Darwin Fellows Enhance Biology
Family
The Darwin Fellows Program, now in its fourth year, brings promising young
postdoctoral researchers to the Organismal and Evolutionary Biology (OEB)
Program at UMass Amherst. The Darwin Fellows Program awards two two-year
fellowships and enables the recipients to undertake a unique combination of
teaching and research responsibilities that are excellent
preparation for academic positions. The fellowship program embodies
the interdepartmental collaboration that characterizes the OEB Graduate
Program. Darwin Fellows are active participants in OEB, acting as mentors
to graduate students, conducting research, leading seminar courses, and
teaching courses in the Biology Department.
Our current Darwin Fellows are Dr. Andrew Hendry, and Dr. Jim
O'Reilly.
Dr. Hendry (right, with whale bones)
is an evolutionary ecologist with a B. S. from U.
Victoria, BC, and a M. A. and Ph.D. from U. Washington, Seattle. His
research interests include (1) interactions between selection
and gene flow during adaptive population divergence, (2) spatial and temporal
scales of population structure, and (3) patterns and rates of micro-evolution
in contemporary populations. Through collaboration with other biologists,
Andrew's work integrates theoretical modeling, molecular genetics, field
and laboratory experiments, and surveys of biological diversity at varying
scales.
Previous Darwin Fellows, who have moved on to positions at other institutions,
are:
Dr. O'Reilly (right, with a caecilian, a tailless legless amphibian) earned his Ph.D. at Northern Arizona
University.
Jim taught comparative vertebrate anatomy in the spring of 1999 and 2000. His research interests include
(1) the evolution of the physiological basis of
movement in vertebrates, (2) the emergence of novel complex functional
systems during vertebrate evolution, and (3) the natural history of reptiles
and amphibians.
Dr. Karen Kellogg, Ph.D. Penn State University '97, is a
behavioral ecologist studying the evolutionary processes that gave
rise to the diverse cichlid fishes of Lake Malawi, Africa. She is
currently a Teaching Associate in the Environmental Studies
Program at Skidmore College where she is
helping to establish the environmental studies major. Dr. Andrew Simons, Ph.D.
University of Alabama, is a molecular systematist who investigates
the evolution, morphology, behavior, and biogeography of fish. He is an
Assistant Professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at the
University of Minnesota. Dr.
Alison Hunter has a Ph.D. in ecology from McGill University (`92); her
background is in terrestrial population and community ecology. She is
currently Research Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame.
Dr. Paul Morris, Ph.D. Harvard `91, specializes in invertebrate
paleontology. Currently, Paul is the Academy Malacologist at The Academy
of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.
It is clear, that by providing growth opportunities to biologists at the
beginnings of their careers, the Darwin Fellows Program has enriched the
entire biology family.