BREE Lab Represents at SCAS!

BREE Lab graduate students got a chance to present their research at the annual Southern California Academy of Sciences Meeting (https://scas.nhm.org/annual-meeting) at Chapman University over the weekend. Daisy presented her preliminary results on how urbanization affects (or not!) lizard limb and toe morphology and locomotor performance, while Emily presented her final results (yay!) on how native lizards bask less in the presence of an invasive competitor. Congrats on great oral presentations!

In addition, Taylor, who is a mentee in the Natural History Museum's UNLAB program (https://nhm.org/unlab), co-mentored by Dr. Putman, presented a poster on her research examining rodenticide exposure in Southern California snakes! About a third of the snakes we processed tested positive for rodenticides.

It was a great time for the students and trainees to gain more public speaking experience and to catch up with old colleagues and meet new friends.

BREE Lab travels to Virginia for the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists

Elmer presenting his poster

Daisy presenting her research

Steph presenting her research

Emily presenting her research

Me presenting my postdoc work

Daisy honored for an award!

After multiple pandemic years of interruption, I was finally able to take my grad students to my favorite scientific meeting. From July 12-17, we attended the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Norfolk, Virginia. This conference was the first scientific meeting I ever attended as an undergraduate in college, and it inspired me to pursue my Ph.D. and an academic career. I was so proud of my students for winning multiple travel awards to support their trip across the country! They all presented on their research, met fellow herpetologists, and enjoyed the student mixers. We even snuck in a lab trip to the Virginia Zoo. Overall, it was a great trip and I look forward to next year's summer adventures :)

The lab at the Virginia Zoo!

Students Awarded the Carl Gans Travel Fellowship!

Congrats to Emily and Elmer for being awarded the Carl Gans Travel Fellowship to attend and present at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Norfolk, Virginia this summer! The award is administered by the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR). Emily and Elmer are Master's students in my lab and will present on their research which looks at the effects of urbanization on herpetofauna in Southern California. This will be their first time attending a large national scientific research conference. I am excited to share this experience with them!