Our laboratory was established in the fall of 2009. Currently 20 undergraduate and graduate student researchers are working on a broad range of topics including vocal development, parasite-host coevolution, coloniality, bird egg color, sexual selection, rapid evolution, environmental ethics, ethnobotany, linguistic diversity, and cultural evolution in bird song and human morals.
News
- MARCH: Aaron is now a Fulbright Scholar! He was awarded a fellowship to study the ecology and behavior of the small Indian mongoose in India later this year. He will be collaborating with Dr.
Yadvendradev Jhala at the Wildlife Institute of India.
- FEBRUARY: Aaron received a Doctoral Student Research Grant from the CUNY Graduate Center for this spring.
2012:
- AUGUST: The first two students have left the Lahti Lab after graduating.
We are proud that both have moved onto excellent Ph.D. programs in biology!
- JULY: Aaron published a paper based on his undergraduate research at Northern Illinois University:
- MAY: Congratulations to our lab graduates! Maureen received her bachelor's degree in biology, and Bobby received a second bachelor's degree.
- MAY: Franny joined the Ph.D. program in biology at the CUNY Graduate Center and will continue her research on cultural evolution in house finches as a doctoral student.
- APRIL: Aaron was elected to both the CUNY Graduate Center's Graduate Council, as a representative for the Biology program, and the CUNY Graduate Center's Advisory Committee for the Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior (EEB) subprogram of Biology.
- MARCH: Maureen presented her Pipeline Thesis at the CUNY Pipeline Conference at the CUNY Graduate Center on 3/10: Maureen Pereyra & Uri Samuni “The role of nitric oxide in the bacterial killing during oxidative stress”.
- MARCH:
Aaron published a paper based on his Masters research at Purdue:
- JANUARY: Franny gave an oral presentation at the annual QC Biology Department Research Symposium, and then later at the American Museum of Natural History Lang Science Program. Her talk was entitled "Mechanisms of cultural divergence in the eastern house finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) population."
- JANUARY: Khaleda joined the Queens College Masters program in biology.
2011:
- JULY: Aaron spoke at the Society for the Study of Evolution conference in Oklahoma, and the joint meeting of
the Animal Behavior Society and the International Ethological Society in Indiana. His talk, which was based on his Purdue Masters research and was coauthored by K. Rohrer and R. Howard, was "Female preference for a novel male phenotype in zebrafish (Danio rerio)".
- JUNE: Maureen was awarded a CUNY Pipeline Program Fellowship. This fellowship, supported by the Office of Educational
Opportunity and Diversity Programs at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, prepares students from underrepresented groups for doctoral studies.
- JUNE: We have been awarded an NSF grant for a collaborative project with Stefano Ghirlanda of Brooklyn College. The project, "Multi-ancestor coalescent theory for cultural evolution", represents the major part of Elliot's dissertation research, and the award will fund Chenghui for the remainder of her graduate career.
- MAY: Our first three lab members defended honors undergraduate research theses, and graduated! All three will be staying on and continuing to work on their projects.
- Khaleda: "Mate attraction dominates the behavior of a colonially breeding bird"
- Stephanie: "A comparative study of the moral prohibitions of the Wolof and Bambara peoples of West Africa"
- Seema: "Ethnobotany of Janjangbureh Island, The Gambia, West Africa"
- APRIL: Elliot was awarded two back-to-back NSF fellowships, that will fully fund him for the remainder of his graduate career: the Graduate Research Fellowship, and the GK-12, The Graduate STEM Fellowship in K-12 Education.
- MARCH: Stephanie was awarded one of only 25 fellowships at the Traveler's Summer Research Fellowship Program at Cornell University for this coming summer.
- MARCH: Franny and Khaleda presented posters at the Queens College chapter of Sigma Xi poster session on 3/24/11. Franny's was "A Virtual Guide to the Flora of Awash National Park", and Khaleda's was "Mate Attraction Dominates the Behavior of a Colonially Breeding Bird".
- FEBRUARY: Elliot was invited and awarded a scholarship to the Santa Fe Institute's Complex System Science seminar in June; he also started the NYC Cultural Evolution Group this month.
2010:
- DECEMBER: The Online Bibliography of Environmental Thought, managed by our lab and funded by the International Society of Environmental Ethics, launched on 12/28/10! It can be found at www.isee-obet.org.
- DECEMBER: Our lab was the cover story in the Queens College magazine FYI. Here's the article.
- SEPTEMBER: Before she even has finished her masters degree, Wendy was offered and has accepted a position of biology teacher at the Bronx High School of Science, one of the best and most prestigious high schools in the nation (4th, according to U.S. News & World Report).
- JULY - AUGUST: We had a summer research trip to Ethiopia this summer!
- David and April collected data on Rüppell's weaver egg variability, and conducted egg recognition experiments on that species.
- Khaleda recorded Rüppell's and lesser masked weavers (despite what field guides say, they do have distinctive songs!), and discovered several eclipse-plumage birds singing.
- Khaleda and Rita obtained HD video recordings of a village weaver colony, which they will use for focal animal observations in the lab.
- Rita completed field research on the effect of hybridization on fitness of hamadryas and olive baboons.
- We gathered materials for a Guide to the Natural History of Awash National Park.
- We will be supporting two more African naturalists, Tsyon and Girum.
- We have made plans for exciting collaboration with the founder of the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Society, Dr. Yirmed Demeke.
- JUNE - JULY: Elliot was awarded a scholarship and attended the 15th Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics at the University of Washington.
- JUNE: Elliot presented "The phylogenetics of song characters in the house finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)" at the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution in Portland, Oregon.
Join Us!
We are always looking for new people to think and work with us, whether undergraduate, masters or doctoral students, or postdoctoral research associates. If you are interested in joining the lab, please email me a brief statement of your interests and your cv. If you are an undergraduate or coursework masters student, please also fill out and attach this form to your email:
Join the Lahti Lab: Application for Undergraduates and Masters Students
See our Lab Members and the Research pages for ideas as to the various kinds of work we do. Below are some particular opportunities in our lab-- can you help?
Paid positions:
At this time we are especially looking for a
postdoctoral avian molecular ecologist.
This position entails:
- Spearheading an unbelievable new research project (I'm talking almost as good as discovering a time machine) on evolution in an introduced species, that can be completed during the postdoctoral tenure
- Teaching the laboratory section of an undergraduate biology course
- Managing a brand new molecular lab, including having as many undergraduate and graduate students as you want, to work on whatever you want
Please email me if you are interested.
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Volunteer or Academic Credit Positions:
WANTED: Anyone Interested in the Environment
for self-paced independent work
Our lab is spearheading a new online resource supported by the International Society of Environmental Ethics. The Online Bibliography of Environmental Thought (OBET) will be the world’s largest gateway to literature relating humans and the natural world.
It is scheduled to launch in December 2010.
I am looking for people to participate in the development of this internet resource!
No experience necessary.
You can work as little or as much as you like, whenever you like. You can work from wherever you are in the world. I will send you all the materials you need. Any work you do will be acknowledged permanently on the OBET web interface.
Please email me if you are interested!
You can read more about OBET on my Outreach page. |
WANTED: Anyone Interested in Classic Literature
for self-paced independent work
I am developing a series of mobile apps on major works of classic literature.
I am looking for people to participate in several ways,
including cataloguing quotes and transcribing recorded information.
No experience necessary.
You can work as little or as much as you like, whenever you like. You can work from wherever you are in the world. I will send you all the materials you need. Any work you do will be acknowledged permanently in the app credits.
Please email me if you are interested!
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