Announcements
The 10th Annual Bioscience Research and Technology Review Day was held on Thursday, Nov. 12, in the Stamp Student Union. This year's theme was Biological and Human Consequences of Climate Change. Three BEES students won awards for their poster presentations!

The Fifth Annual Organismal Biology Day seminar will be delivered by National Academies member Barbara Schaal on Wednesday, April 7, 2010. The program will include the seminar at 4:00 followed by a poster session and dinner open to all. Organismal Biology Day is jointly hosted by the BEES Program, The Smithsonian Institution, the UM Entomology and Biology Departments, and The College of Chemical and Life Sciences. A tentative schedule is available here

The University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Institution have formally agreed to pursue research collaborations. A memorandum between the SI National Museum of Natural History and the UM BEES Graduate Program was also signed to establish the Consortium for Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology. Read more here.

Access a list of recommended readings that explain and defend evolution. Click here

Training in Paleobiology
The BEES program and the Smithsonian Institution now offer joint training with fellowship opportunities for qualified candidates in the area of Paleobiolgy within the BEES training mission. Please see the faculty lists for participating faculty and their research interests.

The University of Maryland is a member of the Organization for Tropical Studies.
For more information and a list of UMD OTS alumni click here.

Admissions
PLEASE NOTE BEES applicants for Fall 2010: The University of Maryland recently reorganized its graduate programs in the biological sciences, and the Behavior, Ecology, Evolution and Systematics (BEES) program is no longer accepting applications directly. Now to learn about and apply to the BEES concentration area in the new Biological Sciences (BISI) graduate program please visit the website at http://chemlife.umd.edu/bisi. Also click here for specific BISI admissions information.

Seminars and Discussion Groups
BEES seminars are held Mondays at noon in room 1103 of the Bioscience Research Building.

You are also invited to attend the Conservation & Science Seminar series at the National Zoo.

Entomology Colloquia are held on Fridays at noon in Plant Sciences room 1130.

Join faculty members, graduate students and post-docs in a discussion of evolutionary genetics research at UM on Tuesdays at 12:30 in Bio-Psych 1208. Click here for more information and the Spring 2010 schedule.

Check out the College of Chemical and Life Sciences calendar of events.

Graduate student accolades
-Congratulations to Mercedes Burns, Nathan Jud and Jason Keagy who all won poster presentation awards at this year's Bioscience Research and Technology Review Day.

-Jason Keagy's research on "smart" satin bowerbirds was recently featured in the BBC news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/default.stm. Additionally, he won best student paper at the American Ornithological Union's meeting in Philadelphia.

-Two new BEES students received Flagship Fellowships from the University. Congrats to Alex Forde and Ernie Osburn!

-Mercedes Burns was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for her work on how morphological and behavioral properties may have led to species and mating-system diversity in harvestmen.

-A Goldhaber travel award was given to Jason Keagy to attend the 2009 Evolution meeting and present his research titled "Male general cognitive ability influences male mating success in the satin bowerbird."

-Christina Kennedy and Holly Martinson were awarded Wylie Dissertation Fellowships from the Graduate School for the 2009-2010 schoolyear. Congratulations to Christina and Holly!

-Judy Che-Castaldo received an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant for her work on the ecological interactions of a metal-hyperaccumulating plant.

-Sarah Kingston and Brian Davidson presented papers on their research on avian hybrid zones at the annual meeting of the Association of Field Ornithologists and the Wilson Ornithological Society. Sarah won a Best Student Paper Award, and Brian appeared in a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review story on the meeting.

-Jason Keagy received the Hockmeyer Fellowship, a merit-based fellowship for graduate students in the College of Chemical and Life Sciences.

-Congratulations to Bryan Arnold and Julie Byrd-Hebert for receiving Cosmos Club grants.

-Emily Amitin received the Maud and Walter MacCormick Scholarship for spring 2009. Her advisor is Dr. Jerry Wilkinson, and the title of her dissertation is "Gametic Isolation in Stalk-eyed Flies."