The Derryberry Lab
Evolution. Behavior. Biodiversity.
The Derryberry Lab
Evolution. Behavior. Biodiversity.
APRIL 2017
Jenny Phillips successfully defends her Ph.D.! Check out her dissertation defense on the Derryberry lab YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3bCA0YG3ZY.
Congratulations Dr. Phillips!
MARCH 2017
Graduate student Casey Coomes receives an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Congratulations Casey!
AUGUST 2016
Derryberry lab turned out in force for the largest bird meeting ever! NAOC 2016 was excellent. Made new friends with folks from around the world, everyone gave great presentations, and Sara took home the top oral presentation award from Neotropical Ornithology!
And former postdoc, Ray Danner, hosted an excellent symposium on heat stress with colleagues from Canada and South Africa. Learn more here:
https://tattersalllab.com/2016/08/22/birds-surviving-the-heat-symposium-was-a-great-success/
JULY 2016
Urban WCSP field season successfully completed! Go Jenny, Mae and Leanne!
MAY 2016
Congratulations to our graduating seniors! WE WILL MISS YOU!
Emily Norris, Steph Piper, Kim Micotto, Mysia Dye, Jaime Rosenberg
APRIL 2016
Lots of great news this month! Go team!
Jenny Phillips was awarded an AOU graduate grant
Sara Lipshutz was awarded an NSF DDIG
Mae Berlow and Casey Coomes both received EEB graduate grants
Liz was awarded an SSE Graduate Mentoring & Teaching Award
MARCH 2016
Clara Howell received a Goldwater Honorable Mention!
FEBRUARY 2016
Renata is joining the Tulane EEB department as faculty!
JUNE 2015
Sara Lipshutz’s first animated Jacana threat display. Very cool!
MAY 2015
Welcome to the lab little Leo Clement Danner!
APRIL 2015
The Derryberry lab cross country road trip to end all road trips. Driving all night and feeding baby birds all day from San Francisco to New Orleans. Someone should write a song about it.
MARCH 2015
We had a wonderful visit from Dr. Hans Slabbekoorn, and greatly enjoyed his Hathaway lecture.
FEBRUARY 2015
Sara Lipshutz successfully defended her prospectus and advanced to candidacy. Congrats Sara!
Liz joins Journal of Animal Ecology as an associate editor. Fun!
JANUARY 2015
Visit from the Hickerson Lab!
DECEMBER 2014
Julie Danner and Ray Danner join the lab just in time to settle in before Mardi Gras. Welcome!
SEPTEMBER 2014
Sara Lipshutz awarded a Young Explorer’s grant from National Geographic Society. Congrats Sara!
Paper with Brian Smith, Robb Brumfield, Andres Cuervo, and a ton of cool authors published in Nature!
Lab attends AOU conference in beautiful Estes Park, CO.
Liz named Ken and Ruth Arnold Early Career Professor in Earth & Ecological Science.
APRIL 2014
Renata Duraes Ribeiro awarded an AAUW post-doctoral fellowship! Welcome to the lab Renata!!
Undergrad Liz Bramlett receives a Newcomb Research Grant to conduct independent research in the lab over the summer. Liz is staying on in the lab for another year as a 4+1. Yeah!
Postdoc, Andres Cuervo, off for a visit to John McCormack’s lab. Bring us back a WCS genome!
MARCH 2014
Grad student Sara Lipshutz joins Jenny at the MVZ to measure WCS in their collection. Sara then heads to the La Kretz genomics workshop for intensive bioinformatics training. Have fun, Sara!
JANUARY 2014
Grad student Jenny Phillips heads to the field for seven months of intensive fieldwork on white-crowned sparrows!
DECEMBER 2013
Awarded NSF grant with collaborators David Luther, Ray Danner and Julie Danner to address the effects of urban noise on song evolution in white-crowned sparrows. Ray and Julie will be joining the lab next year as postdoctoral fellows! Here we come San Francisco!
NOVEMBER 2013
Lab leads very fun workshop for Girls in Science and Technology (GiST), A little birdie told me. We’re ready for our next workshop in March!
Liz off for a visit with Cornell graduate students and the Cayuga bird club.
Paper with Joe Tobias, Nat Seddon, Charlie Cornwallis, Santiago Claramunt and Robb Brumfield accepted to Nature!
OCTOBER 2013
Amie Settlecowski, Catherine Rochefort and Liz Bramlett gave great presentations at the annual BEAST poster symposium. Amie won outstanding poster - congrats Amie!
Awarded two CELT (Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching) grants for research with two undergraduates, Natasha Lowery and Amie Settlecowski.
SEPTEMBER 2013
Andres Cuervo joins the lab as a postdoctoral scholar to develop a species-level phylogeny for suboscines.
AUGUST 2013
Jenny Phillips joins the lab to pursue her PhD. She plans on studying urban ecology of white-crowned sparrows. Welcome Jenny!
JUNE 2013
In the field again! Running male territorial playback experiments with Sara Lipshutz and Catherine Rochefort in Manchester, CA. So pretty!
MAY 2013
Invited full proposal to NSF. Fingers crossed!
MARCH 2013
Sara Lipshutz awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Fantastic job Sara!
JANUARY 2013
Preliminary proposals submitted to NSF. Fingers crossed!
DECEMBER 2012
Awarded Newcomb grant for undergraduate research with Newcomb Fellow Amie Settlecowski.
NOVEMBER 2012
Sara Lipshutz featured in STRI news article “STRINews_Nov09_2012_.pdf” (famous already!).
Virginia takes her first steps alone!
AUGUST 2012
Sara Lipshutz joins the lab as a PhD student!
JULY 2012
Joined the Tulane EEBIO department as Assistant Professor.
Sabrina Hunter joins the lab as lab manager!
JUNE 2012
Awarded an NSF grant for developing a species-level phylogeny for suboscines (Aves: Tyranni) in collaboration with Robb Brumfield and Fred Sheldon (LSU), Joel Cracraft (AMNH), Rob Moyle (KU), Terry Chesser (Smithsonian) and Alex Aleixo (MPEG).
Paper with Susan Peters and Steve Nowicki on the effects of signal degradation on song learning published in Biology Letters.
APRIL 2012
Awarded a Board of Regents Research Competitiveness Subprogram Grant for research on behavioral mechanisms of speciation.
Sara Lipshutz joins the lab to pursue her PhD!
MARCH 2012
Paper with Santiago Claramunt and others on dispersal abilities in Furnariidae published in Proceedings
JANUARY 2012
Beautiful daughter, Virginia, joins the world!
December 2011
Paper with David Luther on effects of urban noise on song evolution in white-crowned sparrows accepted at Animal Behavior
Paper on song evolution in Dendrocolaptidae accepted at Evolution
Paper with Santiago Claramunt and others on climbing adaptations in Furnariidae accepted at American Naturalist
OCTOBER 2011
Became a Newcomb Fellow with the Newcomb College Institute
SEPTEMBER 2011
Presentation at Tulane on reforming undergraduate education
AUGUST 2011
Great trip to Bloomington, IN for the 2011 Animal Behavior Conference! Gave presentation on cultural evolution in an urban songbird and saw almost all of the past and present Nowicki lab folks.
JULY 2011
Joined the Tulane EEBIO department as research professor.
JUNE 2011
Attended the Summer Institute in Madison, WI, an HHMI/National Academy of Sciences sponsored teaching workshop with new colleagues Donata Henry and David Heins.
MAY 2011
Trip to California to visit Madhu Katti’s lab at CSU Fresno and Tom Hahn’s lab at UC Davis.
FIRST IV adventure continues! Postdoc leader at the FIRST IV meeting at UGAMI on Sapelo Island.
APRIL 2011
Paper on linage diversification in Furnariidae accepted at Evolution
Mike and Liz travel to University of the South to visit Kirk Zigler’s lab
OCTOBER 2010
Workshop on formative assessment with Delta Kappa Gamma (honorary teachers) of Baton Rouge.
JULY 2010
Paper on response to historical song in WCS accepted to Biology Letters
FEBRUARY 2010
Two new generic classifications accepted by Zootaxa
DECEMBER 2009
Grant funded by LA Board of Regents EPSCoR Program
APRIL 2009
Paper accepted by American Naturalist
Lab News
We use a variety of methods and approaches including field and lab behavioral experiments, phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses, and genomic tools to address the proximate and ultimate factors controlling variation
in communication signals and signaling.