THE MCGRAW LAB
from left to right: Paul Nolan, Ondi Crino,
Amanda Flynn, Lauren Washington, Joey Georges, Jared Underwood, Erica
Diaz-Gonzalez; below: CarpodaCart; above: our outdoor aviary
Post-doctoral
researchers
Dr.
Paul Nolan:
Paul is studying the role of song and coloration as signals of mate quality in
finches and penguins. Paul and I
have collaborated on various projects with finches and penguins for nearly
eight years now. In conjunction
with Dr. Pierre Deviche, we are also initiating a collaboration on nutritional
control of neuroanatomy and song production in birds.
Ph.D. students
Melissa
Meadows
(starting Fall 2005): Melissa earned her B.Sc. from the University of North
Carolina-Wilmington and completed her honors thesis on terns, from which she is
now preparing a manuscript for publication. She spent the summer before
entering graduate school studying the breeding biology of tropical songbirds in
Panama with Jeff Brawn. Melissa is
interested in studying the function and control of iridescent coloration in
birds. She was recently awarded
Honorable Mention for her National Science Foundation Graduate Research
Fellowship proposal on this topic.
Matt
Toomey
(starting Summer 2005): Matt graduated from the University of Vermont with a
B.Sc. and published his undergraduate research on zebra mussel
distribution. He recently
conducted research with Reed Bowman at Archbold Experimental Station on Florida
scrub jays and is interested in studying sociality and color ornaments in
desert birds.
Lisa
Taylor
(starting Fall 2005): Lisa earned her B.Sc. from Cornell University and has
extensive field experience in behavioral ecology, including work with Gerry
Borgia on sexual selection in Australian bowerbirds. She refreshingly breaks the avian mold in my lab and will be
studying color communication in spiders for her dissertation.
Jared
Underwood
(honorary): Jared is currently studying the conservation biology of marine
mammals as a Ph.D. student with Leah Gerberšs, but he did his Masteršs research
on goshawks at the University of Utah and satisfies his insatiable curiosity
for avian biology in my lab by investigating seasonal patterns of carotenoid
accumulation in white-winged crossbills (also in collaboration with Dr.
Deviche).
Lab technicians
Ondi
Crino: Ondi
joined the lab in fall 2004 and is the brains behind nearly all operations,
both field and lab. At last count,
she was balancing ten research projects and is already cringing over the ten
others that will come her way before she leaves to start her Ph.D. program at
the University of Florida in July 2005.
Joey
Georges:
Joey joined our group in spring 2005, as the technician for our collaborative
project on avian nutrition, neurobiology, and vocal performance.
Undergraduate
researchers
Laura Beard: Laura is a SOLUR
apprentice working with Joey, Paul, and Pierre on finch neuroanatomy.
Lauren
Washington:
Lauren also is a SOLUR apprentice and is studying seasonal relationships
between antioxidants, health, and coloration in our campus finch population.
Erica
Diaz-Gonzalez: Erica is a member of the pre-MARC program and will undertake
her own research on the disease ecology of desert-southwestern house finches.
Amanda
Flynn:
Amanda conducted independent research in the lab this spring and investigated
how plumage color in house finches reveals health and antioxidant status at the
time of pair formation.