Headlines for February
ScienceMatters @ Berkeley highlights the research of IB Professor Jere Lipps
Headlines for January
IB Assistant Professor Rauri Bowie discovers a new East African bird
Headlines for May
Professor Mary Power elected into American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Headlines for June
Professor George Brooks receives ACSM's highest award
Headlines for July
Graduate student Randy Irmis and co-authors explore dinosaur origins and make the cover of Science Magazine
Assistant professor Sheila Patek receives Hellman Family Fund Award
Headlines for August
Professor Tony Barnosky receives Fulbright Senior Specialists Award
Assistant professor Paul Fine receives the 2007 ESA William Skinner Cooper Award
Professor Bruce Baldwin receives BSA Merit Award, a Senior McBryde Fellowship from the NTBG, and becomes president-elect of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists
Headlines for September
Professor David Lindberg and graduate student Nick Pyenson show that whales evolved biosonar to chase squid in deep waters
Cell death in sparrow brains may provide clues in age related human diseases
February
ScienceMatters @ Berkeley highlights the research of IB Professor Jere Lipps
Published February 13, 2007
Professor Jere Lipps' main research focus has been on foraminefera, tiny sand-sized marine creatures. Through his research on foraminefera, he has tackled questions about ancient earthquakes and extinction patterns, evolution of early life, and astrobiology. It has also taken him to more than 160 countries in a span of four decades.ScienceMatters @ Berkeley profiles Dr. Lipps' work in the most recent issue.
January
IB Assistant Professor Rauri Bowie discovers a new East African bird
Published January 8, 2007
Dr. Rauri Bowie, who recently joined Integrative Biology as an assistant professor, has been studying the evolutionary history of montane-forest birds in East Africa, and most recently, the relationships among forest batises (small corvid-like birds).Left: Male and female of the newly described Dark Batis (Batis crypta). Right: Male and female Short-tailed Batis (Batis mixta). Watercolour painting by Jon FjeldsÃ¥.He and collaborators Jon Fjeldså of the University of Copenhagen, and Jacob Kiure from Tanzania, have documented a well-marked change in morphology in the middle of the forest batis distribution range. This discontinuity in morphology is further supported by molecular DNA analyses, suggesting that two distinct species are involved.
In addition there is some evidence that the two species are not even each other’s closest relatives, with the Albertine Rift endemic Rwenzori Batis putatively more closely related to the northern form of forest batis. Based on these conclusions Bowie and colleagues describe the southwestern population as a new species of bird, the Dark Batis (Batis crypta).
No more than 1-2 new species of bird are described annually from around the globe: with the vast majority of new species coming from Africa and South America. What makes this discovery unusual is that batises are common forest birds and relatively abundant. Many birders would have previously seen this newly described species, but until a detailed systematic collecting effort was conducted, the abrupt change in morphology had gone completely unnoticed.
The results of their research have been published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Ornithology.
May
Professor Mary Power elected into American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Published May 1, 2007
Professor Power is one among seven Berkely faculty to be elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Fellows are elected into the Academy by current members through a highly competitive process.
Dr. Power is known for her research on river and watershed ecology, and food webs. Her work with other scientists have led to interesting collaborations, including research on "extreme" food webs, focusing on the microbial interactions that result in acid mine drainage.
For more information, visit the Power Lab.
June
Professor George Brooks receives ACSM's highest award
Published June 13, 2007
Professor George Brooks will be receiving the Honor Award from the American Academy of Sports Medicine (ACSM) for his distinguished contributions to science, teaching, and professional leadership. The ACSM, the largest organization of sports medicine in the world, is dedicated to advancing health through science, education, and medicine.
July
Graduate student Randy Irmis and co-authors explore dinosaur origins and make the cover of Science Magazine
Published July 19, 2007
Graduate student Randy Irmis was the lead author on a paper describing the Late Triassic coexistence of dinosaurs and dinosaur precursors in a cover story for the July 20 issue of Science. Fossils found in northern New Mexico by Randy and other researchers, show that dinosaurs did not quickly replace their predecessors, but rather that they may have shared the landscape for 20 million years or more. Other IB researchers include professor Kevin Padian and alumnus Sterling Nesbitt, currently a graduate student at New York's American Museum.
Also see Science.
Assistant professor Sheila Patek receives Hellman Family Fund Award
Published July 25, 2007
The Hellman Family Fund was established in 1995 to support the research of promising assistant professors who show capacity for great distinction in their research. Assistant professor Sheila Patek was named one of the award recipients for 2007. The award will fund her research on the evolutionary physiology of communication in the sea.
August
Professor Tony Barnosky receives Fulbright Senior Specialists Award
Published August 2, 2007
Integrative Biology professor Tony Barnosky, who is also a curator in the Museum of Paleontology and a research paleoecologist in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, has been selected for a Fulbright Specialist Award to conduct research at the Departamento de Ecología, Pontificia Universidad Católica in Santiago, Chile, during Fall 2007.
Professor Barnosky will be working with Chilean faculty and students to study the ecological effects of global warming and is one of over 400 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad this year through the Fulbright Senior Specialists Program.
The Fulbright Senior Specialists Program, created in 2000 to complement the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program, provides short-term academic opportunities (two to six weeks) to prominent U.S. faculty and professionals to support curricular and faculty development and institutional planning at post secondary, academic institutions around the world.
Assistant professor Paul Fine receives the 2007 ESA William Skinner Cooper Award
Published August 21, 2007
Assistant professor Paul Fine receiving ESA award.Assistant professor Paul Fine received the Ecological Society of America (ESA) 2007 William Skinner Cooper Award for his paper: Fine, P. V. A., I. Mesones, and P. D. Coley. 2004. Herbivores promote habitat specialization by trees in Amazonian forests. Science 305:663-665.
The award is given annually by the ESA to honor "an outstanding contribution in geobotany, physiographic ecology, plant succession, or the distribution of organisms along environmental gradients."
The nominating committee summarized their reasons for presenting the award to Dr. Fine and his colleagues:
In sum, Fine and colleagues' work directly looks at how species diversity and distributions have evolved in the Amazonian system, and the role of both substrate and natural enemies in determining plant range limits. Indeed, one committee member commented "[Fine's] Science paper is one of the best studies of the causes of plant range limits I have read." Several members referred to the study as "elegant" and "strikingly clean." Past W.S. Cooper Awards have been given for studies that discuss tropical geobotany in terms ranging from strict plant-environment correlations (Pitman et al. 2001) to complete competitive equivalence among all species (Hubbell 2001). Fine and colleagues determine mechanistically important factors leading to habitat specialization in tropical tree. The 2004paper in particular and the body of work in general, is a model study for determining plant ranges and the mechanisms of diversity generation.
Professor Bruce Baldwin receives BSA Merit Award, a Senior McBryde Fellowship from the NTBG, and becomes president-elect of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists
Published August 21, 2007
The Botanical Society of America presented its highest Merit Award to Dr. Bruce Baldwin, IB professor, and curator of the Jepson Herbarium, for his contributions in plant systematics. Dr. Baldwin has also been awarded a Senior McBryde Fellowship from the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kauai, Hawaii, where he is currently on sabbatical. In addition, he became President-Elect of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists for the coming year.
September
Professor David Lindberg and graduate student Nick Pyenson show that whales evolved biosonar to chase squid in deep waters
Published September 6, 2007
Professor David Lindberg and graduate student Nick Pyenson show that whales evolved biosonar to chase squid
Research by professor David Lindberg and graduate student Nick Pyenson show that whales developed biosonar as a result of chasing prey into deep water. Dolphins and other toothed whales developed sonar to chase squid swimming at night. As squid migrated to deeper, darker waters during the day, the whales followed, and through time they developed the echolocation system that is present in toothed whales today.
Said Dr. Lindberg, "When the early toothed whales began to cross the open ocean, they found this incredibly rich source of food surfacing around them every night, bumping into them. This set the stage for the evolution of the more sophisticated biosonar system that their descendents use today to hunt squids at depth."
For more on this research, see the UC Berkeley Press Release.
Cell death in sparrow brains may provide clues in age related human diseases
Published September 18, 2007
A new paper co-written by assistant professor George Bentley reports on a change that occurs in the brains of songbirds every year. The rapid shrinkage in the size of the regions of the brain that control singing behavior in Gambel's white-crowned sparrows is triggered by the withdrawal of testosterone, and is apparent within 12 hours. This is the first study to report rapid change in brain nuclei of adult animals, as a result of hormone withdrawal and a change in daylight.
The mechanism controlling this change may help researchers develop treatments for age-related degenerative diseases of the brain, such as Parkinson's and dementia.
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The paper has been published in the September 17 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).