University of Michigan Museum of Zoology

Best Student Poster: Congratulations to Jeremy Wright, who recently received the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists' Storer Award in Ichthyology for his poster, "The Phylogenetic Distribution of Siluriform Venom Glands". The poster was presented at the Society's annual meeting in Montreal which was held from July 23-28, and is currently on display in the Fish Division of the Museum of Zoology. (more)

We are saddened to announce the death of Nelson George Hairston. Professor Hairston served on the faculty at University of Michigan for 27 years helping to establish one of the premier programs in the nation in ecology. During this period, he also served for a decade as Director of UM's Museum of Zoology, and for extended periods as a consultant for the United Nations World Health Organization as an expert on schistosomiasis in the Philippines, Switzerland, Iraq, Kenya, Egypt, Western Samoa and Rhodesia.

Best wishes to Prof. Mindell
David Mindell, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and curator of birds in the Museum of Zoology, has accepted a newly created post as dean of science at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. During his 14 years at U-M, Mindell has researched molecular phylogenetics and evolution of birds and other vertebrates using both nuclear and mitochondrial DNAs. He has also studied the evolution and phylogeny of retroviruses and their coevolution with vertebrates.

Congratulations to Joseph Brown who was awarded EEB's most outstanding publication award for "Strong mitochondrial DNA support for a Cretaceous origin of modern avian lineages." The paper was published in the journal BMC Biology 6:6. (more)

Snail venom study gives insights into biodiversity's origins
Professor Tom Duda and his former postdoc, Ed Remigio published a study in the February issue of Molecular Ecology on the evolution of venoms of predatory marine snails.

Cover of Proceedings of the Royal Society
A research team headed by Professor Diarmaid Ó Foighil, published "Prehistoric inter-archipelago trading of Polynesian tree snails leaves a conservation legacy" in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Read the U-M News press release.