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Welcome Jen Skene!
Jennifer Skene
Jennifer Skene
 
UCMP is pleased to announce an addition to the education and outreach team: Jennifer Skene! Jen completed her Ph.D. in Integrative Biology in February and then accepted a postdoc position with us to work on a variety of outreach projects, focusing on providing multimedia content to UCMP websites. As a grad student, she studied the effects of climate change on intertidal seaweed. Along the way, she discovered her love for science communication and public education.

Exhibit news
A cast of UCMP's juvenile Triceratops skull was mounted in the Marion Koshland Biosciences Library just prior to Cal Day by Mark Goodwin and T. rex-mount veteran, Mark Songey. The original skull is about 90% complete, and the cast was fabricated at the Museum of the Rockies as part of collaborative research between Mark and Jack Horner on dinosaur growth and behavior. This is the first skull that shows the backward curving horns of these "teenage" dinosaurs, thought to be a visual cue of sexual maturity and a key factor in visual communication. Older Triceratops recurve their distinctive postorbital horns on top of their heads forward in later stages of growth. Mark and Jack's research on this phenomenon was published in 2006 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological series, and a book is now planned by Goodwin and Horner on the history of discovery and "rediscovery" of these well known dinosaurs. The juvenile skull adds to the growth series next to the baby and adult Triceratops skulls currently on exhibit. The skull was discovered in Montana in the late 1980s by J. Howard Hutchison.

Collections news
Jann Vendetti has catalogued her buccinid gastropod (whelk) tissue samples (from which she has extracted DNA) into UCMP's cold storage. These are the first archived UCMP frozen tissue samples with specimen, locality, and GenBank numbers!

UCMP would like to thank Bill Evitt (Prof. Emeritus, Stanford) for donating his palynological slide collection, and Jim Kennett (Prof. Emeritus, UC Santa Barbara) for donating his large collection of foreign papers on foraminifera. Excellent additions to our collections!

Congratulations!
Roy Caldwell
Roy Caldwell (right) is congratulated by Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer for his contributions to the Freshman and Sophomore Seminars program.
 
To Roy Caldwell, who won the "best overall" category in the 5th Annual IB Art & Science Show for his photograph of a cuttlefish, entitled "Ring Master" and for his award for exemplary contributions to the Freshman and Sophomore Seminars program. This award was presented by Alix Schwartz, Director of Academic Planning, Undergraduate Division, to a small group of faculty who have taught 20 or more seminars.

To Ken Finger on his recent appointment as the Editor of the Journal of Foraminiferal Research.

To Leslea Hlusko on her invitation to give the Department of Integrative Biology graduation address and to Jere Lipps, invited to give the Earth and Planetary Sciences graduation address that will focus on "After Darwin."

To Mark Goodwin and Pat Holroyd on the success of their proposals to the Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, which will allocate beamtime for their individual research projects. Mark's research focuses on analyzing "soft tissues" recovered from demineralized dinosaur bone and Pat is investigating tooth development in small primitive mammals, both fossil and modern.

To Emily Lindsey on two accounts: passing her qualifying exam and receipt of an NSF Pre-doctoral Fellowship!

To Jenny McGuire, this year's recipient of a George D. Louderback Award. The award is given to students in paleontology to recognize both academic excellence and exceptional contributions to the museum's programs.

To Kevin Padian on his exhilarating sabbatical that has included two dozen invited lectures in the US and Europe about Darwin, the Dover trial, and related subjects.

To Jim Valentine on his election as a member of the American Philosophical Society, the oldest learned society in the United States and on his recent NASA grant with David Jablonski (University of Chicago) and Kaustuv Roy (UC San Diego) to continue their research on latitudinal patterns of biodiversity.

To UCMP and all of the invited speakers on another excellent short course and record attendance. This year's course focused on "Darwin: the man, his science, and his legacy." Mark your calendars now for February 6, 2010, for "Predicting the Future of San Francisco Bay."

And special congratulations!
To Carole Hickman and Jere Lipps as they begin the first phase of their "retirements." Carole and Jere have had long and productive careers with IB and UCMP. We will be pleased to offer a summary of the highlights of their numerous contributions in the next issue of the UCMP News.
 

Jennifer Skene photo by Anand Varma