Congratulations to UTM Biology Professor Marc Johnson, who has been awarded a 2012 Early Researcher Award (ERA) that will support his research on the evolutionary consequences of asexual reproduction in plants.

Professor Johnson is one of 21 U of T professors in the early stages of their research careers whose work has been honoured with funding from the ERA, which helps recently-appointed Ontario researchers to build their teams and enables Ontario to attract and retain the best and brightest research talent.  Each researcher receives $140,000 toward their projects.

For more information, see the University of Toronto news website.

Congratulations to EEB Professor Megan Frederickson, who has been awarded a 2012 Early Researcher Award (ERA) to support her work on protecting our ecosystems from invasive plants and insects.

Professor Frederickson is one of 21 U of T professors in the early stages of their research careers whose work has been honoured with funding from the ERA, which helps recently-appointed Ontario researchers to build their teams and enables Ontario to attract and retain the best and brightest research talent.  Each researcher receives $140,000 toward their projects.

For more information, see the University of Toronto news website.

For Registration, Speaker & Sponsor information visit the Association of Education & Research Greenhouse Curators (AERGC) web site.

http://www.aergc.org/annual.php  

Formed in 1985, the membership of AERGC consists primarily of college and university plant growth facility staff. Interested individuals from other types of institutions, e.g. botanical gardens, research and development firms, and industry representatives are welcome as members. There are a number of members outside of North America which lend a global perspective.

  ... read more

Thursday April 5, 2012

This year's Undergraduate Research Fair event was a great success. Twenty-seven students showcased the results of their independent research projects.

Three students were recognized with Certificates of Excellence for having the best poster in their category:

Alexandra Fonseca (Prof. Tammy Sage); Ecology& Conservation
Grace Taurozzi (Prof. Art Weis); Evolution& Genetics
Ji Dong Bai (Prof. James Thomson); Evolutionary Ecology

In addition, Honourable Mentions were awarded in each category:

Samantha Lawton (Prof. Mart Gross); Ecology& Conservation
Daniel Johnson (Prof. Rowan Sage); Evolution& Genetics
Celina Baines (Prof. John Stinchcombe); Evolutionary Ecology

Congratulations to all participants for their excellent work! Thank you to the judges and to all those who attended.
  ... read more

Past PhD student Jen Perry has been awarded the American Society of Naturalists Young Investigator Prize. The award is one of the highest honours for recent PhDs in either ecology or evolution. Jen’s work has centred on sexually antagonistic interactions and coevolution in ladybirds and water striders. Currently, Jen is at Oxford on an NSERC post-doctoral fellowship. Congratulations Jen!

Assistant Prof. Marc Johnson (University of Toronto – Mississauga) is one of two recipients of CSEE’s inaugural Early Career Award.

 Prof. Johnson received this award in recognition of his contributions to evolutionary ecology (see www.evoeco.org). His work has focused on the evolution of plant defences against herbivores, the extended ecological effects of genetic variation and evolution in plant populations, and on the evolutionary consequences of sexual reproduction in plants. Prof. Johnson will receive his award at the CSEE annual general meeting in Ottawa this summer, where he will also give a Keynote Address.

Professor Emeritus Paul Maycock of Botany passed away Thursday 
February 23rd, 2012, at the age of 81 years, from a heart attack. Paul was 
a pioneer in surveying the forest vegetation of Ontario and recently  
completed a manuscript for his book on the Carolinian forests of the  
Province.

More information is available on the UTM website at: http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/main-news/memoriam-paul-maycock

Congratulations to James Thomson who has just been selected as a Fellow in the Royal Society of Canada, one of Canada’s highest academic honours.

James D. Thomson has investigated pollination biology and pollinator behavior from novel perspectives. Notably, his models and measurements of the fates of pollen grains explain phenomena that are not treated in other bodies of theory.

Congratulations to Professors Asher Cutter and Stephen Wright, who have just been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.

During the academic year 2010-2011, Dan has been honored to be a Senior Visiting Fellow of the Collegium Budapest.  His photo exhibit 'Landscapes' will be on view June 15-July 31, 2011 at Collegium Budapest.  In recognition of this singular honor and pleasure, Dan is delighted to donate all proceeds from the sale of photographs in this exhibition to the Hungarian foundation NEST (New Europe School for Theoretical Biology and Theoretical Ecology).

Jessica Forrest has won the Governor General’s Gold Medal for her PhD thesis work with James Thomson on the interplay between species interactions and environmental change. Jessica’s thesis is entitled "Plant-pollinator interactions in a changing climate". The Governor General’s Gold Medal was first awarded in 1873 by the Earl of Dufferin. This award has since become one of the most prestigious that a student at a Canadian educational institution may receive.  The Gold Medal is awarded to three students who achieved the highest academic standing at the graduate level.

Devin Bloom, a Ph.D. ... read more

Congratulations to EEB Professor John Stinchcombe, who has been awarded a 2011 NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement to support his work on the "Ecological genomics of plant adaptation". The Discovery Accelerator Supplement Program provide substantial and timely additional resources to a small group of outstanding researchers who have a well-established research program. The aim is to accelerate progress and maximize the impact of outstanding research programs. Each supplement is valued at $120,000 over three years, and will provide recipients with additional resources to compete with the best in the world.

This year's Undergraduate Research Fair event was a great success!  Seventeen students showcased the results of their independent research  projects.

  ... read more

The recipient of EEB's Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award for 2010-11 is:

Susana Wadgymar (Weis lab)

This annual award, started in 2007-08, recognizes the important role of TAs in our department and publicly honours the efforts, talents, and dedication of TAs who make an exceptional contribution to the learning experience of their students. Students nominate their TA for this award.

Past recipients are: Alison Cloutier (2007-08), Rob Colautti, Rob Ness,
Murilo Peixoto, and Paul Venturelli (2008-09), and Emily Austen and
Jeffrey Harsant (2009-10).

Susana TA'd in both BIO120H Adaptation and Biodiversity and EEB319H
Population Ecology in 2010-11. A student in EEB319H wrote:  “Not only is ... read more

Profs Tammy Sage and Rowan Sage awarded grant from the Canadian International Development Agency to assist efforts of the International Rice Research Institute and the C4 Rice Consortium to guide breeding and engineering for improved rice yields. ... read more

Attention:  EEB Graduate Faculty, Post docs and graduate students,

The EEB Graduate Appreciation Night will be held on Saturday, April 9, 2011. This will be the concluding event of the departmental colloquium.  It will be hosted by the Tri-Campus Graduate Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the Faculty Club, St.George campus.  Please be sure to RSVP to Laura Ferlito (grad [dot] eeb (at)utoronto [dot] ca) by *March 21, 2011*.

I anticipate a fine evening of socializing and recognizing the accomplishments of our outstanding graduate students.  Please join us.

Best regards,

Nick Collins
Associate Chair Graduate Studies

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology was awarded eight NSERC USRAs for 2011.
These awards provide our undergraduate students with the opportunity to work with NSERC-eligible faculty over the summer for a 16-week period. The department received applications from many outstanding students.

The department's Undergraduate Affairs Committee reviewed the applications.
The students listed below were successful in receiving a 2011 NSERC Undergraduate Summer Research Award. ... read more

Prof. Aneil Agrawal has been awarded the 2009-10 Faculty of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award. As the letters from students included within the nomination letter attest, Aneil is a passionate, reflective, and accessible mentor to undergraduate and graduate students. Aneil’s motivation is to ensure students master the fundamental principles of population genetics that underlie and unite the fields of evolutionary biology, and he achieves this with a touch of humour and an infectious enthusiasm. We congratulate Aneil for this recognition of teaching excellence.

Congratulations to Professor Dan Brooks on his new book: More Than Meets The Eye: A Poetic and Photographic Exploration of the Biologist's World, By Daniel R. Brooks and Jack Maze.  EEB Professor Dan Brooks is currently a senior visiting fellow at the Collegium Budapest Institute for Advance Study in Budapest, Hungary; Jack Maze is Professor Emeritus of Botany at UBC. The book is a collaboration of Jack Maze's poems and Prof. Brooks' photos.

Congratulations to Professor John Stinchcombe, who has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.

At the annual meeting of the Canadian Botanical Association in Ottawa, 31 May - 5 June 2010, former EEB Ph.D. student, Dr Eugenia Y. Y. Lo received the CBA's Alf Erling Porsild Award for her paper, “Population genetic structure of diploid sexual and polyploid apomictic hawthorns (/Crataegus/; Rosaceae) in the Pacific Northwest.” published in Molecular Ecology 18(6): 1145-1160 (2009) and co-authored with S. Stefanović and T. A. Dickinson. This award is made by the CBA's Systematics and Phytogeography section for the best paper on plant systematics or phytogeography published in the preceding year from a student's thesis research. Eugenia is currently doing a post-doc at Yale in the lab of Dr Michael Donoghue. ... read more

Congratulations to EEB Professor Aneil Agrawal, who has been awarded a 2010 NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement. The Discovery Accelerator Supplement Program provide substantial and timely additional resources to a small group of outstanding researchers who have a well-established research program. The aim is to accelerate progress and maximize the impact of outstanding research programs. Each supplement is valued at $120,000 over three years, and will provide recipients with additional resources to compete with the best in the world.

Congratulations to Emeritus Professor Nancy G. Dengler who is the 2010 recipient of a Merit Award from the Botanical Society of America (BSA). This is the most prestigious award given by BSA for outstanding contributions and excellence in basic research in plant biology. Nancy has now achieved the ‘North American botanical double’ as last year she was awarded the 2009 Lawson Medal, the highest award given by the Canadian Botanical Society.

Congratulations to Dr. Jannice Friedman who attended a ceremony at the University of Toronto on June 1 to receive the 2010 ‘Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal’ in Mathematics, Science, and Engineering honoring academic excellence at the graduate level. Jannice is currently at Duke University supported by an NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellowship. Her Ph.D. thesis, supervised by Spencer Barrett, was on ‘The Ecology and Evolution of Wind Pollination’.

Congratulations to Professor Marla Sokolowski (UTM Biology & EEB), who has been awarded a University Professorship for her pioneering studies of the genetic and molecular underpinnings of natural variation in behaviour. The University of Toronto recognizes exceptional scholarly achievement and pre-eminence in a particular field of knowledge through the designation of University Professor. This lifelong honor is bestowed upon fewer than 2% of the faculty of the University of Toronto. ... read more

Congratulations to EEB Postdoc Richard Jovelin who earned an Ontario Post-Doctoral Fellowship! This award is partially-funded by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and provides $50k/yr support for 2 years. Richard will continue his work in Asher Cutter's lab studying the molecular evolution of gene regulation, focusing on how micro-RNAs contribute to genetic networks and expression. He is quantifying molecular population genetic variation and divergence in the highly-diverse nematode species /Caenorhabditis remanei/ for all known micro-RNA loci, and will be analyzing population genomic sequence data for this same species.

The two recipients of EEB's Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award are: ... read more

We are very pleased to announce that the winners of the 2010 Ramsay Wright Scholarship are Brandon Campitelli and Alethea Wang. The award is presented to a 3rd or 4th year graduate considered to have excelled academically, and to have contributed to the life of the Department. Congratulations to both Alethea and Brandon!

The award citations- ... read more