Distinguished Research Lecture

For some mammals, warming temperatures mean higher elevations

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 17:45:59 +0000

For some mammals, warming temperatures mean higher elevations Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/15/2024 - 11:45

In her Distinguished Research Lecture, CU �鶹ӰԺ Professor Christy McCain will highlight how certain traits in some mammal and insect populations indicate who is at greatest risk from climate change

Colorado’s small, mountain-dwelling mammals are moving higher—not for better views or real estate, but because climate change is forcing them to.

This finding is based on a 13-year study of 27 rodent and four shrew species in Colorado’s Front Range and San Juan mountains—research that included trapping, tagging and releasing the various mammals to better understand their range.

While the findings are more complex than a simple trend of animals moving up the mountain, they spotlight the sobering possibility that climate change could force some mammals from Colorado entirely.

Christy McCain, a professor in the CU �鶹ӰԺ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and curator of vertebrates in the CU Museum of Natural History, will discuss mountain biodiversity and climate change in her Distinguished Research Lecture Nov. 14.

“We’ve been talking about climate change in the Rockies for a long time, but I think we can say that this is a sign that things are now responding and responding quite drastically," Christy McCain, the study’s lead author, told Denver 7 in Feb. 2021.

McCain, a professor in the �鶹ӰԺ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and curator of vertebrates in the CU Museum of Natural History, uses mountains as natural experiments to study biodiversity, ecological theory, global change, montane ecology and range limits.

She will discuss mountain biodiversity and climate change in her Distinguished Research Lecture Nov. 14, highlighting the research her lab has done to understand how animals—mostly vertebrates and insects—are distributed on mountains around the world.

She and her research colleagues have found that different groups of animals, driven by their evolutionary history and climate, show distinctive patterns. For example, mountain biodiversity for rodents, salamanders and moths is quite different from birds, bats and reptiles.

The conservation priorities for each group of mountain organisms are closely tied to elevational diversity patterns, land-use change and complex interactions with a rapidly warming and drying climate. McCain will explore these topics through case studies of mammal populations in the Front Range and San Juan Mountains and carrion beetles—examining how various physiological traits like heat and desiccation tolerance may be critical to responses to climate change.

�鶹ӰԺ Christy McCain

McCain received dual bachelor’s degrees in wildlife biology and studio art from Humboldt State University, was a natural-resources and protected-areas specialist in the Peace Corps Honduras and earned her PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Kansas.

She was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California Santa Barbara before coming to CU �鶹ӰԺ as an assistant professor in 2008.

If you go

What: 124th Distinguished Research Lecture, Mountain Biodiversity and Climate Change

Who: Professor Christy McCain of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and CU Museum of Natural History

When: 4-5 p.m. Nov. 14, followed by a Q&A and reception

Where: Chancellor's Hall and Auditorium, Center for Academic Success and Engagement (CASE)

McCain studies how montane organisms are distributed on mountains around the world and how those populations and species are influenced by human land use and climate change. Her research spans topics across ecology and evolution to understand and conserve biodiversity.

Funded by the National Science Foundation through several grants, her research has appeared in more than 60 peer-reviewed journals, including Science, Ecology Letters, Ecology and Global Change Biology, among others.

McCain is the curator of vertebrate collections in the CU Museum of Natural History, where she is a steward for the continued protection and use of museum specimens for understanding and conserving the world’s biodiversity. Over the years, she has taught mammalogy as well as other topics in field biology, creative conservation messaging and mountain ecology and conservation.

�鶹ӰԺ the Distinguished Research Lectureship

The Distinguished Research Lectureship is among the highest honors given by faculty to a faculty colleague at CU �鶹ӰԺ. Each year, the Research and Innovation Office requests nominations from faculty for this award, and a faculty review panel recommends one or more faculty members as recipients.

The lectureship honors tenured faculty members, research professors (associate or full) or adjoint professors who have been with CU �鶹ӰԺ for at least five years and are widely recognized for a distinguished body of academic or creative achievement and prominence, as well as contributions to the educational and service missions of CU �鶹ӰԺ. Each recipient typically gives a lecture in the fall or spring following selection and receives a $2,000 honorarium.

McCain and Jamie Nagle, a professor of physics, have been recognized with 2024-25 Distinguished Research Lectureships. Nagle will give his lecture Feb. 6, 2025.

Top image: Eli Allan/Unsplash

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Barn swallows and humans reflect challenges of coexistence in a changing world

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 20:22:40 +0000

Barn swallows and humans reflect challenges of coexistence in a changing world Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/24/2024 - 13:22

Blake Puscher

In her Distinguished Research Lecture March 12, CU �鶹ӰԺ Professor Rebecca Safran will explore the recent and precipitous decrease in the population of barn swallows

Some 10,000 years ago, the construction of the first permanent human settlements created ecological opportunities for certain plants and animals, tying their expansion to ours.

One example is the barn swallow, a species known to build its nests nearly exclusively on human structures. Yet the long history of barn swallows’ living with humans is changing; throughout much of their habitat, the birds’ population is declining.

Rebecca Safran, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the �鶹ӰԺ, has studied barn swallows and what their decline means for the relationship that humans have formed with the birds.

CU �鶹ӰԺ Professor Rebecca Safran will discuss barn swallow and human coexistence in her Distinguished Research Lecture March 12.

She will discuss this topic in a Distinguished Research Lecture at 4 p.m., March 12, with a question-and-answer session and reception to follow, in the Chancellor’s Hall and Auditorium, CASE building, fourth floor.

�鶹ӰԺ Rebecca Safran

Safran earned her doctorate in ecology and evolutionary biology from Cornell University after receiving her master’s in wildlife ecology from Humboldt State University and her bachelor’s in ecology from the University of Michigan. She was a postdoctoral fellow of the Council on Science and Technology at Princeton University before coming to CU �鶹ӰԺ in 2008.

Safran and her team study the evolution of new species, focusing on the causes and consequences of individual variation across different spatial and temporal scales. Her team’s research on the subject has appeared in more than 100 peer-reviewed journals, including Science, Nature, and Current Biology.

Studying the formation of new species is difficult because most species are millions of years old, and what caused them to diverge from their ancestors can no longer be determined. To get around this, Safran and her team study a very closely related group of populations of migratory birds that are now diverging, thus enabling direct studies of the process of speciation.

Barn swallows provide a particular opportunity because their six subspecies evolved more recently and encounter each other naturally. This means that scientists can directly observe the factors that prevent different subspecies from reproducing together.

Safran won a National Science Foundation Early Career Development award to study speciation through barn swallows. In addition to providing federal funding, the award is prestigious, having been granted to Nobel Prize winners such as Carolyn Bertozzi.

If you go

What: 123rd Distinguished Research Lecture: Barn Swallows and Humans: The Rise and Fall of Coexistence in a Changing World

Who: Professor Rebecca Safran of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

When: 4-5 p.m. Tuesday, March 12

Where: Chancellor’s Hall and Auditorium, CASE

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Safran’s lab was unable to conduct work in other countries, so she and her team switched their focus to the rapid decline in the population of barn swallows and its implications.

When asked in 2012 about her proudest achievements, Safran told Cynthia Pasquale of CU Connections that, while honored to have won the CAREER award, “I am extremely proud of my graduate students.

“As a research mentor, my No. 1 goal is to inspire students to be curious and to ask good questions. This can only be accomplished by having a deep knowledge of what has been done, so I encourage them to understand the backgrounds of their various fields of interest inside and out.”

During her talk, Safran will focus on the collaborative work conducted with many students from her lab group.

�鶹ӰԺ the Distinguished Research Lectureship

The Distinguished Research Lectureship is among the highest honors given by the faculty to one or more of their colleagues at CU �鶹ӰԺ. Every year, the Research and Innovation Office invites nominations from faculty members for this award, and a review panel recommends recipients.

The lectureship honors tenured faculty members, associate and full research professors, or adjoint professors who have been with CU for at least five years and who are widely recognized for a distinguished body of academic or creative achievement and prominence, as well as contributions to the educational and service missions of CU �鶹ӰԺ. Each recipient typically lectures in the fall or spring after selection and receives a $2,000 honorarium.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to our newsletter. Passionate about ecology and evolutionary biology? Show your support.

In her Distinguished Research Lecture March 12, CU �鶹ӰԺ Professor Rebecca Safran will explore the recent and precipitous decrease in the population of barn swallows.

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Finding the authentic and counterfeit in medieval art

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 21:03:42 +0000

Finding the authentic and counterfeit in medieval art Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 11/06/2023 - 14:03

In his Distinguished Research Lecture Nov. 28, Professor Kirk Ambrose will discuss how institutions used art to authenticate religious relics, as well as condemn counterfeiting

During the Middle Ages in Europe, religious relics were highly prized—not just by individuals, but also by institutions. Possessing them could bolster prestige and wealth, as well as enhance spiritual credibility.

So, the temptation to forge relics and make fake claims about them was strong. In fact, the years between 1000 and 1150 CE are called the “golden age of medieval forgery.”

How did institutions strengthen their claims to possess authentic relics? Kirk Ambrose, a �鶹ӰԺ professor of classics and founding director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, will explore this question in a Distinguished Research Lecture from 4 to 5 p.m. Nov. 28, with a question-and-answer session and reception following.

Kirk Ambrose will give a Distinguished Research Lecture at 4 p.m. Nov. 28.

Ambrose will discuss relics and authenticity claims through the example of the French monastery of Sainte-Foy, Conques, examining how this community used the visual arts to advance their claims and condemn those who engaged in counterfeiting.

�鶹ӰԺ Kirk Ambrose

Ambrose earned master’s and doctorate degrees in the history of art from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, after earning a bachelor’s degree in art history from Oberlin College.

He specializes in the art and architecture of medieval Europe and has published four books and dozens of scholarly articles on the topic. In partnership with Steven Martonis, exhibitions manager in the CU Art Museum, he curated two exhibitions on the art of the American West at the CU Art Museum, including “Pioneers: Women Artists in �鶹ӰԺ, 1898-1950,” which was the basis for a feature-length documentary film. He served seven years as the chair of the Department of Art and Art History and a term as editor-in-chief of The Art Bulletin, the journal of record for art historians in the United States.

Among other research projects, Ambrose is working on a book provisionally titled The Frailty of Eyes, which connects medieval studies and art history with the rich theoretical concerns of disability studies. His published books include The Marvellous and the Monstrous in the Sculpture of Twelfth-Century Europe and The Nave Sculpture of Vézelay: The Art of Monastic Viewing.

In 2019, Ambrose helped launch the CU �鶹ӰԺ Center for Teaching and Learning, which develops and supports CU’s teaching community of practice. Its foundations are grounded in research-based practices, inclusive pedagogy, and equitable assessment techniques.

“Much of my work as a medievalist has focused on the production and reception of knowledge within communities, especially monastic communities,” Ambrose told Lisa Lampert-Weissig of the University of California-San Diego. “I think that has positioned me to regard teaching less as an isolated activity of a teacher transmitting knowledge to a group of students, than as a deeply collaborative enterprise.

If you go

What: 122nd Distinguished Research Lecture: The Authentic and the Counterfeit in Medieval Art

Who: Professor Kirk Ambrose of the Department of Classics

When: 4-5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28

Where: Chancellor’s Hall and Auditorium, CASE

“To my mind, this works on a number of levels. Teachers collaborate with their students to advance learning. Teachers collaborate with one another to share effective practices. And our center serves as a space that collaborates with units and specialists from across campus to support educators in achieving their goals.”

�鶹ӰԺ the Distinguished Research Lectureship

Ambrose and Rebecca Safran, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, have been recognized with 2023-24 Distinguished Research Lectureships. Safran will deliver her Distinguished Research Lecture on Tuesday, March 12.

Top image: the reliquary statue of St. Foy (photo by Holly Hayes)

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In his Distinguished Research Lecture Nov. 28, Professor Kirk Ambrose will discuss how institutions used art to authenticate religious relics, as well as condemn counterfeiting.

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Distinguished Research Lecture

For some mammals, warming temperatures mean higher elevations

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