Author Archives: Kevin

The Burns lab recently traveled to D.C. to attend the North American Ornithological Conference, which was the largest gathering of professional ornithologists in history. Eight past and present Burns lab members were in attendance. Erik received an AOU travel award … Continue reading →

Burns lab members past and present will be well represented at the upcoming North American Ornithological Conference in Washington, DC. Here is a list of presentations by both former and current Burns lab members (in bold): Wednesday, 1:45 pm, Room … Continue reading →

Congrats to Luke Klicka who just published his MS thesis in Conservation Genetics. Luke studied genetic variation in the Bell’s Vireo across its range using both mtDNA sequences and a genome-wide analysis of SNP data. In the paper, he provides … Continue reading →

The Burns lab welcomes new MS student Amelia Demery this semester. She received her BS in Biology (emphasis: Zoology) from California Polytechnic State University in Pomona. At Cal Poly, Amelia participated in a variety of teaching, research, and outreach activities. … Continue reading →

Members of the Burns lab participated in a couple professional meetings this summer. Kevin Burns and former Burns lab students Nick Mason and Pascal Title attended the Evolution meetings in Guarujá, Brazil in June. Kevin presented a summary of the … Continue reading →

Brian Myers has received two grants to help fund his research on Rufous and Allen’s Hummingbirds. Brian is studying genetic divergence across these species. In particular, he is interested in the interplay of genetics and behavior across a hybrid zone … Continue reading →

Congratulations to Shannon Walsh who successfully defended her MS thesis on the Spotted Towhee of California’s Channel Islands. Shannon studied the genetics of the Spotted Towhee on the Channel Islands, comparing genetic diversity among the islands as well as comparing … Continue reading →

Nick Mason recently published part of his MS thesis in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society on tanager song and habitat. In this paper, Nick looked for correlations between body size, habitat, and vocal characteristics across the evolutionary tree … Continue reading →

Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology has highlighted some of our lab’s research on their new interactive web site “All About Fancy Males”. This is part of their “All About Bird Biology” series. The data featured was part of Allison Shultz’s MS … Continue reading →

Burns lab graduate student Shannon Walsh was one of three graduate students asked to speak at this year’s Biology Department Symposium. She presented some of her work on genetic divergence in the Spotted Towhee on the Channel Islands, located off … Continue reading →