Project Data Presented at the Murdock College Science Research Conference

After months of hard work Nathaniel and Elliot presented preliminary results of our project at the Murdock College Science Research Conference in Vancouver, WA. This was the first time Nathaniel and Elliot had presented research in a formal conference setting. The Murdock conference is a great place to learn the ropes because the conference is focused on undergraduate students from small universities in the Northwest allowing them to give their presentations a first run through in an environment that is encouraging and constructive. On January 3-7 the three of us head to Austin, TX for the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) meeting where Nathaniel and Elliot will present the project work to scientists from all over the World.

Both Nathaniel and Elliot did amazing!!!. I also received a number of complements about how well they did from faculty at several other institutions. Every one of you who backed this project would be proud not only of many hours of work Nathaniel and Elliot committed to the project, but also by how much they have grown as scientists since we kicked this work off clear back in November of last year. Both young men have been amazing.

That is it for now. I will post some more lab notes in January when we are all at the SICB!

 

Nathaniel Shiiki presenting our data on perch microclimate selection by free-living hummingbirds in Arizona.

 

Elliot Shannon presenting from our perch selection experiments characterizing thermoregulatory behavior in Arizona hummingbirds in a controlled setting.

 

Photo of the Powers Lab taken at the Murdock College Science Research Conference. From left to right Elliot Shannon, Tiffany Regier, Don Powers, and Nathaniel Shiiki.