the University of Biological Station Summer 2020. Learn more about it here (December 2019)
- Successful and fun lab white elephant party! Happy holidays! (December 2019)
- Congratulations to all of the Fall 2019 Graduates! (December 2019)
- Final grades submitted! (December 2019)
- Congratulations, Adrian! Adrian is the 2nd PhD student to graduate from the Light Lab. (December 2019)
- Anxiously awaiting word on two manuscripts. tick. tock (anyone watching "Watchmen"?) (November 2019)
- Who wants to see some great videos of the urban wildlife?? Jessica's dog is tormented by these critters. (November 2019)
- Popular press article about recently published work on a new species of bat from Nicaragua here (October 2019)
- Manuscript provisionally accepted! This one was a doozy too....267 page host-parasite checklist. (October 2019)
- It's officially fall (and it feels like it too, at least for a few days) (October 2019)
- Proposal submitted! (September 2019)
- Lots of new manuscripts are available online! Check out the Publications page to see more. (September 2019)
- Mammalogy small mammal trapping has been super successful so far! 4 species and good numbers (September 2019)
- Manuscript accepted, yay! (September 2019)
- Fall 2019 Semester is in full swing! Check out the People page to see all the new Light lab members (and keep an eye out for updates). (September 2019)
- Proposal submitted! (August 2019)
- Grants proposals due and classes are about to start. (August 2019)
- Another manuscript accepted! Congratulations Whitney! (August 2019)
- Whoo-hoo! Congratulations to Adrian for successfully defending his dissertation! Great job, Adrian! (August 2019)
- Adrian's defense has been announced: Wednesday August 14th 9:30 (WFES 411):
"Using museums and mammals to unravel Central American biodiversity and biogeography" (August 2019) - Another PhD student is getting ready to graduate, while we welcome several new lab members. Check out the People page to learn more. (August 2019)
- Sad, but excited, for Whitney's imminent departure for her postdoc. We'll miss you, Whitney! Be sure to follow Whitney on twitter @WCPreisser to follow her adventures (July 2019)
- Wednesday July 16th: Project recommended for funding by NSF! Whoo-hoo! Learn about our #parasite research here: http://parasitetracker.org/ #collectionsareessential (July 2019)
- Monday July 15th: Manuscript accepted. What a great way to start a work week! (July 2019)
- Happy 4th of July! (July 2019)
- The Light Lab rocked the #asm100 meetings with Emma, Grace, Adrian, Leila, Whitney, and Jessica all presenting. Great job, folks! (June 2019)
- Congratulations to Leila, PhD student in @TAMUEEB (home departments @essm_tamu & @wfsctamu) for receiving a 2019-2020 Dissertation Fellowship from @TAMU_OGAPS! Amazing news! (June 2019)
- Gearing up for summer meetings! (June 2019)
- Centenntial issue of the Journal of Mammalogy is out! So many great articles here (May 2019)
- Super duper congratulations to Whitney on passing her dissertation defense! Whitney is the first Light lab PhD student to defend and she did a superb job. Congratulations, Whitney! (May 2019)
- Leila has passed her proposal defense. Great job, Leila! (May 2019)
- Congratulations to our 2019 WFSC graduates (especially David, Lacie, and Melanie)! (May 2019)
- Manuscript (re)submitted! (May 2019)
- Congratulations to Whitney! She was awarded best presentation at the 2019 Houston Regional Ecology & Evolution Student Symposium (May 2019)
- May is going to be an exciting month....stay tuned! (May 2019)
- Manuscript submitted! Starting April off right...maybe there will be a few more?? (April 2019)
- #2019MMM has come to a close. Congrats to Bengal Tiger, this year's champion! Reviews of the battle at Wakelet and the Rodent Roundtable (April 2019)
- Congratulations to Grace! We just found she is the recipient of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Outstanding Sophomore Student Award!! (March 2019)
- Congratulations to past Light-lab member Bonner Watson!! Recipient of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Outstanding Senior Student Award!! (March 2019)
- Congratulations to Adrian!!! Recipient of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Outstanding PhD Student Award!! (March 2019)
- Adrian and Leila both scored travel grants to the upcoming mammalogy meeting! Yay! (March 2019)
- And congratulations to Caylie for winning 2nd Place Poster Presentation for the Undergraduate Category at Student Research Week. Caylie's poster was about the BRTC and ocelot specimens. (March 2019)
- Congratulations to Leila! She won 1st Place Oral Presentation in the Graduate Sciences Category for Student Research Week. Yay! (March 2019)
- One more manuscript submitted, this time to Journal of Mammalogy. Here's hoping it gets sent out for review!
- MARCH MAMMAL MADNESS IS HERE #2019MMM (March 2019)
- Manuscript accepted at Ecology and Evolution. So excited to see this one accepted (pocket gopher-chewing louse population dynamics) (March 2019)
- Three manuscripts submitted to Therya! Yippie! (March 2019)
- Whitney's parasite latitudinal gradient paper is out (early view): Link (March 2019)
- If all goes well, several manuscripts will be submitted the week of March 4th (let's see what happens) (March 2019)
- Three Light lab manuscripts came out in bring within the first 4 days of March. Check out the Publications page to see them. (March 2019)
- New manuscript accepted, yay! (February 2019)
- See the Publications pages for links to Adrian's recent publications. Congrats, Adrian! (February 2019)
- Chewing louse population genetics study online-early here! (February 2019)
- New papers with volumes and page numbers, coming soon! (February 2019)
- Jessica and Adrian are off to the annual meeting of the Texas Society of Mammalogists. Track the meeting here: #txmamm2019 (February 2019)
- Congratulations to Whitney again! The first manuscript from her dissertation has been accepted for publication in Ecography. (February 2019)
- Congratulations to Whitney! She's going to take a postdoctoral research position in the lab of Chelsea Woods at the University of Washington. (January 2019)
- The chewing louse population genetics study out of the University of Northern Iowa louselab (louselab.uni.edu/) is now online at Molecular Ecology. Check it out here (January 2019)
- Adrian's study at Methods in Ecology and Evolution is available online here (January 2019)
- Bridgett's Master's thesis is online at Journal of Mammalogy. Here it is! (January 2019)
2018
- Happy holidays everyone! See you in 2019! (December 2018)
- TWO IN A ROW! MANUSCRIPT ACCEPTED! Chewing louse population genetics study out of the University of Northern Iowa louselab (louselab.uni.edu/) accepted at Molecular Ecology. Huzzah! (December 2018)
- MANUSCRIPT ACCEPTED! Congratulations to Adrian on getting the first chapter of his dissertation accepted! #milkshaketime (December 2018)
- Two manuscripts in press at Journal of Mammalogy (Benedict et al. and Cook & Light). Look for them in 2019. Cook & Light is available now via AdvanceAccess. (December 2018)
- Congratulations to all of Light's undergraduate students for surviving Natural History of Vertebrates and General Mammalogy. And congrats to all of you that graduated! (December 2018)
- Good news on the last day of November and a Friday afternoon: Bridgett's MS thesis has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Mammalogy. WHOO HOO!!!! (November 2018)
- Congratulations to Leila for passing her comprehensive exams, whoo-hoo!! (November 2018)
- Jessica recently hosted Corey Welch from Iowa State for the EEB seminar series . What a great visit and amazing talk about diversifying STEM. Learn about Corey and his fabulous STEM Scholars Program at Iowa state here. (November 2018)
- Two Light-lab WFSC brown-bag seminars in under a month. Jessica gave a seminar November 3rd; folks seemed to like it. (November 2018)
- Positive news regarding Bridgett's manuscript. Time to revise and resubmit! (November 2018)
- Corrie Moreau is visiting! Learn all about her research here: http://moreaulab.org/corrie-moreau/ (October 2018).
- I bet Adrian's WFSC brown-bag seminar was awesome. Sorry I missed it! (October 2018).
- Ginormous 579 page NSF TCN proposal submitted!!! WOW (October 2018).
- I only spent ~1/2 day at SACNAS. I was beyond impressed with this organization. Click the link to learn all about SACNAS. (October 2018).
- Whitney's manuscript: resubmitted! Congrats =) (October 2018).
- Texas EcoLabs proposal submitted! (October 2018).
- Hello October! It's going to be a busy month. Here's what's planned:
- Big NSF ADBC proposal submission (totaling over $4 million dollars!)
- Adrian re-submits a killer (nearly literally) manuscript
- Jessica attends, presents, and organizes a Symposium at SACNAS
- Jessica co-hosts Corrie Moreau for an upcoming ENTO and EEB talk
- And more! Stay tuned..... (October 2018).
- Congratulations to Bridgett on the submission of her Master's Thesis for publication! The manuscript is currently in review at Journal of Mammalogy. (September 2018)
- Start of the semester has been busy with teaching, grant proposals, and manuscripts. Looks for lots of updates next month. (September 2018)
- Oh, hello there website! It's been awhile. How's it going? Beginning of fall semester among other things has been busy. But I have some updates. See you soon! (September 2018)
- Lots of great activity from the Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections. Check out their facebook feed here: https://www.facebook.com/BRTCTAMU/ (August 2018)
- It's August! You know what that means, right? Fall classes are just around the corner.... (August 2018)
- Posted on twitter, but posting here as well: Congratulations to Dr. Duane Schlitter on receiving the 2018 Jackson Award from the American Society of Mammalogists. This award recognizes Duane's service to the Society. Congrats, Duane! (July 2018)
- Fourth of July is coming at a good time; time to decompress a bit from the summer meetings (July 2018)
- Congratulations to Jessica on a successful International Congress on Phthiraptera: best tweeter award and elected to the Council (June 2018)
- The Light lab participated in 3 academic meetings this month: Annual Meetings of the American Society of Parasitologists (Whitney) and the American Society of Mammalogists (Adrian, Bridgett, and Leila), and the International Congress on Phthiraptera (Louse Meetings; Jessica) (June 2018)
- Oona's South Africa louse manuscript is provisionally accepted at Systematic Entomology! Congratulations Oona! (June 2018)
- It's summer meeting time! Here are some hashtags to follow on twitter: #ASPCancun #ASMWildcat #ICP6Brno (June 2018)
- Got some manuscripts out in print! Check them out here (poxvirus) and here (bat phylogeography) (June 2018)
- The lab rocked an escape room, successfully getting out in under an hour. What fun! (May 2018)
- Jessica just participated in #SkypeAScientist and had a GREAT time! So much fun (May 2018)
- Congratulations to Bridgett! She successfully defended her thesis research this week! (May 2018)
- Hodo et al. manuscript on a new poxvirus in Texas rodents is coming out soon. Popular press is amplifying the research. Check it out at Live Science and Fox News. And here's the CDC media release (May 2018)
- Just found out that Whitney has received a Tom Slick Student Development Grant. This will help her travel to the annual meeting of the American Society of Parasitologists. Congrats, Whitney! (May 2018)
- Lots of congratulations this month! Many great students graduated, including Mary and Celeste (see the "People" page.
- Congratulations to Leila! She received funding from the American Society of Mammalogists via a Grants-in-Aid award. Whoo-hoo! (May 2018)
- Congratulations to lab alumnus Caitlin Nessner Respess. She has been promoted to Project Coordinator, Lead at her job at the Baylor College of Medicine. Congrats, Caitlin! (May 2018)
- Starting April with a bang! March Mammal Madness is wrapping up with the final 4 tonight (April 2nd)
- Awesome time in the field with Tony and Celeste today (April 2nd)
- Jessica is working hard on her March Mammal Madness battles. Who's following the fun? (March 2018)
- What's just around the corner, people??? March Mammal Madness! Go fill out your bracket now and follow #2018MMM on twitter. (March 2018)
- Anyone else counting down the days until Spring Break?? (March 2018)
- Another manuscript accepted! This time to Emerging Infectious Diseases (February 2018)
- Manuscript accepted to Journal of Mammalogy. Whoo-hoo! (February 2018)
- Light lab is killing it in the field this month with site visits galore! (February 2018)
- TSM 2018 was amazing! Bridgett and Leilia both won awards for their posters (Clyde Jones and Vernon Bailey award, respectively) and I was elected President-Elect! (February 2018)
- Light is at Oklahoma State visiting the Dept. of Integrative Biology today (Feb. 9th). I'm looking forward to a fun visit. (February 2018)
- Check it out: paper resulting from some of my favorite Mexican collaborators published in Journal of Mammalogy on gray mouse opossums (February 2018)
- Two more manuscripts submitted. Here's hoping they go out for review. (February 2018)
- Texas EcoLabs will be in full swing this month. I'll do my best to take pictures of some lovely habitats (February 2018)
- TSM 2018 is coming up! Are you going?? (February 2018)
- Remember that manuscript submitted in January? Yes, rejected without review. We've turned it around and submitted elsewhere today (1 Feb). I'll hold off on the milkshake until acceptance. (February 2018)
- Milkshake time: Manuscript submitted! (January 2018)
- Slow start to the semester, but classes have begun, sequences submitted and analyzed, and we're getting off to a good start in 2018 (January 2018)
- Happy New Year! (January 2018)
2017
- Congratulations to Whitney, recipient of a 2018 Tom Slick Fellowship. Whoo-hoo! (December 2017)
- We had a couple of great undergraduate students in the lab and collections this semester. Hopefully Spring 2018 will be just as great. (December 2017)
- Within ~48 hours of being a co-author on a submitted manuscript, JEL now has 3 manuscripts to review. 'Tis the season! (December 2017)
- More grading jail for JEL this month, but boy am I glad we're near the end of the semester (December 2017)
- Manuscript submitted and several more getting close. Hoping to end 2017 with several more accepted manuscripts. (November 2017)
- Journal of Mammalogy manuscript is accepted! Hopefully soon to be advance access. (November 2017)
- Manuscript provisionally accepted at Journal of Mammalogy. I'll take it! (November 2017)
- This month began with an epic bout of grading jail for JEL. 144 exams graded (none of which were scantron) (November 2017)
- One more manuscript submitted! Here's hoping the reviewers love it. (UPDATE: Not so much; October 2017)
- New pictures online at our photostream here (October 2017)
- Several manuscripts still in preparation and we're getting close to the end of the month....(October 2017)
- Whitney is giving a MSC Jordan Fellow presentation on Thursday October 19th. Go hear about her research! See here for more information. (October 2017)
- Oona successfully submitted her South Africa research for publication. Great job Oona! Here's hoping for quick acceptance (16 October).
- This week (week of October 2nd) is #RodentWeek on twitter. Check it out! (October 2017)
- Multiple manuscripts in preparation. Will any get submitted this month??? (October 2017)
- Manuscript accepted at Journal of Parasitology, and revisions submitted in October. UPDATE: ACCEPTED! (October 2017)
- How is it already October? What happened? (October 2017)
- Two proposals submitted to Texas EcoLabs. Funding would help keep graduate students employed (September 2017)
- Semester has begun! Let's see what we get done this month.... (September 2017)
- Manuscript submitted to Journal of Parasitology. More fingers crossing....(August 2017)
- NSF CSBR proposal submitted. Fingers crossed! (August 2017)
- Proposal funded! New work to begin investigating the distribution of the Nelson's pocket mouse in Texas in the winter (August 2017)
- Manuscript accepted, whoo-hoo! Aleyda's manuscript on pocket gopher and herpetofauna associations has been accepted at Herpetologica Review (July 2017)
- Move to the new building complete! (July 2017)
- Whitney, Ashley, Bonner, & Gaby are off to Costa Rica. Happy trapping & finding parasites! (July 2017)
- Successful presentations for all at the ASM and ASP meetings (June 2017)
- Summer meetings are coming up! Most of the Light lab will be at the annual meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists and Jessica will be at the annual meeting of the American Society of Parasitologists. (June 2017)
- Small grant awarded from the Global Genome Initiative. Excited to get tissues organized! (June 2017)
- Wildlife and Fisheries is preparing to move to a new building. The beginning of June has been a lot of last minute lab work, cleaning, and packing (June 2017)
- Jessica attended the annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Zoologists in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Great meeting. And it was 30 degrees cooler up there (May 2017).
- Whitney, Ashley, and Bonner are off to Mexico for small mammal and parasite collecting. Good luck! (May 2017)
- Congratulations to the Light Lab Spring 2018 Graduates: Gabby, Rick, and Shelby! (May 2017)
- Check out the Flickr page for great photos of the large mammal specimen prep and Light lab bowling (May 2017)
- Just had a fabulous time hosting the last EEB speaker of the year: Jessica Ware from Rutgers University (May 2017)
- Congrats to Whitney Preisser! Recipient of a Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Grant from the American Museum of Natural History. Whoo-hoo! (April 2017)
- Speaking of defenses, Voelker-lab member Jerry Huntley rocked his PhD defense. Congratulations! (April 2017)
- The end of the month is packed with goodness! Defenses, BioBlitz, oh my! (April 2017)
- Hosted my fabulous colleague Jesús Fernández (Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua) for a week to work on CONACYT and other research. Great visit! (April 2017)
- Louse research website is now online! https://louselab.uni.edu/ (April 2017)
- So many scientific April Fools that I spotted online. Tetrapod Zoology had one of my favorites. (April 2017)
- Anyone have a chance to check out March Mammal Madness (#2017MMM)? The champion match went down last night; winner = short-faced bear! Read all about the battles here (March 2017)
- It's student research week! Adrian, Whitney, and Bridgett are all presenting their research (March 2017)
- EIS was a success! Congrats to Adrian, Bridgett, & Leila for presenting. And extra congrats to Leila for receiving a Graduate Student Oral Presentation Award! (March 2017)
- Successful fieldwork for Whitney, Jessica, and Bridgett over spring break! (March 2017)
- Graduate grant proposals submitted. Good luck Adrian, Bridgett, and Leila (March 2017)
- TSM (Texas Society of Mammalogists) annual meeting was a success, and loads of fun (as always) (Feb 2017)
- 'Tis the season! Grant application season for graduate students. Good Luck! (Feb 2017)
- Celebrating mammals with #groundhog day (2 Feb 2017)
- California Section 6 proposal submitted (31 Jan 2017). These proposal deadlines (among other deadlines) are keeping everyone busy
- NSF Preproposal submitted! (23 Jan 2017)
- Exciting things in store for the lab this year with 5 graduate students (Adrian, Whitney, Bridgett, Leila, and Brittany) and ~7 undergraduate students. Check out the People page for updates soon (23 Jan 2017)
- Happy New Year!
2016
- We will greatly miss our December 2017 graduates: Aleyda, Oona, Hunter, and Preston. Congratulations to all of you!
- Congratulations to Adrian! He was awarded a 2017 Tom Slick Fellowship. Nice work!
- Manuscript accepted! Congrats Oona and Preston! (November 2016)
- Tom Slick and Ford Fellowships submitted. Good luck Adrian, Whitney, and Leila! (November 2016)
- Let's see what happens this month.... (November 2016)
- Whew, busy month. Congrats to Bridgett for successfully submitting a NSF GRFP. (October 2016)
- More congratulations are in order! Both Adrian and Whitney successfully submitted NSF DDIGs today. That was fun =) (13 October 2016)
- Congratulations to Aleyda on successfully defending her master's thesis! (October 2016)
- Check out this blog post by Whitney about her research at the Smithsonian. Parasites for the win! (October 2016)
- Benin-louse manuscript has been submitted to Journal of Parasitology (October 2016)
- Check out this article about Jessica in Conservation Matters (October 2016)
- Here's to a successful lab party (we had no leftovers)! (October 2016)
- Congratulations to Whitney Preisser on passing her comprehensive exams! She is now a PhD candidate! (Sept 2016)
- Biology Letters fire ant paper is out. TAMU AgriLife press release is here. The Wildlife Society write-up is here. (Sept 2016)
- Congratulations to Oona Takano for successfully defending her Master's research! Great job! (Sept 2016)
- Classes are in full swing and we have a busy month ahead: defenses, comprehensive exams, and NSF grant proposals. (Sept 2016)
- Biology Letters manuscript accepted! Whoo-hoo! Stay tuned for the link and more information. (August 2016)
- Coming soon: start of classes, thesis defenses, and prelim exams. It's going to be a busy fall. (August 2016)
- Light lab (Oona and Preston) and WFSC (Voelker lab) representing at the AOU meetings #NAOC2016. Check out Oona's tweets (@ombirds) and the meeting hashtag for more information. (August 2016)
- Aleyda just submitted her first manuscript to Southwestern Naturalist. This manuscript explores the associations between herpetofauna and pocket gopher burrows. (July 2016)
- Reviews are back from Biology Letters, manuscripts are in preparation, busy busy! (July 2016)
- Adrian gave two great presentations (1 poster, 1 talk) at #asmgopher. Whitney is presenting next at #aspedmonton (July 2016)
- It's academic meeting time! The Light lab will be at #evol2016, #ASMgopher, parasitology meetings, and more. (June 2016)
- Grant proposal submitted to Texas Parks and Wildlife in collaboration with Amy Baird, Michelle Haynie, and Russell Pfau. If funded, this project will examine the diversity of pocket gophers (genus Geomys) across Texas. (June 2016)
- The first of several fire ant/small mammal/tick interaction manuscripts has been submitted to Biology Letters. Fingers crossed! (June 2016)
- Whitney strikes again! She has been awarded a Graduate Student Research Grant funded by the Association of Former Students and the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies at Texas A&M University to help support her summer field research in Canada later this summer. (May 2016)
- Successful large mammal prep-a-thon at the BRTC. Check out the pictures here! (May 2016)
- Congratulations to Whitney! She received funding from the Churchill Northern Studies Centre Research and Education Committee to undertake her research in Manitoba, Canada this summer. (May 2016)
- Congratulations to PhD student Adrian Castellanos! He advanced to candidacy today (Thursday 28 April 2016) and he is now a PhD candidate. Great work, Adrian! (April 2016)
- The 2016 Ecological Integration Symposium was a big success. Light lab members Whitney Preisser and Oona Takano gave oral presentations and Hunter Folmar and Preston Mitchell presented posters. Joshua Brown also presented a poster for previous work in the Hurtado lab. (April 2016)
- The Baiomys manuscript is published online in the Journal of Mammalogy. (April 2016)
- Jessica, Aleyda, and Mal had a successful trip to New Mexico trapping gophers and collecting lice. This work is funded by the National Science Foundation to explore population genetics of a chewing louse species that is in the process of expanding its geographic range. And in the process of doing so, it is outcompeting another louse species. Cool stuff in collaboration with Jim Demastes and Theresa Spradling at the University of Northern Iowa. (March 2016)
- Congratulations to WFSC PhD student Whitney Preisser! She recently received a Willis A. Reid graduate research grant award from the American Society of Parasitologists and a travel grant from the Macroecology of Infectious Disease Research Coordination Network, funded by a joint NSF/ NIH/ USDA grant. Congrats Whitney! (March 2016)
2015 (2015 was not a good year for posting news. Whoops!)
- Congo louse manuscript has been submitted! It is finally in review.
- The lab was extremely busy this summer, attending and presenting research at multiple meetings.
- Jamie’s first chapter from this thesis has been published in Southeastern Naturalist!
- Welcome baby Malcolm (born April 30, 2015)
- Happy New Year (posted in March)
2014
- Fall semester definitely kept us all busy. Lots of class taking and teaching, research, field work, and general business. NSF fellowship applications and a few other grant proposals were the focus of the semester.
- Halloween 2014: BEST LAB EVER
- September 2014: Fall semester has started! Classes (and mammal trapping) are on!
- September 2014: First manuscript from Jaime’s thesis submitted to Southwestern Naturalist
- August 2014: Jessica’s tenure-promotion talk is coming up. Attend if you can!
- August 2014: Manuscripts, manuscripts! Working on several different ones simultaneously, hoping to have a big publication year in 2015
- August 2014: Louse conference in beautiful Park City, Utah. Jessica, Nina, and Oona attended and presented.
- August 2014: NSF Full proposal submitted. That was hard work. Brain..hurts..ouch.
- July 2014 there was field work, lab work, field work, lab work. ASP 2014 in New Orleans (I believe the lab had a good time!)
- Busy, busy summer! Jessica and Adrian went to the Mammal Meetings in OKC (June 2014)
- The lab is bustling - so many PCRs and sequencing reactions! Go lab Go! (May 2014)
- NSF pre-proposal with Sarah Hamer, Micky Eubanks, Pete Teel, Bill Grant, and Rose Wang has been invited to be submitted as a full proposal. Let the summer of grant writing begin! (May 2014)
- Congrats to Caitlin, awarded Outstanding Master’s Student by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences (April 2014)
- Congrats to Jessica, awarded Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences (April 2014)
- FUNDED BY NSF! A proposal with gopher collaborators Jim Demastes and Theresa Spradling to investigate the genetics of range expansion has been funded by the National Science Foundation! April/May 2014)
- Welcome to the states, Nina! New post-doc Nina has arrived to begin her postdoctoral researcher (April 2014)
- Congrats to Sarah Hamer on the birth of her daugher, Tabitha (April 5, 2014).
- Jessica had a great trip to DC in March 2014.
- Congrats to Adrian again! Winner of best graduate poster at TAMU’s Ecological Integration Symposium. Jaime presented an awesome talk at the symposium as well. Check out tweets from the event at #EIS_2014
- Trip to El Sauz was a great success the few days I was there. Here are some highlights: High trapping success 2/3 nights - Total diversity tally when I left was 9 rodent species, 1 bat species, 1 skunk (Mephitis mephitis), and 1 raccoon. We also saw an ocelot (Texas A&M Kingsville group caught one and we got to see them work with her), tons of nilgai, bison, peccaries, and tons of birds. Mist netting my last night was so much fun! ~30 eastern pipestrelles hit the nets. Nothing like hands-on learning. Can’t wait to hear how the rest of the trip went (February/March 2014)
- I’m off to the field with Aleyda and Justin today - El Sauz. Excited for my first visit there, hope we catch lots of cool things (February 2014)
- Congrats Whitney! She just landed funding to travel to Costa Rica this summer. She’ll be examining parasite diversity in small mammals (February 2014)
- Aleyda and Justin just returned from a successful trip to South Texas. Gator caught on fire, but everything else was pretty great (February 2014)
- Congratulations to Adrian! Winner of the Vernon Bailey Award for best poster presentation in classical mammalogy at the 2014 Texas Society of Mammalogists Annual Meeting (February 2014)
- New laboratory space acquired for ancient lab work. Time to clean it out and start purchasing! (February 2014)
- The lab renovation is done! We’re moved in and enjoying the new space. Lab work is slowly starting up (January 2014)
- Shameless self-promotion! Check out my @BreakingBio interview here: http://bit.ly/1iH0vqY (January 2014)
- Another year.....
2013
- Congrats to Caitlin for successfully defending her master’s thesis. Great job Caitlin!
- Lab renovation is just about done. Can’t wait to move in!
- Great job to Jessica’s Mammalogy and WFSC 302 students. Congrats on a successful semester!
- Fall 2013 semester - survived! Yippie!
- Two proposals submitted in early December. Finger’s crossed!
- Caitlin’s manuscript submitted to the Journal of Parasitology has been accepted! (pending revision)
- Caitlin and Jaime both presented at the annual Entomological Society of America meeting. Great job guys!
- A whole batch of NSF Graduate Research Fellowships were submitted early November 2013. Good luck everyone!
- Submitted Chapter 1 of Caitlin’s master’s research!
- Postdoc Justin Henningsen gives the EEB on 16 October 2013: “What you’ve got or how to use it? Signals and performance in the green anole lizard”
- Another manuscript submitted, this time to Journal of Parasitology (16 October 2013)
- Mohamed Noor visits TAMU for a EEB seminar. Great to see you Mohamed!
- Lab renovation is loud, but awesome!
- Pocket gophers are not cooperating as of late. Boo.
- Mammal trapping continues to be insane at the collections with the mammalogy class. Next trapping session is next week....I wonder what we’ll catch?
- Successful mammal trapping in South Texas at San Antonia Viejo Ranch (East Wildlife Foundation). Much needed after very low trapping success all summer. Great job Aleyda, Oona, and Justin!
- Two manuscripts submitted to Western North American Naturalist the week of September 9th
- August mammal trapping at the collections was insane. Record breaking trapping success (> 25%)mostly due to a population increase for Sigmodon hispidus.
- I’m way behind for updates for 2013, sorry!
- August: Welcome to the lab Adrian, Aleyda, Whitney, and Oona! Big lab for Fall 2013, just in time for our lab renovation.
2012
- WFSC 401 Mammalogy students are doing a great job in the field!
- Several manuscripts in preparation, hopefully to be submitted before December (we’ll see)
- Andersen and Light Chaetodipus hispidus manuscript is finally printed in Journal of Mammalogy
- 2 manuscripts in press! Conservation Genetics Resources and Journal of Mammalian Evolution
- Adrian, Sarah, and Caitlin are making some serious progress in the collections this summer
- Caitlin gave an awesome presentation at the Evolution meetings in Ottawa. Go girl!
- I don’t think there are any mammals at Lick Creek
- Roadkill pigs rock
- Adrian, Michelle, and Chris and rocking it in the field this summer!
- Congrats to all the 2012 graduates!
- John has been accepted to the Biology PhD program at Louisiana State University. Congrats John and enjoy Baton Rouge!
- Sarah successfully defended her master’s thesis May 7, 2012. Congratulations Sarah!
- John successfully defended his master’s thesis February 24, 2012. Congratulations John! Now for the revisions and manuscript submission. yay!
- Sarah’s primer note on Geomys breviceps published!
2011
- Newest member of the Light lab born October 7, 2011. Welcome Clara!
- Light, Sarah,and John attended ASM 2011 in Portland, Oregon (June 2011). Sarah and John did a great job presenting their research and we all enjoyed the weather.
2010
- There was a bunch of stuff that happened in 2010 and early 2011 (I just didn’t write it all down!). But I remember a few things: publications, Light went to the Entomology meetings in San Diego, and lots of progress being made in the field and the lab.
- Congratulations John and Marcy! Both graduated and received their Bachelor’s Degrees Spring 2010.
- Jessica, Sarah, John, and Marcy attended ASM 2010 in Laramie, Wyoming. John and Marcy did a great job presenting their research (June 2010).