Current Topics in Ecology and Evolution
EEB 3894 Overview
Undergraduate Seminar at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, Fall, 2008
1 credit
Thursday 2:30-5pm
Bamford conference room (Torrey Life Sciences 171b)
Instructors: Tobias Landberg & Katherine Shaw
We will meet all the distinguished scientists on this semester's list of speakers. Student will be responsible for participating in each meeting. We will read at least one research article written by a different visiting scholar every week. After a half hour of discussion, we will meet the person behind the science and then hear them give an hour-long research seminar. This course is for undergraduate students interested in broadening their understanding of modern ecology and evolutionary biology by engaging in active discussion.
Grades will be calculated out of 140 points (10 points/week)
Attendance= 4 points/week Show up to discussion and attend seminar every week.
Participation= 4 points/week Ask questions, volunteer comments and engage in constructive discussion with peers and speaker.
1 page response paper= 2 points/week Typed, double-spaced response to the research article.
Leading one discussion= 10 points Pick research article for the discussion, summarize and focus discussion with peers.
Fall 2008 Seminars
(4:00PM in BPB 130 unless otherwise noted)
August 28, 2008 Storrs Olson (Smithsonian Institution) Bermuda: Avatar of Pulsating Evolution and Bellwether of Global Inundation **POSTPONED**
August 28, 2008 Chris Simon (UConn EEB) Systematics, Evolution, and Natural History: Lessons from Past Presidents and Cicadas
September 11, 2008 Laura Galloway (University of Virginia) Maternal effects: Parental care in plants?
September 18, 2008 Dov Sax (Brown University) An Evolutionary Null Model of Species Invasions & The Future of Species Extinctions on Islands
September 25, 2008 Janet Browne (Harvard University) 4:00PM in Dodd Center Darwin Lecture Series.
October 2, 2008 Daniel C. Dennett (Tufts University) 4:00PM in Dodd Center Darwin Lecture Series.
October 9, 2008 Erika Edwards (Brown University) How the cactus came to be
October 15, 2008 George Levine (Rutgers University) 4:00PM in Dodd Center Darwin Lecture Series.
October 23, 2008 Gene Likens (Distinguished Research Professor (Visiting)) TBA
October 30, 2008 John Wiens (Stonybrook University) Integrating evolutionary biology and historical biogeography
November 5, 2008 Sandra Herbert (University of Maryland - Baltimore County) 4:00PM in Dodd Center Darwin Lecture Series.
November 13, 2008 Iolanda Ventura (University of Catholique de Louvain - Belgium) Book Culture and Experimental Science in Late Medieval Herbals
November 20, 2008 Julie Lockwood (Rutgers University) Propagule madness: definitions and null hypotheses in invasion ecology
December 3, 2008 Ian Tattersall (American Museum of Natural History) 4:00PM in Dodd Center Darwin Lecture Series.
EEB 3894 Semester Schedule
* Seminars in the Darwin Lecture Series are held in the Konover Auditorium of the Dodd Center (near the Homer Babbidge Library).
** The department seminar will be held on Wednesday of this week. We will discuss a paper on Thursday, and students are encouraged to attend the seminar on Wednesday.