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The Drift
September 21, 2007

Carol Freeman, Editor
Submissions to The Drift need to be submitted by 5pm on Thursday to:
eebdept@email.arizona.edu

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-In This Edition–
EEB Department News
    Monday Seminar Series
    Tuesday “Noon” Seminar Series
    Donations to aid Mia Henderson’s Family
News from Other Areas
    ARL Division of Neurobiology Seminar
    Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research Talk
    Dept. of Entomology Seminar Series
    SAMEC Outreach Seminar
    Need a Quiet Place to Study?
Employment/Fellowship Opportunities
    Marshall Foundation Dissertation Fellowship
Meetings
    Research Insights in Semiarid Ecosystems (RISE) Symposium
General Announcements
    CEDO Fundraiser
    CoSSAC STAR Award Nominations
    KUAT Volunteer Open House
    Car for Sale

Date:            September 24, 2007
Time:            4:30 pm
Location:       Biosciences West, Room 301
 
Dr. Anna Dornhaus
Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
University of Arizona
http://www.eebweb.arizona.edu/Faculty/Dornhaus/
 
Specialization, elitism, or flexibility – The question of optimal division of labor in social insects
 
Social insects are often hailed as the ideal model system for self-organization and collective efficiency. Individual specialization and the resulting division of labor among huge numbers of workers are thought to be the main reason for such efficiency and ecological success. But how much do we really know about efficiency, or the influence of group size? What is the optimal mechanism to distribute work among workers? I will report several recent findings that call into question the assumed predominance of inflexible, task-specialized workers. The degree to which social insect workers are indeed specialists varies among species, but not consistently with colony size. Individual learning plays a big role in worker efficiency, but the most efficient workers are not necessarily allocated the most work. Overall, individual flexibility and learning seem to play a much bigger role than inflexible specialization in many social insect species.

Tuesday “Noon” Seminar Series

Date:            September 25, 2007
Time:            12:30 pm
Location:       Biosciences West, Room 208
 
Margaret J. Couvillon
Research Associate (PERT)
University of Arizona
 
Mechanisms of nestmate recognition in honey bees and stingless bees

Donations to aid Mia Henderson’s Family
 
The EEB Department will be collecting donations to assist in purchasing a headstone for Mia Henderson, a University of Arizona student who was a Biology major. The donations will be sent to Homicide Survivors, a group who is collecting for a headstone as well as assisting in covering other costs.
 
Donations will be accepted in the EEB office, BSW 310.  A card will be available for students, staff, and faculty to sign.  The office is not able provide change. If you are donating via check, please make the check out to Homicide Survivors with a notation that the donation is for the Mia Janelle Henderson Fund.
 
Donations will be collected until September 28th.

ARL Division of Neurobiology Seminar
 
Date:            September 24, 2007
Time:            12:00 Noon
Location:       Gould-Simpson, Room 601
 
Carolina Reisenman, PhD
Research Associate
ARL Division of Neurobiology

Floral odors and oviposition in Manduca sexta moths: from chemical signals, to neurons, to behaviour

Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research Talk
 
Date:            September 26, 2007
Time:            12:00 Noon
Location:       Tree-Ring West*, Room 20
 
Steve W. Leavitt, Ph.D.
LTRR – University of Arizona
 
The southwestern pinyon isotope network: Drought, water-use efficiency and NDVI
 
For additional information, please call 621-1608.
MAP: http://www.ltrr.arizona.edu/map.html
 
*Math East Building, Building 45

Dept. of Entomology Seminar Series
 
Date:            September 27, 2007
Time:            4:00 pm
Location:       Marley Auditorium, Room 230
 
Dr. Jennifer White
Dept. of Entomology
University of Arizona
 
Parasitism of the European corn borer by Macrocentrus grandii: Linking individual behavior to spatial patterns of parasitism

SAMEC Outreach Seminar
 
Date:            October 2, 2007
Time:            4:00 pm
Location:       UA Kuiper Space Sciences Bldg., Room 309
 
The Science and Mathematics Education Center (SAMEC) presents an outreach seminar regarding new University of Arizona Outreach Programs – “BioME” (http://bio5.arizona.edu/bioME/) and “GearUp Math Through Mariachi”.
 
Guest Speakers:
Stacey Forsyth
Bio5 Education Outreach Director
 
Elizabeth Arnot-Hopffer
Tucson GEAR UP Project Associate Director
 
For additional information, please go to: http://samec.lpl.arizona.edu/k12educators/seminars.html.

Need a Quiet Place to Study?
 
Are you a graduate student in need of a quiet place to study and do your research? The UA Library now has study carrels available for short-term use for graduate students. The small study rooms are available in the Main Library.
 
- Current UA graduate students with a valid CatCard and library account in good standing may use the study carrels.
- Carrels are loaned for a six-hour period on a first-come, first-served basis.
- All carrels are equipped with an Ethernet port and have access to the wireless network.
 
More information regarding use of the short-term study carrels is available at http://www.library.arizona.edu/services/carrels/shorttermloan.html

Marshall Foundation Dissertation Fellowship
 
The Graduate College is pleased to announce the Marshall Foundation Dissertation Fellowships designed to help Arizona graduate students complete their doctoral dissertation.
 
Award:   $10,788.00 provided by the Marshall Foundation (paid Spring 2008) and a Graduate Registration Scholarship (in-state waiver of tuition for two semesters if needed, Spring 2008, Fall 2008) provided by the Graduate College (miscellaneous fees and health insurance not covered). 
 
For detailed information regarding application procedures and eligibility requirements, please go to: http://grad.arizona.edu/documents/PDF/Marshall.pdf

Research Insights in Semiarid Ecosystems (RISE) Symposium

Date:            Saturday, October 6, 2007
Time:            8:30 am - 2:30 pm
Location:       Marley Auditorium, Room 230
                   University of Arizona

Please use the web site http://www.tucson.ars.ag.gov/rise/ to view the RISE program, to register for the symposium, and to submit poster titles.

CEDO Fundraiser – “Home Sweet Home” Fiesta
 
Date:            October 13, 2007
Time:            5:00 pm
Location:       CEDO Headquarters
                   Las Conchas (south of Rocky Point)
Tickets:        $25/person
 
A “Home Sweet Home” fiesta at Rocky Point, Sonora, will blend dancing and dining with a serious purpose: the campaign to secure the beachfront home of CEDO, the Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans (Centro Intercultural de Estudios de Desiertos y Oceanos). The fiesta will include auctions, raffles, and a Mexican-food buffet.  The goal is to raise $50,000 to pay costs of a land settlement reached this year to protect the site in Las Conchas.
 
Reservations must be made by October 8 at www.cedointercultural.org or by calling 320-5473.

CoSSAC STAR Award Nominations
 
The College of Science Staff Advisory Council (CoSSAC) is again collecting nominations for the CoSSAC STAR awards.  This is an opportunity for you to publicly recognize someone on your staff who has done an outstanding job.  Classified staff and appointed personnel are eligible for this award. 
 
Nominations should be sent to Beth Sanchez (EEB mailbox or via email at esanchez@email.arizona.edu) by Wednesday, October 10, 2007.  Presentation dates and times (most likely in November) will be arranged with the nominator once winners have been selected by the CoSSAC Staff Recognition committee.
 
For additional information and nomination forms, please go to:  http://cossac.arizona.edu/ua_star_program.html

KUAT Volunteer Open House
 
Date:            September 26, 2007
Time:            10:00 am - 11:30 am
Location:       Modern Languages Building
                    KUAT Studio A
 
Please join the KUAT staff as we open our doors to the campus community for a morning of studio tours, light refreshments, and a brief overview of the many ways (both short and long term) that you can get involved at KUAT.
 
For more information or to RSVP please contact:
Erin Deely, Volunteer & Community Events Coordinator at (520) 626-338 or edeely@kuat.org

Car for Sale
 
1997 Subaru Impreza AWD sport wagon with 137800 miles, manual transmission, good shape.  Good MPG for all-wheel drive-- 23/30 city/highway; $3800 (Negotiable)
 
Contact: Kristin Hultgren khultgren@ucdavis.edu or Jeremy Davis: davisj@email.arizona.edu