The Peter Buck Fellowship Program 2013 Progress Report
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Overview
II. Voices of the Fellows: Thank You, Dr. Buck! - Biographies and letters from the current Buck Fellows
III. Peter Buck Fellows: Class of 2014
2013 Progress Report
Overview
Now in its fourth year, the National Museum of Natural History’s Peter Buck Fellowship Program continues to shape the lives of its participants in profound and lasting ways; it affects each of the Museum’s seven departments and expands its reach with each new class of fellows. The extraordinary research opportunities offered to Peter Buck Fellows at the beginning of their careers can be transforming experiences for them, leading them into lifetime scholarly pursuits that will help us better understand the natural world, and our place in it.
As of June 2014, the program has admitted 46 predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows, including nine fellows who have since completed their tenure at NMNH. The program continues at full capacity and this year was the most competitive yet. Out of 99 eligible fellowship applicants, we selected 13 finalists for the Class of 2014. Awardees have received their doctorates from prestigious institutions such as the University of Chicago, University of Michigan, and Harvard University, to name a few. Like last year, a majority of the fellows in this cycle (9 of 13) are receiving complementary funding from other sources, which allows us to accept more highly-qualified candidates and speaks to the caliber of our applicants and their projects.
From naming a newly discovered bird-like dinosaur, Anzu wylei (informally known as the “Chicken From Hell”), to studying ear function in baleen whales that tells us about the environmental impacts of ocean noise pollution, these bright scholars are contributing to the larger scientific world. As they inquire, test, and discover, they are closely supported by advisors and collaborators within the Smithsonian community and beyond. It is through their work in the field, in our labs, and using our vast museum collections that these young minds are expanding the limits of what we know about our planet’s past, present, and future.
Your generosity and ongoing support for the Peter Buck Fellowship Program continue to have a transformative effect on these talented individuals and on the Museum. Because of your magnanimous commitment to education and research, we are able to support the endeavors of early- career scientists and provide enriching opportunities for the best and brightest, now and in the future. Thank you for your dedication to this flourishing program, and for all that you do to promote science and the mission of this Museum.
The following progress report contains two sections:
Voices of the Fellows: Thank You, Dr. Buck! A personal profile and accompanying letter from each of the current Peter Buck Fellows. In their own words, the Fellows provide updates on their progress, highlights from the past year, and reflections on their contributions to science.
Peter Buck Fellows, Class of 2014 A listing of the recently-selected fellows and their research topics.
2013 Progress Report
Voices of the Fellows Thank You, Dr. Buck!
2013 Progress Report
Current Buck Fellows
Name Department Dates of Fellowship Cheryl Ames Invertebrate Zoology January 2014 – December 2015 Jamie Baldwin-Fergus Invertebrate Zoology February 2013 – January 2015 Richard S. Barclay Paleobiology January 2012 – January 2015 Ricardo Betancur Vertebrate Zoology November 2013 – November 2015 Bonnie Blaimer Entomology February 2013 – January 2015 Sara Casado-Zapico Anthropology June 2012 – June 2014 Habiba Chirchir Anthropology September 2013 – August 2015 Frederick Davis Mineral Sciences September 2012 – September 2015 Klint Ericson Anthropology September 2013 – November 2015 Brent Grocholski Mineral Sciences September 2011 – May 2014 Eliécer Gutiérrez Vertebrate Zoology May 2012 – March 2015 Caroline Judy Vertebrate Zoology January 2014 – December 2015 Neil Kelley Paleobiology January 2014 – December 2015 Fredrick Larabee Entomology July 2013 – July 2014 Tyler Lyson Vertebrate Zoology October 2012 – September 2014 Molly McDonough Vertebrate Zoology February 2014 – February 2016 Leslie Reeder-Myers Anthropology September 2013 – August 2015 Graham Slater Paleobiology September 2012 – September 2015 Jae-Cheon Sohn Entomology July 2013 – July 2015 Rachel Warnock Paleobiology March 2013 – March 2015 Vertebrate Zoology and Maya Yamato January 2013 – January 2015 Paleobiology Reuven Yeshurun Anthropology September 2012 – August 2014 Jing Zhang Mineral Sciences February 2014 – February 2016 Ning Zhang Botany July 2013 – June 2015
2013 Progress Report
Cheryl Lewis Ames, Dept. of Invertebrate Zoology University of Maryland
Predoctoral Fellow: January 2014 – December 2015
Research Title: Understanding the Molecular Basis Behind the Box Jellyfish Sting
Advisor: Allen Collins (Zoologist, NMFS, NOAA), Karen Osborn (Research Zoologist, Curator of Annelida and Isopoda), and Alexa E. Bely (University of Maryland, College Park)
Cheryl Ames’ research focuses on uncovering the molecular basis of the so-called stinging cells of the box jellyfish Alatina alata, which forms monthly reproductive swarms in several Caribbean and Pacific localities. Stinging cells are actually venom-filled organelles called nematocysts found in all species of the phylum Cnidaria (e.g. corals, sea anemones, and jellyfish), and are used in predation and defense. Despite sometimes causing painful stings or fatalities in human victims, the molecular basis of nematocysts is poorly understood. As a Peter Buck Predoctoral Fellow, Cheryl’s research objectives are to identify the genes associated with A. alata nematocyst production (using transcriptomics), determine at what stages of development the genes are expressed (i.e. transcribed from the genome), and characterize the venom proteins encoded by those genes (using proteomics). Understanding molecular mechanisms of nematocyst production (nematogenesis) during larval development will provide insight into the evolution of novel genes and venom proteins. Additionally, her findings may have applications to the biomedical field for prevention and treatment of sting victims.
2013 Progress Report
Dr. Jamie Baldwin-Fergus, Dept. of Invertebrate Zoology Duke University
Postdoctoral Fellow: February 2013 – January 2015
Research Title: Visual Adaptations to the Deep Water Column in Hyperiid Amphipods
Advisor: Karen Osborn (Research Zoologist, Curator of Annelida and Isopoda)
Jamie Baldwin Fergus received a Ph.D. in biology in March, 2012 from Duke University. Her dissertation research explored vision and sexual signaling in the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus. Broadly, she is interested in visual ecology of marine crustaceans. Jamie studies vision physiology, eye morphology, and visually mediated behaviors. She also uses mathematical modeling to estimate how the world appears to an animal’s visual system. During her time at the Smithsonian, Jamie is studying the visual adaptations of hyperiid amphipods. Hyperiids are small crustacean invertebrates that are abundant from the surface down to the deepest depths of the oceans, with particular abundance in the twilight zone (200-1000 meters below the surface). At twilight-zone depths, available light is limited to increasingly dim and blue light and bioluminescence. In this zone it is a matter of life and death to see, but not be seen. As a result, hyperiids have developed a wide range of optical configurations, likely an evolutionary response to the complexities of the optical environment in the deep pelagic ocean.
2013 Progress Report
Dear Dr. Buck,
Thank you for the opportunity to study at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History. I’ve been studying the eyes of hyperiid amphipods, a family of small marine crustaceans, for the last 14 months. After getting to know the family through studying specimens from the museum collections, I was able to go to the museum’s field station at Carrie Bow Cay, as well as a research cruise in Monterey Bay, to collect fresh samples for use in histology and physiology experiments. I’ve been able to determine the wavelengths of light seen by three species using a special microspectrophotometer at Duke University. I have also completed eye histology on Paraphronima gracilis, a species with one of the most unique apposition compound eye configurations that I’ve ever seen. Instead of having one retina in each eye, it has twelve! They hyperiid family has such mysterious eyes. I’m having a great time trying to solve their puzzling visual adaptions to life in the deep pelagic. Thank you again for this opportunity,
Jamie Baldwin Fergus
Dr. Richard S. Barclay, Dept. of Paleobiology Northwestern University
Postdoctoral Fellow: January 2012 – January 2015
Research Title: A Geologic Analogue for Modern CO2 Increase: Reconstructing Atmospheric CO2 through the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
Advisor: Scott Wing (Curator of Fossil Plants)
Rich Barclay received his Ph.D. in June 2011 from Northwestern University. He has published seven papers and has participated in many field expeditions in North America, South America,
Europe, and Greenland. He proposes to reconstruct changes in the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere that occurred during an interval of rapid global warming 56 million years ago. His research will help constrain the sensitivity of Earth’s climate system to changes in CO2, and thus will have high significance in geology and climatology, as well as in predicting warming that will occur under higher CO2 in the future.
2013 Progress Report
23 May 2014
Dear Dr. Buck,
Science should be repeatable. Sometimes it is not. This is the predicament that I found myself in when attempting to replicate the work of a colleague, in an attempt to build on that same persons work. This has made progress a little slower than anticipated, and at times very frustrating, but it has also allowed me to solve a problem that has bothered me for many years.
As you may be aware, I have been working towards estimating CO2 concentrations during a deep time climate change event 56 million years ago, known as the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM. Understanding the mechanisms that drove this climate change event is critical, as the PETM represents the best deep-time analog for modern day climate change.
My work over the past two years here at NMNH suggests that there was a major increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations prior to the main event. This corresponds to a number of other sets of geologic evidence, and is coincident in time with an increase in temperature of 5°C. I can document when the change occurred, but estimating the magnitude of the change in CO2 is the most difficult part, but is also one of the most important. I want to get this right.
The species that I have been studying in detail is Ginkgo adiantoides, a fossil form that looks almost exactly like the modern Ginkgo biloba used for medicinal purposes today. I use the modern response of Ginkgo to the measured CO2 increase since the industrial revolution to calibrate how the fossil Ginkgo plants would have responded to the same change in CO2 in the fossil record, 56 million years ago.
This is where the repeatability part comes into play. Another researcher, about 15 years ago created this modern calibration of Ginkgo to the rise of CO2 during the past 200 years. I attempted to replicate his approach, but found a different relationship than this other scientist. They had collected Ginkgo leaves from herbarium sheets, collected at known dates, and counted the number of breathing pores on the leaf surface, from the late 1800s when CO2 was 280 ppm until 2000 when CO2 was about 370 ppm. They found a strong relationship, and then grew Ginkgo saplings in hyperbaric chambers where they could elevate the [CO2] to see how the plants responded. The historical samples had a very steep slope, while the plants grown in the environmental chambers had a very shallow slope (see graph below). They merged the data together and the combined relationship that they got made it look like a dog’s hind leg. This is the part that really bothered me, because this dataset has been applied in many scientific papers, and has had significant influence on our understanding of how CO2 has changed during the past 100 million years.
I can say that after a lot of hard work, I feel that I have solved the “dog-leg” problem. I went and created my own historical dataset of Gingko biloba, and it turns out that my historical data smoothly connects with the growth chamber data. What turned out to be wrong was that the previous scientist had used different microscope techniques to investigate the historical samples than for the growth chamber plants, and thus got different relationships. I went through the hard work of preparing the leaves and imaging them on an environmental SEM here at NMNH (with the help of two dedicate volunteers, Pam Hamilton and Sal Bosco), and found a biologically understandable relationship of how Ginkgo responds to CO2.
Now, I can take this new calibration dataset that finally makes biological sense, and apply it to the fossil Ginkgo material from before the PETM. What this tells me is that prior to the main PETM event (this deep-time global warming interval) CO2 doubles during the time when temperature rises by 5°C. CO2 starts at ~300 ppm and then rises to between 600-700 ppm within a 100,000 year window of time. This is equivalent to the estimates of CO2 rise for the most “eco-friendly” models of modern-day climate change. It may take the Earth a long time to fully adjust to such a large increase in CO2, so by the year 2100, my data wouldn’t predict that the climate would warm by 5 degrees Celsius. However, my data do match well with other estimates of Deep-Time temperature sensitivity to CO2 doublings. All of this has been possible because of your support for post-docs here at NMNH, and I thank you greatly for your support.
Sincerely,
Richard Barclay, [email protected]
Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow NMNH - Smithsonian Institution
14 Modern Ginkgo biloba calibration dataset error bars = 1s 13 Previous historical dataset
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11
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-0.426 New, historical dataset y = 110.18x 9 R² = 0.6034 Stomatal Index (%) IndexStomatal 8
7 Ginkgos in growth chambers 6 250 350 450 550 650 750 850 CO (ppm) 2
Dr. Ricardo Betancur, Dept. of Vertebrate Zoology Auburn University
Postdoctoral Fellow: November 2013 – November 2015
Research Title: Reconstructing the Evolutionary History of the Most Diverse Group of Freshwater Fishes: A Genome-Wide Phylogeny and Biogeography of Ostariophysi
Advisors: Richard Vari (Department Chair, Vertebrate Zoology) and Lynne Parenti (Curator, Vertebrate Zoology)
Originally from Colombia, Ricardo Betancur received his Ph.D. in 2009 from Auburn University, AL. From 2009 to 2013, he worked as postdoctoral researcher at The George Washington University and in 2013 started his second postdoctoral appointment at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History with funding from the Peter Buck Fellowship. Ricardo has published 38 papers and his research interests are broadly concerned with the systematics and evolutionary biology of fishes. He utilizes molecular tools and comparative data to address these topics, using fishes as study systems. This research approach is currently intensifying the implementation of next generation sequencing technologies for robust inferences of phylogenomics (e.g., exon capture) and population genomics (e.g., RAD sequencing). The goal of Ricardo’s Peter Buck Fellowship research project is to produce a data-rich and taxon- dense phylogenetic hypothesis for ostariophysans and to study their biogeographic history.
2013 Progress Report
13 May 2014
Dear Dr. Buck,
The purpose of this letter is to thank you for the support I have received through the Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct research at the NMNH (Department of Vertebrate Zoology). I come from Colombia, a country with very limited opportunities and multiple limitations for conducting world-class research. I’ve been given a unique opportunity that has helped me reach my potential, and I’m very thankful for it.
With this fellowship I have enjoyed academic freedom and this last year has been highly productive for me. I have made significant progress towards my postdoctoral research, published four papers, submitted three additional manuscripts (two of which have been accepted), submitted three NSF and two Smithsonian grants, gave several talks in the U.S. and abroad, and received a job offer for a faculty position at University of Puerto Rico (UPR). I’m listing below my academic achievements in 2013-2014. Thanks again for your generosity and I hope other researchers, in particular foreign scholars with otherwise limited opportunities, will continue receiving funding through the Peter Buck fellowship. With my upcoming appointment at UPR, I will be able to help others to achieve their academic goals as well.
Sincerely,
Ricardo Betancur-R., Ph.D. Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Vertebrate Zoology National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution PO Box 37012, MRC 159 Washington, DC 20013-7012 www.fishphylogeny.org
Dr. Bonnie Blaimer, Dept. of Entomology University of California, Davis
Postdoctoral Fellow: February 2013 – January 2015
Research Title: Patterns and Processes of Phylogenetic Community Structure in Ants Across Four Habitat Types in Madagascar
Advisors: Ted Schultz (Department Chair and Research Entomologist) and Sean Brady (Research Entomologist)
Bonnie Blaimer graduated with a Ph.D. in Entomology from the University of California, Davis. Her research interests broadly encompass the field of systematics, diversity, and evolution of insects, particularly of ants in the Afrotropical region. To date, she has published seven papers, mostly on ant taxonomy and evolution. Bonnie has conducted extensive field work in Madagascar, and recently started to focus on the little-known canopy ant fauna. During her fellowship she is studying the species composition of ant communities in Madagascar from a phylogenetic perspective, based on molecular genetic data, in order to investigate the evolutionary history of Madagascar’s highly endemic insect fauna.
2013 Progress Report
Bonnie Blaimer Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow Entomology
Washington, May 15, 2014
Dear Dr. Buck,
I hope this letter finds you well! Time flies, I am now already a few months into my second Fellowship year. I regret that I not yet had the chance to meet you in person. Last year at the time of writing to you, I had just arrived and begun my work at the Natural History Museum. Therefore I mainly told you back then about my 2012 field expedition to Madagascar surveying the ant fauna of the forest canopy, as the results of this trip were to form an integral component of my research project here. While I did not have the chance to go back to Madagascar since then, the past year has nonetheless been exciting for me in terms of research progress, discoveries and professional development. I feel very lucky for the opportunity, thanks to your support, to pursue my research in such a stimulating and resourceful environment as the Smithsonian Institution. Over the course of a few months, I have been able to plough through the samples from my canopy work in Madagascar: pinning, labeling and identifying all the ant to species where possible. In Madagascar, many species of ants still remain undescribed, and identifications can therefore be very difficult or impossible. Fortunately, I was able to make a trip to the California Academy of Sciences and compare my collections to an extensive reference collection, and it hence emerged that we did not discover new ant species on this expedition. Sadly the media is usually mostly interested in reports of new species discovery, but I would argue that a name and an occurrence record are only the tip of the iceberg. Our efforts were successful by virtue of collecting the first colony and nest samples, along with invaluable life and biological history data for previously little known canopy species. Completing the sorting and identification of these ant specimens, I was further able to start pursuing my main research goal as a fellow here. I collected genetic data for about 300 Malagasy ant species, in order to see how molecular and phylogenetic diversity compares to taxonomic (species) diversity within ant communities and how these patterns vary between communities in different habitats. At the moment, I am in the exciting midst of analyzing these data and getting ready to present the results at a research conference at the end of June. Hopefully this year we Buck Fellows will indeed be able to meet you in person and be able to express our gratitude of giving us the opportunity to follow our research passions. Until then this letter will have to suffice. I hope you enjoyed hearing a little about my research and I conclude with a huge THANK YOU!
Sincerely,
Bonnie Blaimer
Dr. Sara Casado-Zapico, Dept. of Anthropology University of Oviedo, Spain
Postdoctoral Fellow: June 2012 – June 2014
Research Title: Age Estimation by Measurement of Oxidative Stress in Teeth from Different Populations, Comparison with Classical Methods
Advisor: Doug Ubelaker (Curator of Anthropology, New World and Senior Scientist)
Sara Casado-Zapico received her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences and Biochemistry in March 2012 from the University of Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. Her primary research interests are improving the forensic science techniques for age-at-death estimation using a multidisciplinary approach, combining classical forensic anthropology techniques with chemistry and molecular biology techniques. Over the course of her project she compared these techniques in two Spanish populations. She has published thirteen papers, four of them related to her current research at the Smithsonian, and she has three manuscripts in preparation. The research developed at the Smithsonian is currently being applied to forensic cold cases in Spain.
2013 Progress Report
Dr. Habiba Chirchir, Dept. of Anthropology The George Washington University
Postdoctoral Fellow: September 2013 – August 2015
Research Title: Trabecular Bone Density and Running Adaptations
Advisor: Rick Potts (Director, Human Origins Program)
Habiba Chirchir received her Ph.D. from The George Washington University, in Hominid Paleobiology in 2013. Her research is in the evolution of the modern human skeletal anatomy. Her current work, supported by the Buck Fellowship, uses Museum collections to assess bone densities among primates and non-primates that have long daily travel distances compared to those with short daily travel distances. The aim of this research is to understand if there are patterns of low bone density among taxa with long daily travel distance as a means of lightening the skeleton in order to reduce energetic cost during locomotion. This is based on the biomechanical understanding that long daily travel distance is energetically more costly than shorter daily travel distances. Ultimately, results from this research will be used to interpret whether modern human patterns of trabecular density are similar to those of mammals with long daily travel distance and, if so, then modern human bone density pattern is an adaptation for long distance travel.
2013 Progress Report
Dear Dr. Buck,
I started my postdoctoral fellowship in the fall of 2013 in the Human Origins Program. I am writing to share my experience with you since the start of my fellowship. As soon as I arrived at the Smithsonian I started data collection using museum collections, which involved using medical CT scanning facilities to measure bone densities in skeletons of interest, which include hyenas, wolves, foxes, cheetahs and those of humans of different occupations. I am extremely fortunate that you have given me the opportunity to be at the Smithsonian, which has such a rich and diverse collection, not found elsewhere. The data collection phase took approximately five months to complete.
On finishing, I attended the annual physical anthropology conference in Calgary where I presented results from my previous research during my PhD, with financial support from the Buck fellowship. That paper looked at bone density in the fossil record in the last 3 million years in comparison to modern humans and chimpanzees. The results showed that indeed human bones are ‘light’ i.e. have low bone density compared to chimpanzees and our fossil ancestors however, why humans are able to biologically get away with such ‘light’ skeletons is still a mystery. Now I am embarking on the data analysis phase of my fellowship to go on through the summer.
I am truly honored to be a Buck fellow and very thankful to you. This is an opportunity that I could not have had elsewhere financially and in sufficient time to accommodate the start to completion (write up results) of a project. I also work with a very supportive team of advisors (Rick Potts in Human Origins and Kris Helgen in Mammals) there is no better place I could be and for that I am grateful for affording me this opportunity.
Thank you,
Habiba Chirchir
Dr. Frederick Davis, Dept. of Mineral Sciences University of Minnesota
Postdoctoral Fellow: September 2012 – September 2015
Research Title: First-row Transition Elements in Oceanic Island Basalts and Upper Mantle Lithologies
Advisor: Elizabeth Cottrell (Director, Global Volcanism Program)
Fred Davis earned his Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Minnesota in 2012. His primary research interests are in the chemical evolution and dynamics of the Earth’s crust and mantle. He studies the chemistry of basaltic lavas and mantle xenoliths—rocks that are transported from the mantle to the surface by volcanoes—to better understand the current chemical state of the Earth’s interior and its history. While at NMNH, Fred has used the electron microprobe in the Department of Mineral Sciences to analyze the major element and oxidation- reduction chemistry of xenoliths as part of an investigation of the formation of basaltic lavas at ocean islands. His work has also taken him to the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, where he uses X-Ray absorption techniques to study the oxidation state of Earth materials.
2013 Progress Report
Fred A Davis Department of Mineral Sciences Smithsonian Institution PO Box 37012, MRC 119 Washington, DC 20013-7012
May 16, 2014
Dear Dr. Buck,
I am writing to you to thank you again for your generous support for me and my colleagues. I am truly grateful for the access that my Buck Postdoctoral Fellowship has granted me to the wonderful collections, people, and resources at the National Museum of Natural History. It is a pleasure to be able to send you this correspondence describing my research over the past year.
You may recall from my last letter that I am interested in the chemistry of the interior of Earth. There is a debate in the earth sciences community about whether basaltic lavas, like those found in Hawaii, result from the melting of peridotite, the most common rock in the mantle, or from more exotic rock types. I originally wrote my Buck Fellowship proposal to analyze Hawaiian xenoliths, rocks brought from the Earth’s mantle to the surface in volcanic eruptions, for trace elements that will help me to better understand the types of rocks that are present in the mantle. In the last year, I have performed this analysis using the mass spectrometry facilities at the University of Maryland and the electron microprobe in the Department of Mineral Sciences at the National Museum of Natural History. I have learned that the xenoliths from Hawaii are distinct from other mantle rocks that have been found on the continents or in mid-oceanic ridges, especially in their elevated concentrations of Nickel. These results suggest that certain unique characteristics of Hawaiian lavas are inherited from the peridotites beneath Hawaii and do not require a more exotic component. I will be presenting these findings this summer at the International Goldschmidt Geochemical Conference in Sacramento, CA. I am also in the process of writing an article describing these results that I plan to submit this summer.
In addition to this work, I have had the opportunity to travel to synchrotron radiation facilities at Argonne and Brookhaven National labs and perform experiments in the Department of Mineral Sciences to better understand the chemical behavior of Oxygen in the Earth’s interior. This summer I will host an undergraduate intern at the museum to work on xenoliths from other volcanic islands. In this way, your support of my scientific endeavor will lead to an educational experience for another young researcher.
Once again, I’d like to thank you for your generous support of young scientists. I hope that we will have a chance to meet during my time at the Smithsonian.
Sincerely,
Fred A Davis
Klint Ericson, Dept. of Anthropology University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Predoctoral Fellow: September 2013 – November 2015
Research Title: Sumptuous and Beautiful As They Were: Architectural Form, Everyday Life, and Cultural Encounter in a 17th-Century New Mexico Mission
Advisor: Gwyneira Issac (Curator of North America)
Klint Ericson is a Ph.D. candidate in art history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His dissertation project is a case study of mission architecture and cultural encounters in seventeenth-century New Mexico, focusing on the material remains of the Purísima Concepción mission among the Zuni Indians of Hawikku Pueblo. Klint is an art historian by training, but draws heavily on other fields such as anthropology, archaeology, architectural history, and material culture studies in his efforts to understand the role of materials in mediating cultural exchanges of the colonial period. During his fellowship at Smithsonian Institution, he will be analyzing Hawikku mission artifacts in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian, while using comparative materials from the National Museum of Natural History, the National Anthropological Archives, and the National Museum of American History to guide his interpretation.
2013 Progress Report
May 13, 2014
Dear Dr. Buck,
I am writing to thank you for your tremendous support of my research at the National Museum of Natural History. It has been an honor to be among the Peter Buck fellows this past year. It has provided the time to do work critical to the completion and success of my dissertation project, which is a study of the cultural encounters that took place in a seventeenth-century Spanish mission among the Zuni Indians in New Mexico. The mission that I am studying was at Hawikku Pueblo, a site which occupies an important place in the history of American archaeology. Its excavation from 1917 to 1923 was one of the largest archaeological projects ever undertaken in the American southwest, and was jointly sponsored by Smithsonian Institution and the Museum of the American Indian-Heye Foundation. Despite its importance, much of the material excavated in the Hawikku mission has never been published or analyzed, which is the focus of my dissertation. The majority of the Hawikku artifacts are now part of the National Museum of the American Indian, and I have spent much of this past year at NMAI’s research center in Suitland, photographing, drawing, inspecting, and documenting each of the mission artifacts. They include an important group of hybrid ceramic pieces combining European forms with traditional Pueblo Indian materials, construction techniques, and ornamentation. These ceramics include soup-plates, cups, candlesticks, a unique salt cellar, and the baptismal font of the mission, all of which have much to tell about the ways that Spanish friars and native parishioners interacted within the spaces of the mission. The salt-cellar has been a particularly exciting artifact, because of the way that its form and decoration bring together significant elements from Spanish and Pueblo cultures. Salt cellars occupied an important place at the medieval Iberian table, representing God’s grace and presence, while Zunis considered salt to be part of the literal body of their supernatural figure known as the Salt Mother. The motifs painted on the sides of this vessel combine Greek crosses and ornamental motifs from Spanish pottery with what I believe are Pueblo representations of sacred niches, rainbows, and prayer sticks. This vessel offers a window into the complex, densely meaningful ways that artworks mediated interactions between Pueblo Indians and Spanish colonists. Among other objectives, this year of research has also allowed me to visit National Parks Service archives in Tucson, AZ (which hold important unpublished photographs and fieldnotes related to missions and excavations among the Zuni pueblos), as well as returning to the Hawikku site itself, the Zuni Tribal Museum, and present my ongoing research to the Zuni Tribal Council, to seek their input and guidance in my continued work. My advisor at NMNH, Gwyn Isaac, has been instrumental in facilitating my contacts in the Zuni community, and has been my guide in the tremendously rewarding experience of sharing my research and seeking ways to make it useful for Hawikku’s descendants. Thank you for your interest in the research endeavors of the National Museum of Natural History. You have made all of my work possible, and I deeply appreciate your support.
With Gratitude,
Klint Ericson
Dr. Brent Grocholski, Dept. of Mineral Sciences University of California, Berkeley
Postdoctoral Fellow: September 2011 – May 2014
Research Title: The Lower Mantle and the Earth’s Water Cycle
Advisors: Elizabeth Cottrell (Director, Global Volcanism Program) and Jeffrey Post (Geologist, Division of Mineralogy)
Brent Grocholski studies the role of water on the properties of minerals in the deep interior of our planet. He uses high-pressure high-temperature experimental methods to simulate the extreme conditions of our Earth’s mantle. His background includes experimental studies on a wide array of planetary and other materials under high compression. Brent obtained his doctorate in Earth and planetary science at the University of California-Berkeley in 2008 and subsequently worked for three years as a post-doctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been a Peter Buck Fellow at the National Museum of Natural History since 2011.
2013 Progress Report
Dear Dr. Buck –
The request to write you a letter came at an opportune time as I was weighing different job opportunities recently. The Buck fellowship has helped shape my future as it brought me into a well-respected institution, gave me experience with a government agency that has a scientific mission, and expanded my network in ways I could not have imagined. I now see clearly the need and great demand for individuals with a solid scientific background across all sectors of the economy. The fellowship is important not just for extending academic training, but also for launching careers in Washington and beyond. I have no doubt that my experiences and connections forged at the National Museum of Natural History will pay dividends as I move forward in my own career. I leave the fellowship next month to take a position as an editor at Science. I have no doubt this change in trajectory is just the first step as I transition from conducting my own research to ensuring a healthy science and technology infrastructure for our nation. I am proud to be in the first class of Buck fellows, and expect great things from all Buck fellows in the future. I cannot express my appreciation for you and the fellowship that has given me such wonderful opportunities going forward.
All the best,
Brent Grocholski
Dr. Eliécer Gutiérrez, Dept. of Vertebrate Zoology City University of New York
Postdoctoral Fellow: May 2012 – March 2015
Research Title: Revealing the Evolutionary History of the Deer Genus Odocoileus, with Emphasis on the Cariacou Complex
Advisors: Kristofer Helgen (Curator-in-Charge, Mammals) and Jesus McDonald (Research Geneticist, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute)
Dr. Eliécer E. Gutiérrez, originally from Venezuela, obtained a Ph.D. in Biology at City University of New York in 2012. Since then, he has been a Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Mammals of the National Museum of Natural History. His research focuses on theoretical and applied aspects of systematics and biogeography to understand patterns of biodiversity, using mammals as a study system. Dr. Gutiérrez is currently working on the project "Revealing the evolutionary history of the deer genus Odocoileus, with emphasis on the cariacou complex". This study will both establish a species-level taxonomy and will provide insights about the biogeography of New World deer. He is interested in the application of integrative approaches that include ecological niche modeling, molecular techniques (especially massive parallel sequencing), and analyses of morphological data to study systematics and biogeography.
2013 Progress Report
Washington, DC, May 27th, 2014
Dear Dr. Buck,
Just like I did last year, I would like to express how grateful I am for the support you are providing not only to me but also to my colleagues and friends—other postdoctoral fellows doing amazing research. This year, I have been able to obtain a dataset unique in the world which consists of mitochondrial genomes and morphological data for deer species from all across the American continent. These species have been long neglected by scientists in my field of research (i.e., systematics and biogeography), despite being so charismatic and diverse. In this group are species as large as reindeer and as small as the Pudus, the smallest deer in the world. (I am including here a photo of the Pudus; it is really the size of a small dog!)
In the past, other fellow mammalogists have probably assumed that American deer have been well studied—a reasonable assumption considering that some species are so abundant in North America—and therefore have not studied them. We (scientists) have never rigorously attempted to apply modern methods to estimate how many species of these deer exist. Where did they become so variable in size and shape? Why and how long ago did they become so diverse? Your generous donations to the Buck Fellowship program have allowed me to address these questions and the results will soon be shared with the world in scientific publications. I know you understand how important this is for a scientist, as you are one of us. I consider it hard to overestimate the positive impact you are having in human progress allowing new generations of scientists to make discoveries, especially in times when investments in non-lucrative science are shrinking. Thank you!
Eliécer
Eliécer E. Gutiérrez, Ph.D. Buck Postdoctoral Fellow Division of Mammals, MRC 108 National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution P.O. Box 37012 Washington, DC 20013-7012
Personal website: http://www.eliecer--‐e--‐gutierrez.com Smithsonian web page: http://vertebrates.si.edu/mammals/mammals_staff_pages/gut ierrez_eliecer.html
Caroline Judy, Dept. of Vertebrate Zoology Louisiana State University
Predoctoral Fellow: January 2014 – December 2015
Research Title: Genomic View of Speciation in Jamaican Streamertail Hummingbirds (Trochilus polytmus and T. scitulus)
Advisor: Gary Graves (Curator of Birds)
Caroline Judy completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia and a Master’s degree at the University of Missouri-St Louis, where she researched population genetics of Galapagos endemic birds. She worked for two years in science policy at the National Science Foundation before starting her Ph.D. at Louisiana State University, where she continues to study avian evolution, systematics, and conservation. Her dissertation research focuses on one of the most compelling known examples of avian speciation in action. Two recently-diverged species of hummingbirds in Jamaica are known to hybridize, yet the geographic region where hybridization occurs has stayed shockingly narrow through time. The origin and maintenance of such a narrow hybrid zone linking species with high dispersal capabilities on a small oceanic island defies traditional explanations. Caroline is tackling this problem with field studies, specimen-based research, and a massive next-generation DNA sequencing program designed to identify genes that encode the observed morphological differences among populations in these young lineages. Her research will have important implications for both taxonomy and conservation of these unique birds.
2013 Progress Report
L OUISIANA S TATE U NIVERSITY AND AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE Museum of Natural Science
Caroline D. Judy, PhD Candidate 119 Foster Hall Baton Rouge, LA 70803
15 May 2014
Dr. Peter Buck
RE: your support
Dear Dr. Buck,
I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for your support of research fellows at the Smithsonian Institution. I was awarded a two-year fellowship to conduct my dissertation research addressing hybridization and speciation in Jamaican-endemic Streamertail Hummingbirds (Trochilus polytmus and T. scitulus). My fieldwork in Jamaica usually takes place in the winter. Stepping off the plane onto an emerald island lined with sparkling beaches is sublime after months of commuting in the snow! For me, however, the best part of the island lies in the interior, far from the scenic coastline. My husband, who has visited me there, remarked that driving into the island’s interior is like stepping into Jurassic Park. The wet montane forests of the east and the ‘cockpit’ limestone forests in the west are filled with island endemics that represent endless possibilities for research, if one can tolerate mosquito bites and other such insults to the flesh. Whether I am in Jamaica or in Washington, D.C., it is great to be part of the Smithsonian community. The best part about the appointment is that an expert on any number of topics can usually be found from within! My mentor, Gary Graves, Curator of Birds, has worked in Jamaica for many decades on a plethora of projects related to natural history of birds. The series of Streamertail Hummingbirds that he and others collected from across the island is housed in the Natural History Building and is the backbone for my dissertation research (see Fig. 1 for sampling locations). Dr. Storrs Olson, also a Curator of Birds, has also published on many Jamaican endemic birds, including an extinct flightless ibis (Zenicibis xympithecus) known from the Quaternary period. Outside of our division, Dr. Pedro Acevedo, Curator of Plants, is an expert in West Indian flora. He will be tremendous aid to me as I seek to identify the diverse flowering plants I have seen used by Streamertails. The Migratory Bird Center at the National Zoo has a large cohort of researchers working to understand migration and community ecology of wintering American Redstarts (Setophaga ruticilla) on Jamaica, and have expanded my network in country. Regarding molecular methods, many Smithsonian researchers are conducting genomics projects like mine, and represent a lively group with which to compare methods and analytical problems. I have no doubt that being surrounded by this great community will enrich my PhD experience as I work to publish my findings.
119 Foster Hall • Baton Rouge • Louisiana • 70803- 3216 • 225/578- 2855 • FAX 225/578- 3075 WWW.LSU.EDU/LSUMNS 2
Figure 1: Locations of Streamertail hummingbirds (n=172) collected by Gary R. Graves in Jamaica. Picture insets include parental forms and hybrids. Photo credit: Gary R. Graves.
I am a native of Atlanta, GA. I inherited a great love for the out of doors from my father, who was born in the low country of South Carolina and grew up fishing and hunting with his dad, a Methodist minister. He became a lawyer, and is still practicing law in Atlanta. On many weekends I accompanied him to hunting camps where I would sit in deer stands and watch wildlife while he hunted. When I entered college, he encouraged me to follow my passions and instincts (though he said he thought I would make a good lawyer if I wanted). I found my place in the School of Ecology at the University of Georgia, and after a semester studying tropical biology in Costa Rica, I decided to pursue biology research as a career. I conducted a Master’s thesis on Flightless Cormorants (Phalacrocorax harrisi) in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, and then settled on a PhD at Louisiana State University, where I etched out my project on Streamertails in Jamaica. Islands have always fascinated me. From the viewpoint of an evolutionary biologist, they represent natural laboratories for speciation genetics. I’d like to tell you a little more about the Streamertail system, which is very cool. Streamertail hummingbirds (Trochilus polytmus and T. scitulus) represent one of the only known examples of in-situ speciation for birds on a small oceanic island. The two Streamertail species form an extremely narrow hybrid zone where their ranges meet in Eastern Jamaica. Bill color, the secondary sexual character that distinguishes the pair, changes from coral red in T. polytmus to jet black in T. scitulus over a distance less than seven kilometers. While the two are easily
119 Foster Hall • Baton Rouge • Louisiana • 70803- 3216 • 225/578- 2855 • FAX 225/578- 3075 WWW.LSU.EDU/LSUMNS
3 distinguished by eye, my research shows that they cannot be distinguished genetically using traditional molecular markers. Using next-generation sequencing technology, I am searching larger parts of the genome for genes and gene regions that encode the observed morphological differences (Fig 2). These genes are likely important for maintaining reproductive isolation between parental forms, and will give us insight into how and why this remarkable speciation event happened. These data will also have implications for taxonomy and conservation. The year is off to a busy start, and will only get busier! I will be analyzing data and preparing to go back to Jamaica in November 2014 to collect another sixty individuals to add to the current series. This summer I will be presenting some of our Figure 2: PCA of 1645 single nucleotide results to date at the summer Evolution meeting in Raleigh, NC, polymorphisms showing early-stage and again at the American Ornithologists Union meeting in Estes divergence in Streamertail hummingbirds. Park, CO. I will also get to participate in a 10-day workshop on Molecular Evolution at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. One day, I hope to meet you, so I can thank you in person for creating so many opportunities for research here at the Smithsonian, including my own.
Sincerely,
Caroline D. Judy, Ph.D. Candidate & Peter Buck Pre-doctoral Fellow Museum of Natural Science & Department of Biological Sciences Louisiana State University
119 Foster Hall • Baton Rouge • Louisiana • 70803- 3216 • 225/578- 2855 • FAX 225/578- 3075 WWW.LSU.EDU/LSUMNS
Dr. Neil Kelley, Dept. of Paleobiology University of California, Davis
Postdoctoral Fellow: January 2014 – December 2015
Research Title: Macroevolutionary Convergences in the Adaptations of Marine Tetrapods: Evaluating Large-Scale Morphological Parallelisms from Mesozoic to Cenozoic
Advisor: Nicholas Pyenson (Curator of Fossil Marine Mammals)
Neil Kelley received his Ph.D. in November 2012 from the University of California, Davis. His primary research interests are the evolution, ecology, and extinction of terrestrial vertebrates that have readapted to life in the oceans including marine mammals, sea birds, and especially Mesozoic marine reptiles. He uses quantitative multivariate analysis to explore the interplay of morphology and ecology and investigate macroevolutionary processes such as convergent evolution, adaptive radiation, mass extinction, and ecosystem structuring through time.
2013 Progress Report
Smithsonian Institution
Neil Kelley Peter Buck Postdoctoral Research Fellow Department of Paleobiology National Museum of Natural History
16 May 2014 Dear Dr. Buck,
My postdoctoral fellowship began in January and the past few months have been an exhilarating blur. Highlights have included discovering freeze-dried ground sloth dung in a collections drawer, watching T. rex bones get laser scanned and chatting about the finer points of whale lunge-feeding with a parachute physicist. Each of these is somewhat outside my area of scientific expertise but these enlightening diversions are what make this an amazing place to work. I am fueled by the infectious hum of curiosity and amazement in the museum galleries and the percolation of knowledge and research behind the scenes.
The beginning of my fellowship coincides with the recent closure of the fossil hall. While it has been bittersweet to see the old hall close, it is been exciting to catch glimpses of the vision behind the exhibit redesign. While sifting through the collections I stumbled on the acid-etched bones of a plesiosaur, and a note from another researcher pointing out that these bony fragments locked away in a cabinet are the preserved remains of the last meal of a gigantic mosasaur (extinct marine lizard) that formed a centerpiece of the old ‘Ancient Seas’ exhibit. The evolution and ecology of extinct marine reptiles is the focus of my scientific research so this was an especially exciting discovery for me. After chatting about my find with preparator and researcher Peter Kroehler and curator Dr. Matthew Carrano we discussed the possibility of incorporating this snapshot of life and death in the Cretaceous ocean into the new exhibit.
My first major achievement as a postdoctoral researcher at the Smithsonian was completing a special issue of the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology which I guest edited along with my advisor Dr. Nicholas Pyenson and our colleague Dr. James Parham. This issue–Physical Drivers and Marine Tetrapod Evolution–draws together novel research on how diverse lineages adapted to changing marine conditions since the Triassic, 250 million years ago. My ongoing research builds upon this project, searching for common patterns in marine vertebrate evolution. This fall we will travel to central Nevada to produce 3D scans and photogrammetric models of a 220 million year old marine reptile death assemblage, which preserves the skeletons of gigantic ichthyosaurs. I will have a lot more to say about that groundbreaking project next year.
Thank you for your generous support of my research and this amazing and unique institution.
Sincerely,
Neil P. Kelley* Department of Paleobiology National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC 20013, USA
Fredrick Larabee, Dept. of Entomology University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Predoctoral Fellow: July 2013 – July 2014
Research Title: Functional Morphology and Evolution of Trap-Jaw Ants
Advisor: Ted Schultz (Department Chair and Research Entomologist)
Fredrick Larabee is a Ph.D. candidate in the Entomology Department at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. His research interests center on the functional morphology, comparative biomechanics, and evolution of insect mouthparts. Using methods from classical morphology, mechanical engineering, and molecular phylogenetics, he is trying to better understand the relationship between mouthpart structure and function, and look for correlations between mouthpart specialization and evolutionary success. As a Buck Fellow, Larabee has been using the Museum’s extensive ant collection and DNA sequencing facilities to study the evolution and functional morphology of trap-jaw ants, whose specialized spring-loaded mandibles are one of the fastest animal movements that have ever been recorded.
2013 Progress Report
Dr. Buck,
The last eleven months that I have spent working at the National Museum of Natural History have been some of the most productive and rewarding months of my professional life, and I wanted to thank you for making this experience possible.
Coming from a laboratory primarily focused on behavioral and community ecology, I never realized how well my research interests fit into a museum environment. My original interest in conducting research at NMNH was to take advantage of the insect collections for molecular phylogenetics, but through my interactions with staff, fellows and other visiting researchers, I learned that research at the Smithsonian is so much more than just systematics and alpha taxonomy. The imaging facilities combined with the enormous biological collections at NMNH make it an ideal place to conduct the morphological and biomechanical research that I am interested in. As a result of my time as a Buck Fellow, I am now actively pursuing opportunities to continue my research as a post-doc at NMNH or another natural history museum.
Thank you again for this opportunity.
Sincerely,
Fredrick Larabee
Dr. Tyler Lyson, Dept. of Vertebrate Zoology Yale University
Postdoctoral Fellow: October 2012 – September 2014
Research Title: The Origin of Turtles and Their Enigmatic Shell
Advisors: Kevin de Queiroz (Research Zoologist and Curator, Amphibians and Reptiles) and George Zug (Curator Emeritus, Amphibians and Reptiles)
Tyler Lyson is addressing two major questions during his postdoctoral fellowship: how do turtles breathe, and to which other group of vertebrates are they most closely related—lizards, birds, crocodiles, or mammals? To determine the evolutionary position of turtles in the vertebrate tree of life, he will gather and integrate data on development and adult form (from both extinct and living species), as well as on genetics of living species. Placing turtles on the evolutionary tree will resolve one of the last big mysteries in the high-level relationships among major groups of terrestrial vertebrates. Lyson’s dissections will help determine the evolutionary steps necessary for turtles to change from breathing with rib-based muscles, as in their earliest ancestors, to breathing with abdominal muscles.
Additionally, Tyler collaborated with other scientists, including Dr. Hans-Dieter Sues, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Museum, on the study of a new bird-like dinosaur, Anzu wylei, previously unknown to science. Having found one of the fossils himself in the 1990s, Tyler was involved in the naming of the species earlier this year. Receiving significant media attention in March 2014, the discovery represents the first complete and largest North American example of a species belonging to Oviraptorosauria, a group of dinosaurs mostly known from fossils found in Central and East Asia; this specimen was found in the Upper Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation in North and South Dakota, inspiring scientists to nickname it “The Chicken from Hell.”
2013 Progress Report
Dear Dr. Buck,
I would like to take some time and thank you for your generosity towards the Smithsonian Institution that has allowed me to work as a Peter Buck Fellow for the past two years at the National Museum of Natural History. The opportunity has given me the time and tools to answer some basic questions regarding turtles: who are turtles most closely related to? How did the turtle get its shell? When did the turtle shell evolve? How do turtles breathe when they lock up their ribs into a protective shell? When and how did this transformation take place? I have addressed these questions by performing fieldwork in South Africa and North Dakota/Montana, using Computed Tomography scans to visualize hard and soft anatomy, and integrating these morphologic and histologic data from both living and fossil turtles with molecular data. I feel very privileged to work on questions that I find so fascinating, to meet and collaborate with scientists from various disciplines, and to travel the globe in my search for answers to these questions. Thanks again for this fantastic opportunity! Your generosity has been crucial to the success of my career and helped set me up to land my dream job as a museum curator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. I will start my new job this fall and I could not be more excited! As a small token of my appreciation I have included a bronze cast of a Tyrannosaurus rex tooth that I found in July, 2012. The tooth is from the Hell Creek Formation (latest Maastrichtian, ~67 mya) of eastern Montana (Fallon County, just north of the town Baker on a private ranch). I grew up in the area and have been conducting fieldwork here for around 20 years. I have found numerous new species of turtle (which is what ultimately got me interested in turtles), as well as dinosaurs, lizards, and other animals. The T-rex tooth is certainly the nicest tooth I have ever found and I hope you enjoy it (makes a great paper weight!).
Best wishes,
Tyler Lyson
Dr. Molly McDonough, Dept. of Vertebrate Zoology Texas Tech University
Postdoctoral Fellow: February 2014 – February 2016
Research Title: Understanding the Biodiversity and Evolutionary Relationships of an Enigmatic Rodent Group: Subtribe Gerbillina, Using Next-Generation Sequencing
Advisor: Kristofer Helgen (Curator-in-Charge of the Division of Mammals)
Molly McDonough received her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences with an emphasis on molecular systematics of small mammals from Texas Tech University in December 2013. She is interested in understanding the evolutionary relationships and biodiversity of mammals, particularly African rodents. She has published 13 papers, including a description of a new bat species from western Ecuador. During her Buck Fellowship, Molly will estimate the number of species of pygmy gerbils that occur throughout North Africa and the Middle East. Pygmy gerbils exhibit a remarkable amount of species diversity (~60 spp.) and occur in small geographic ranges, making them particularly susceptible to regional extinction. Her research will provide the first insight into the number of species in this group, and where to focus future conservation efforts.
2013 Progress Report
13 May 2016
Dear Dr. Buck:
It is with great pleasure that I write to thank you for enabling me to pursue a postdoctoral position at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. I am absolutely thrilled to be conducting research here at the NMNH, a place that E. O. Wilson describes as the “Cathedral of Knowledge”. Each day at the Smithsonian is filled with priceless opportunities. For example, during my first three weeks at the Smithsonian I was able to sequence over a dozen mitochondrial genomes using the same sequencing technology that was used to generate the Neanderthal genome. Then, only weeks later, I was able to meet and have dinner with the Svante Pääbo, the research leading the Neanderthal genome project.
My project involves sequencing African rodents to resolve evolutionary relationships and estimate species diversity for groups that have been overlooked, or have been complicated due to high degrees of morphological similarity. This type of research is often difficult to find funding for, because it rarely has a direct impact to humans/human interest. However, I have found a great community at the Smithsonian’s NMNH and it is through your fellowship that this type of research is possible.
Sincerely,
Molly M. McDonough Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History P.O. Box 37012, MRC 108 Washington, DC 20013-7012 [email protected]
Dr. Leslie Reeder-Myers, Dept. of Anthropology Southern Methodist University
Postdoctoral Fellow: September 2013 – August 2015
Research Title: Historical Ecology and Landscape Archaeology of Chesapeake Bay
Advisor: Torben Rick (Director and Curator of North American Archaeology)
Leslie Reeder-Myers received her Ph.D. in Anthropology in December 2012 from Southern Methodist University. Her primary research interests center on the interactions between people and their environment in coastal settings, using GIS and spatial analysis to reconstruct ancient landscapes and explore patterns of land use in the past. She uses archaeology to address issues of modern significance such as climate change and cultural resource loss, and to provide a framework for human management and conservation of modern ecosystems. During her postdoctoral fellowship, Reeder-Myers will explore the role of sea level rise, climate change, and humans in shaping Chesapeake Bay ecosystems over the past 3,000 years.
2013 Progress Report
Dear Dr. Buck,
I am now seven months into my tenure as a Buck post-doctoral fellow and it has been, without qualification, the best experience of my academic career thus far. I am an archaeologist, studying changes in how people have used Chesapeake Bay resources over the past 3000 years. I have done more research, writing, and publishing than ever before, and probably more than I will be able to do ever again. I have met many new people, established new professional relationships, and found exciting new opportunities for research and collaboration. I would like to share with you one of these opportunities that has been particularly important to me.
As an archaeologist working on coastal sites all around North America, I am constantly aware of the increasing rate of coastal erosion. 21st century climate change will have many negative consequences, but one of those will be the loss of much of our cultural heritage in coastal regions. As a young graduate student, I wrote a paper examining this issue in southern California, but I did not expect to have an opportunity to revisit the subject for many years. However, during my time at the Smithsonian, I have been able to meet with scientists working for NOAA. They invited me to be a part of a group that is establishing protocols for dealing with endangered archaeological sites in their Marine Protected Areas. This is a service opportunity that I was offered because of my position at the Smithsonian, and that I am able to pursue because of the freedom offered by the Buck fellowship program. The archaeological record is, in many cases, our only window into the human past, and I am grateful for the chance to help protect it for future generations.
Thank you for your support of this fellowship program, not only because of the important research that can be accomplished but also because of the impact it has on all of us personally.
Sincerely,
Leslie Reeder-Myers
Dr. Graham Slater, Dept. of Paleobiology University of California, Los Angeles
Postdoctoral Fellow: September 2012 – September 2015
Research Title: Tempo and Mode of Ecomorphological Diversification in Canidae: A Phylogenetic and Paleobiological Perspective
Advisors: Gene Hunt (Curator of Ostracoda) and Kristofer Helgen (Curator-in-Charge of the Division of Mammals)
Graham Slater obtained his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from UCLA in 2009. He is interested in questions about the rates of morphological evolution in living and fossil mammals, particularly the order Carnivora, and is an active developer of new methods for studying these kinds of questions. During his Peter Buck Fellowship, Graham is attempting to understand patterns and processes in the evolution of North American canids (dogs), a lineage that spans 45 million years and achieved remarkable diversity in form and number.
2013 Progress Report
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Graham J. Slater PhD Peter Buck Post-Doctoral Fellow Department of Paleobiology National Museum of Natural History The Smithsonian Institution [NHB, MRC 121] P.O. Box 37012 Washington DC 20013-7012 June 4, 2014 Tel: (310) 404-6381 Email: [email protected]