Two weeks ago I made the trek from my home state of Arizona to my new home of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I have joined the Chakrabarty lab (check it out here), working alongside fellow PhD student Caleb McMahan, and masters student Valerie Derouen. I am extremely excited to be working in, and helping collect for, the fish collection at the LSU Museum of Natural Science (search our collection here). Since being here I have already started to help collect samples for the museum. I joined a cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, collecting fish with benthic skimmers at various depths along the Louisiana coast and continental shelf. Unfortunately the trip got cut short when hurricane Isaac changed directions and headed straight for us. Even though mother nature didn't allow us to collect all we wanted, I still managed to get some interesting, and valuable samples. Keep posted for more news about collection trips and other scientific advances coming out of LSU's ichthyology lab. I recently went on a trip through Kansas and Colorado, and even though I was far from any coastline, I still encountered many ocean-related items during my trip. Apart from hiking amazing trails in Colorado, and eating delectable Kansas City BBQ, I also visited several academic institutions. I started in Lawrence, KS exploring the campus of KU and visiting my sister's lab (see her research here). While at KU I also got to see the behind the scenes aspects of the KU Natural History Museum and saw some of their collections. This museum has some great exhibits, and showcases the natural history of Kansas and the North American Western Interior Seaway with a plethora of fossils on display. Definitely worth stopping by if you find yourself in Lawrence looking for something to do. From Lawrence we drove to Denver, Colorado. Along with stopping for gas and food, we made one other planned stop in the small town of Hays, KS. From the outside the Sternberg Museum of Natural History looks like a giant white dome. Inside it is filled with exhibits of Cretaceous marine and Neogene terrestrial vertebrate fossils. One of the highlights of the museum in my opinion is the Fish-Within-A-Fish exhibit (pictured right). They also have a moving T-Rex exhibit that is triggered by a motion sensor, catching any unsuspecting visitor off guard (a.k.a me). Realizing we still had several hours of driving left though, we decided to not spend too much time in wonderful Hays, and continued on with our trip. After spending the time in Kansas looking at an abundance of fossilized creatures, I yearned to see real live animals and also the mountainous terrain around Denver, Colorado. The cooler weather of Denver welcomed us and I spent most of my time there doing non-scientific, tourist activities. However, being the nerd that I am, I insisted that we visit the Downtown Denver Aquarium. I was blown away by the exhibits at this aquarium. Not only is there an amazing flash-flood exhibit (a highlight for a desert native), the coral reef exhibits are spectacular. I would never have guessed that I would see the diversity of fishes and marine invertebrates that I did a mile above sea level. This aquarium is a great community asset, exposing people that are thousands of miles from the nearest coral reefs to the unique diversity of these ecosystems. Overall I'd say the trip was a giant success, and would suggest anyone in those areas to stop by and support these great museums and aquariums. This last week I managed to take a trip up to the bay area to visit my old lab mate Moises Bernal and my previous advisor Luiz Rocha. Luiz recently moved his lab over to the California Academy of Sciences and is now in charge of the Ichthyology collection at the academy. If you have never visited the academy before I highly suggest that you do if you're ever in San Francisco. The place is huge, and contains so many unique exhibits that you won't find anywhere else (check out the exhibits here). Also, behind the scenes is where all of the real science gets done, and where all of the collections are. Thanks to Moises for showing me the fish collection which is full of some hard to find specimens (have you seen a coelacanth?). If you are interested in seeing more of Luiz Rocha's work check out his website. I have also included the obligatory picture of me with the redwoods that anyone visiting San Francisco must get.
Over the years I have made several diving trips out to oil platforms that lie just offshore of Port Aransas. The diving season here is short, with visibility only being good enough to justify forking over the gas money from late July to September. I've never posted any information about these here because these afternoon adventures feel more like exploring in your backyard than actually going on a trip. However my time here in Texas is short as I plan on finishing my masters within the next month, so I figured I would post some pictures from the last diving trip we did. Diving at these oil rigs during the summer is an interesting experience, with a mix of pelagic fish and juvenile coral reef fish that probably don't survive through the winter. As you're diving all of the fish congregate around the rig, and if you look off past the rig it is just blue open ocean with no visible forms of life. If you live on the Gulf Coast and ever get a chance to go diving at one of these platforms I highly recommend it. All pictures were taken by my fellow labmate Moises Bernal, and if you're interested in seeing any of his other pictures you can find them on his Flickr account here.
My talk I'm a little late on posting this, but about a month ago the Rocha lab went to the 2011 ASIH meeting in Minneapolis, MN. Both myself and fellow Rocha lab PhD student Moises Bernal gave talks on our Halichoeres projects (manuscripts of these projects are being completed now,and should be submitted soon). Both of our talks went well, and I saw a lot of other interesting talks and posters. These meetings always get me excited about future research directions and new techniques. The meeting this year was very well organized, and included new activities for graduate students including a "speed networking" session, and a discussion session with various professionals in the field on how to find a job. Minneapolis was a great city to have this meeting at, and it was very welcoming and full of attractions (I highly suggest the rooftop bowling at the British Pub). The pictures in this post are of my talk and Moises' talk. Now I think its time to start working on a project so that I can attend next years meeting in Vancouver! I just got back from the annual joint meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, which was held in Providence, RI this year. It was a six day long trip, which was constantly full of things to do, and it was a lot of fun. I saw a lot of good talks and poster presentations which gave me great ideas, and I also got to meet a lot of scientists. The reef fish evolution and ecology lab of UTMSI (which is comprised of Dr. Luiz Rocha, Moises Bernal, and myself pictured above) presented a poster entitled "Morphology and Molecules Indicate Speciation by Hybridization in a Marine Fish". Despite being in Providence during a heat wave we still managed to see the zoo, and visit some of the local restaurants and see other attractions. Overall the meeting was a success and I look forward to attending next years. |
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