The Anderson Lab

 

 

   

 

2013

 

NEWS:

 

Maria Gavrutenko was awarded the 2013 Bernard B. Levine Scholarship in Science and Mathematics, from the Division of Science at CCNY (for academic excellence in science). The scholarship is renewable for her senior year as well.

 

For the 2013-2014 academic year, Mariano Soley was awarded the Doctoral Student’s Council Dissertation Award (Graduate Center of CUNY) to support his dissertation writing.

 

In April 2013, Mariano Soley was awarded a grant from the American Museum of Natural History (Roosevelt Memorial Fund) to fund DNA sequencing for his dissertation research on the biogeography of small mammals in the volcanos of Costa Rica.

 

Robert Boria received a travel award from the International Biogeography Society to attend the biennial meeting of the Society in January 2013.

 

Robert Boria was awarded the "Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship" from the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology. This scholarship funds his master's education for 2012 and 2013.

 

 

Lab Visits:

 

John (Jack) Williams of the University of Wisconsin: "Hindcasting species and community responses to the last deglaciation" 16-17 September 2013.

 

Robert Hijmans of the University of California, Davis: "What's in a niche?" 18-19 March 2013.

 

Jason Fridley of Syracuse University: "Forest invasions of Eastern North America: a case of pre-adaptation?" 25-26 February 2013.

 

 

 

2011

 

In 2011, I was recognized by the New York Academy of Sciences as a finalist for the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists, (direct link) which recognize impactful, innovative, and interdisciplinary accomplishments in the life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics, and engineering. See Anderson Blavatnik profile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Science and the City Gala, 14 November 2011. Left, with Len Blavatnik and New York Academy of Sciences President Ellis Rubinstein. Right, with City College of New York Dean of Science Ruth Stark, former Chair of Biology Christine Li, and Chair of Biology Tadmiri Venkatesh. Photos by D. Sotomayor.

 

In 2011, my lab began work on a grant from the National Science Foundation (Systematics and Biodiversity Science Program, Divsion of Environmental Biology) entitled "Testing species limits, phylogeographic concordance, and niche evolution in Madagascar's endemic small mammals." In collaboration with Dr. Link Olson (University of Alaska, Fairbanks) and Dr. Sharon A. Jansa (University of Minnesota), the grant commenced 15 August 2011 and runs to 31 July 2014 (see Research).

 

In 2011, my lab completed a grant from the National Science Foundation (DEB-0717357; Systematic Biology and Biodiversity Inventories Program, Division of Environmental Biology) entitled “Integrating systematics and GIS modeling: biogeography of spiny pocket mice (Heteromyidae) in South America" and see Research. This grant ran from 15 September 2007 to 31 August 2011. We look forward to submitting several additional manuscripts related to the project.

 

Mariano Soley (co-PI) and I received a grant from the PSC-CUNY (Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York) entitled "Effects of Quaternary climatic oscillations on the evoution of small mammals in the highlands of Costa Rica and western Panama" to fund fieldwork in Costa Rica (July 2011-June 2012).

 

Eliécer Gutiérrez  received a prestigious three-year Buck Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Smithsonian Institution to conduct research on the taxonomy and biogeography of white-tailed deer in Latin America (to begin May 2012)

 

In 2011, Mariano Soley was awarded grants from the American Museum of Natural History (Roosevelt Memorial Fund), American Society of Mammalogists (Grant in Aid of Research), and Graduate Center of the City University of New York (Doctoral Students Research Grants Program Competition), including funds to conduct fieldwork for his dissertation research on the comparative phylogeography and niche modeling of small mammals in the volcanos of Costa Rica.

 

 

 

2010

 

In December 2010, Aleks Radosavljevic (see People) completed his master's thesis entitled "Using geographically structured evaluations to assess performance and transferability of ecoloigcal niche models for species with many occurrence records: a test using the Caribbean spiny pocket mouse,Heteromys anomalus."

 

In December 2010, Ali Raza completed his master's thesis entitled "The effect of the study region on GIS models of species geographic distribuitons and estimates of niche evolution: preliminary tests with montane rodents (genus Nephelomys) in Venezuela".

 

Robert Boria was awarded the 2010 Aunt Ethel Scholarship from the Division of Science at CCNY (for a student pursuing a career teaching science).

 

Mariano Soley was awarded a grant from the American Society of Mammalogists (2010 Latin American Student Field Research Award) to conduct fieldwork for his dissertation in the volcanos of Costa Rica.

 

Aleks Radosavljevic was awarded the 2010 Sacks/Rubin Award from the Department of Biology at CCNY (for the graduating senior or master's student demonstrating the greatest proficiency in research in environmental science).

 

Sam Glickman was awarded the 2010 William Stratford Prize from the Department of Biology at CCNY (for the graduating senior student demonstrating the greatest proficiency in both coursework and research in Zoology).

 

 

 

2009

 

In December 2009, Samuel Glickman completed his undergraduate Honors Thesis in Biology, entitled "Molecular phylogeny of the motmots (Aves: Coraciiformes: Momotidae) based on the complete mitochondrial ND5 gene."  Samuel was advised in this research by Dr. Jeff Groth at the American Museum of Natural History; I was Samuel's mentor at CCNY.

 

We received funding for a second REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) supplement to my NSF grant (see above).  This supplement allowed one undergraduate (Jhanine Rivera) in-depth training in many aspects of modern systematics and biogeography.

 

In May 2009, Mariya Shcheglovitova  completed her undergraduate Honors Thesis in Biology, entitled "A jackknife approach to tuning Maximum Entropy models of species geographic distributions with few occurrence records: tests with spiny pocket mice (Heteromys) in South America."

 

Mariya Shcheglovitova was awarded the 2009 Gerald Brenner Scholarship from the Division of Science at CCNY (one of the highest honors bestowed by the Division).

 

In May 2009, Samuel Glickman, was awarded the Edmund Baermann Scholarship from the Department of Biology at CCNY (the highest honor for sophomores and juniors granted by the Department).

 

Eliécer Gutiérrez received grants from the American Society of Mammalogists and the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Fund of the American Museum of Natural History.  The grants supported his summer 2009 DNA-sequencing research on the phylogenetics and biogeography of mouse opossums of the genus Marmosa.

 

Tatiana Caldera-Andara was a visiting research scholar for several months in 2009, conducting phylogenetic research associated with our NSF grant.  She is a master's student at the Universidad Simón Bolívar supervised by Dr. Marisol Aguilera, one of our Venezuelan collaborators.  While in the U.S., Tatiana worked with our lab and with Dr. Duke S. Rogers, our collaborator on Heteromys phylogenetics (see Research).

 

Aleks Radosavljevic, Mariya Shcheglovitova, and Darla Thomas won travel awards from the International Biogeography Society to attend and present their work at the biennial meeting of the Society in Mérida, Mexico in January 2009.

 

 

 

2008

 

Darla Thomas was selected as an Undergraduate Diversity Scholar; this funded her travel to Evolution 2008, the joint meeting of the Society for the Study of Evolution, American Society of Naturalists, and the Society for Systematic Biology.

 

 

 

 

Selected Press:

 

National Geographic Blogs (NatGeo Newswatch; Anderson and Gutiérrez, 2009; Mountain mouse found to be new species)

 

ScienceDaily.com (Science News; Anderson and Gutiérrez, 2009; New spiny pocket mouse species discovered)

 

PhysOrg.com (Plants & Animals; Anderson and Gutiérrez, 2009; Biologists identify new spiny pocket mouse species)

 

Thomson-Reuters ScienceWatch.com (Special topics: Climate change; Phillips et al., 2006; modeling species distributions)

 

City College of New York (Recent News; Professor's Method Links Climte Change, Species Distribution; Phillips et al., 2006; modeling species distributions) 

 

138th @ Convent, City College of New York (CCNY Biologist Links Climate Change, Species Distribution; tenth story; Phillips et al., 2006; modeling species distributions)

 

138th @ Convent, City College of New York (3 Students Receive Grants to Attend Biogeography Meeting)

 

138th @ Convent, City College of New York (Biology Senior Darla Thomas Presents at Evolution Meeting)

 

Essential Science Indicators (New Hot Paper; Elith et al., 2006; modeling species distributions) 

 

Nature (Research Highlights; Elith et al., 2006; modeling species distributions) 

 

Blackwell (Press Releases; Elith et al., 2006; modeling species distributions) 

 

City College of New York (Recent News; Anderson and Timm, 2006; new species of rodent from Costa Rica)