newsletter - UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

MAY & JUNEUPCOMINGALUMNIEVENTSA Fly’s Eye View of SensoryIntegration and BiomechanicsMark Frye, Assistant ProfessorDepartment of IntegrativeBiology and PhysiologyThursday, May 19, 20112Times and locations will beannounced. For moreinformation, go to“The Year of the New Life Sciences” atwww.lifescienceslectures.support.ucla.eduThere is onemore lecture in theLife Sciences at UCLAspeaker series for2010-2011!The 14th Annual Biology Research Symposium was held on May 11, 2011 at the UCLA CaliforniaNanoSystems Institute, with a talk from 4:00 to 5:15 PM. At the Symposium, faculty, graduate students,undergraduates, research fellows, and alumni meet to see and informally discuss the research that istaking place in the Department. Our speaker this year was Dr. Michael Bell, a UCLA Biology alumnus andProfessor of Ecology and Evolution, SUNY Stony Brook.Check out the latest addition to our website, EEB TV at www.eeb.ucla.edu/eebtv.php! We post facultyand guest lectures, commencement speakers, and videos of our faculty giving talks elsewhere. Nowplaying: Dr. Nina Jablonski on “The Evolution of Skin Pigmentation, Dr. Blaire Van Valkenburgh on “TheEvolutionary History of the Domestic Dog,” and many more!You are invited to the 2011 EEB Commencement Celebration! We’d love to see you there. It will beheld on Sunday, June 12, 2011, from 9:00 AM to about 11:00 AM in Wilson Plaza. The speaker will beGary Small, MD. Dr. Small (a ’73 UCLA Zoology alum) is a professor of psychiatry and director of theUCLA Center on Aging at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior. His research,supported by the National Institute of Health, has made headlines in the Wall Street Journal, New YorkTimes, and USA Today. Scientific American magazine named him one of the world’s leading innovatorsin science and technology. Dr. Small lectures throughout the world and frequently appears on TheToday Show, Good Morning American, PBS, and CNN. He has written five books, including The NewYork Times best seller, The Memory Bible. If you’d like to attend, please email the EEB UndergraduateOffice at eebundergrad@lifesci.ucla.edu. Please note that seating may be somewhat limited; pleaseRSVP early.The next UCLA Alumni Day will be Saturday, May 21, 2011! Come back to UCLA, and join otheralumni to celebrate being a Bruin. Keep an eye on www.alumniday.ucla.edu/2011/ for news! Explorethe program and register online at www.alumniday.ucla.edu/2011/. We look forward to seeing you atthe EEB table at the Info Fair!

FACULTY NEWS AND RESEARCHOne of the goals of this newsletter is to helpyou stay in touch with the latestdevelopments in biology. Never before havethe biological sciences played such apressing role in society, ranging from theinnovations emerging from genomics andcomputational biology to the biologicalchanges caused by global climate changeand landscape alterations. Our facultyconduct high-profile, cutting edge research.Here’s what we are doing now!Some major awards received recently by ourfaculty: Cheryl Ann Zimmer received theNational Science Foundation’s DistinguishedService Award, Dimensions of BiodiversityProgram in Fall 2010, and Richard Zimmerreceived a Distinguished Service Award fromthe National Science Foundation for his rolein co-directing the agency’s researchinitiative on Ocean Acidification. PattyGowaty was appointed a Fellow of theSociety of Biology and was elected anEmerita Fellow of the new InternationalOrnithological Union, and Daniel Blumsteinwas appointed a Fellow of the Society ofBiology.chelonian inhabitants. These researchersact as ‘evolutionary detectives,’ piecingtogether how the tremendous diversity inliving chelonians today evolved from acommon ancestor that lived millions of yearsago. DNA sequences from modernchelonians provide important clues fordetermining the evolutionary path followedby their progenitors, said co-author GrahamSlater, a National Science Foundation–funded UCLA postdoctoral scholar inecology and evolutionary biology.“The results show a surprisingly strongstatistical correlation between habitatchange and significant adjustments in bodysize. Chelonians living in marine or islandhabitats have an optimal body size severaltimes larger than their cousins on themainland, said first author Alexander Jaffe,a high school student at Harvard–WestlakeSchool in North Hollywood, Calif. Marineturtles have the largest optimal shell length(about 4.5 feet), followed by island tortoises(approximately 2.5 feet), while freshwaterand mainland chelonians are several timessmaller (roughly 1 foot).two full summers and was able to turn hisresults into a first-authored paper — a featrarely accomplished by high schoolstudents. ‘Being part of this research grouphas been an incredible opportunity for me,’Jaffe said. ‘I can't say how grateful I am.Not only did I learn the tools of the trade,especially in the lab, but also what it is like tostart off with an abstract question andaddress it through data collection andinterpretation.’ Jaffe hopes to studybiological sciences and pursue furtherresearch in college. ‘Alexander was ready totake intellectual ownership of a project,’Alfaro said. ‘In addition to being a veryconscientious young scientist, Alexanderreally showed an interest in the questionsthat we are asking and in getting the data toanswer those questions.’ This research wasfederally funded by the National ScienceFoundation.”From the UCLA Newsroom: “Biologists fromthe UCLA Division of Life Sciences havereported the first quantitative evidence for anevolutionary link between habitat and bodysize in turtles and tortoises. The study,whose lead author is a high school studentvolunteer in the laboratory of UCLAevolutionary biologist Michael Alfaro, iscurrently available online in Biology Letters, ajournal of the Royal Society. It will appear ina print edition later this year. Turtles andtortoises, also called chelonians, represent adiverse group of reptiles that have beenpresent on Earth for more than 200 millionyears. The 330 species of present-daychelonians can be found dwelling on remoteislands, traveling across vast expanses ofocean, and living in desert and freshwaterhabitats on every major continent.“Even more surprising than the wide varietyof places animals call home is the vastdisparity in their body sizes. The largestchelonians weigh over 1,000 pounds andare more than 6 feet in length, while thesmallest weigh just a few ounces and wouldeasily fit in the palm of your hand.Combining statistical computer modelingwith genetic data and the fossil record,Alfaro, an associate professor of ecologyand evolutionary biology, and his colleaguesdemonstrated that different environmentshave specific optimal body sizes for their“Evolutionary biologists have long assumedthere is a connection between habitat andbody size in chelonians, but it was notpossible until recently to show quantitativeevidence for the relationship, Alfaro said.Chelonians have had a special place in thehistory of evolutionary biology due to theattention given them in the writings ofCharles Darwin, Alfaro said. Giant islandtortoises found in the Galapagos andSeychelles provide a classic example of‘island gigantism,’ a well-observedphenomenon in which an island-dwellingspecies evolves to be much larger than itsmainland counterparts. Because theyprovide uniquely isolated habitats, islandsare regarded as natural experiments inevolutionary biology, according to Alfaro.‘Our study was focused on testing whetherthere was any evolutionary signal in supportof the idea that being on islands allowed thetortoises to evolve large size,’ he said. Whileit is clear that habitat is an important signal inthe chelonian evolutionary tree, the specificecological conditions that trigger the changein body size are more difficult to determine,Alfaro said.“Jaffe, a senior at Harvard–Westlake School,started volunteering in Alfaro's laboratorywhen he was 16, after e-mailing Alfaro abouthis interest in conducting research. Jaffespent almost 30 hours a week in the lab for!From Professor Paul Barber: “In summer2 0 1 0 , w e o p e n e d t h e I n d o n e s i a nBiodiversity Research Center in Bali,Indonesia. The goal of the center is topromote biodiversity and conservationscience in Indonesia, one of the world'smost diverse marine and terrestrialecosystems. This is providing a uniquetraining opportunity for researchers andstudents from UCLA and other USuniversities.”From UCLA Today: “UCLA is developing abiodiversity research center in Bali,Indonesia, that will support research andeducational collaboration between UCLAand three universities in Indonesia: UdayanaUniversity, Diponegoro University and theState University of Papua, as well as theSmithsonian Institution. UCLA has beenawarded a $650,000 grant from the U.S.Agency for International Development todevelop the Indonesian BiodiversityResearch Center, which is scheduled toopen this June.3

the evolution of cooperation (Nonacs, 2011,Monogamy and high relatedness do notpreferentially favor the evolution ofcooperation. BMC Evolutionary Biology11:58). Dr. Nonacs concludes Nowak et al.may be correct in advocating that modelingthe evolution of cooperation through agene's eye perspective may sometimes bemore accurate than actor-based inclusivefitness models. Nevertheless, interactionswith kin are very important in affectingevolutionary trajectories, and kin selection islikely to continue as a major organizingconcept for understanding social behavior.Dr. Nonacs also recently gave a lecture onthis topic as an invited speaker at NationalAcademy of Sciences prestigious SacklerColloquia. His January 7th lecture isa v a i l a b l e f o r v i e w i n g a t : http://s a c k l e r. n a s m e d i a o n l i n e . o r g / 2 0 1 1 /evolution_v/peter_nonacs/peter_nonacs.html.Professor John Novembre and graduatestudent Eunjan Han recently published apaper in Molecular Biology and Evolution,and their article is the focus of a DiscoverMagazine research blog piece. The researchreinterprets classic papers in populationgenetics that used PCA to infer ancientrange expansions, such as the expansion ofhuman farming societies during the Neolithic.A recent paper published in Global ChangeBiology by Professor Phil Rundel and hislab group has been selected by the Facultyof 1000 as one of the top 2% of recentlypublished papers in biology and medicine.The paper is entitled “Public Internetconnectedcameras used as a crosscontinentalground-based plant phenologymonitoring system.” Eric Graham ’99 PhD(Nobel) of the UCLA Center for EmbeddedNetwork Sensing is the senior author, andgraduate student Erin Riordan ’04 EBE isthe second author. Dr. Rundel is alsoquoted on March 14th in an article in SanDiego's North County Times about a judgehalting a plan to cut down part of an oldgrowth forest on land owned by theEric GrahamBohemian Club. Dr. Rundel commentedthat “the harvest rates and cutting scheduleswere totally inconsistent with the plan'sclaims of restoring natural forest conditions.”A recent paper by Professor Lawren Sackand postdoctoral fellow Dr. Molly Cavaleri(now Assistant Professor at Michigan TechUniversity) was selected by Faculty of 1000as one of the top 2% of all published articlesin the biological and medical sciences. Thepaper, published in Ecology, “Comparativewater use of native and invasive plants atmultiple scales: a global meta-analysis,”shows the importance of plant species indetermining the total water use of forestsand ecosystems, and points to theincreasing impacts of invasive species onwater use given climate change. This is thethird paper so far by Dr. Sack to berecognized in this way by Faculty of 1000.The Orange County Register reported that“West Nile virus strikes harder in OrangeCounty's lower-income neighborhoods, anew study shows -- with higher viral levels inboth humans and the mosquitoes thatspread it. The study led by scientists at theU n i v e r s i t y o f C a l i f o r n i a , L o sAngeles” (including Professor Tom Smith)“found that a burst of West Nile cases in2008 paralleled a nosediving economy, withabandoned swimming pools, which fostermosquito breeding, the single most visiblesignal of increased West Nile presence. "Professors Victoria Sork and Blaire VanValkenburgh are featured in videoshighlighted on the UCLA Newsroom site on“Innovations in the Life Sciences, in thewords of Great Scientists.”Will polar bears survive in a warmer world?From the UCLA Newsroom report: “UCLAlife scientists present new evidence that theirnumbers are likely to dwindle. As polarbears lose habitat due to global warming,these biologists say, they will be forcedsouthward in search of alternative sources offood, where they will increasingly come intocompetition with grizzly bears.!!“To test how this competition might unfold,the UCLA biologists constructed threedimensionalcomputer models of the skullsof polar bears and grizzly bears—asubspecies of brown bears—and simulatedthe process of biting. The models enabledthem to compare the two species in terms ofhow hard they can bite and how strong theirskulls are."‘What we found was striking,’ said GrahamSlater [PhD ’09 Van Valkenburgh], aNational Science Foundation-funded UCLApostdoctoral scholar in ecology andevolutionary biology and lead author of theresearch. ‘The polar bear and brown bearcan bite equally hard, but the polar bear'sskull is a much weaker structure.’ Theimplication is that polar bears are likely tolose out in competition for food to grizzliesas warmer temperatures bring them into thesame environments, because grizzlies'stronger skulls are better suited to a plantrichdiet, said Slater and Blaire VanValkenburgh, UCLA professor of ecologyand evolutionary biology and senior author ofthe research.“‘The result for polar bears may be lowerweight, smaller and fewer litters, lessreproductive success, fewer that wouldsurvive to adulthood, and dwindlingpopulations,’ Van Valkenburgh said. ‘Thenyou can get into an extinction vortex, wherea small population becomes even smaller ina downward spiral to extinction. To peoplewho say polar bears can just change theirdiet, we are saying they will change their diet—they will have to—but it probably will notbe sufficient for them, especially if they are6

co-existing with grizzly bears. Their skull isrelatively weak and not suited to adapting itsdiet. We did not expect to find what wefound.’ ‘This is one additional piece ofevidence that things look pretty bleak for thepolar bear if current trends continue,’ Slatersaid. “The research, federally funded by theNational Science Foundation, was publishedthis month in the online journal PLoS ONE, apublication of the Public Library of Science.Polar bears are a ‘marvelous example ofr a p i d a d a p t a t i o n t o a n e x t r e m eenvironment,’ Slater said. ‘The fact that wecan lose them equally as rapidly as a resultof human-mediated climate change is ratherstriking. Polar bears are very well suited todo what they do, but they are highlyspecialized and not well suited to doingmuch else.’“It could take quite some time for polarbears to go extinct, Van Valkenburgh said,but they are likely to become much morerare than today. Polar bears are losinghabitat as a result of global warming and theassociated loss of arctic sea ice, which theyuse to hunt for seals, Van Valkenburgh andSlater said. But could they survive on analternative food source?“‘Our results suggest that this is not toolikely,’ Slater said. ‘The polar bear's skull is arelatively weak structure that is not suited todiets consisting of a lot of plant material likethat of the brown bear. As climate changecontinues, polar bears will be forced to movesouth in search of resources, while brownbears move north as their climate becomesmore mild. When these two species meet,as they have already begun to, it seems thatbrown bears will easily out-compete polarbears. Our findings should serve as awarning that polar bears may not be flexibleenough to survive if current trends continue.‘Chewing a lot of vegetables takes quite a lotof force to grind up,’ Slater said. ‘Grizzlybears are well suited to eating these kinds offood, but the polar bear is not well suited forit. The grizzly has a much more efficientskull for eating these kinds of foods.’”A recent public symposium hosted by theUCLA Center for Society and Genetics,“Made for Each Other? Dog and HumanCo-evolution,” brought together geneticists,behaviorists, dog lovers and trainers,historians, cultural anthropologists,ecologists, artists and many others todiscuss the genesis of dogs and explore thechanging and complex relationship betweendogs and humans. Here, Professor BlaireVan Valkenburgh displays the skulls ofmodern dog breeds to demonstrate geneticdiversity.!A paper by Professor Robert Wayne andDr. Philip Hedrick of Arizona State University,“Genetics and wolf conservation in theAmerican West: lessons and challenges,”was featured in a news and commentarypiece in the online publication Heredity. Theabstract: “Top predators are endangeredthroughout the world because of humanpersecution and habitat destruction. Planst o c o n s e r v e a n d re s t o re p re d a t o rpopulations are often contentious, but fewspecies are as problematic as the gray wolf(Canis lupus). In the United States, wolfconservation policy and management hasoften been schizophrenic, ranging frompredator control and open hunting toreintroduction and absolute protection.Likewise, public and scientific opinion isequally divided between those who maintainthat wolves are an essential part ofecosystems and provide top-down effectscontrasting with those who believe wolvescannot readily coexist with humans,especially in landscapes dominated byranching or farming. In the American West,there have been large-scale reintroductionsof the gray wolf (C. lupus nubilus) in theNorthern Rocky Mountains and the Mexicanwolf (C. lupus baileyi) in the southwest,which provide important lessons forreintroduction efforts elsewhere. In thisstudy, we specifically discuss wolfconservation in the American West in relationto critical genetic factors that affectrestoration, recovery and conservation. Wealso discuss the natural colonization ofwolves in Sweden and Norway, and discussa synthesis of problems and solutions in thelarge-scale recovery of wolves.”Professor Richard Zimmer's research washighlighted in a popular article titled “Thehunt for life’s communication links, keystonemolecules and neuroecology” that appearedin New Scientist (January 22, 2011). Inaddition, Professor Zimmer was an invitedplenary speaker on ‘Chemical signaling inaquatic microenvironments,” as part of ani n t e r n a t i o n a l s y m p o s i u m o n“Microenvironments modulating biologicalinteractions in the ocean” at the AspenInstitute for Theoretical Physics, Jan 17-21,2 0 1 1 . T h e S I C B S y m p o s i u m o nNeuroecology: Neural Determinants ofEcological Processes from Individuals toEcosystems, organized by Dr. Zimmer, wasalso highlighted in the late January 2011issue of New Scientist.An article based on research in the Zimmerlab (Drs. Richard and Cheryl Ann Zimmer)has garnered the cover of the February issueof The Biological Bulletin (Himes, J.E., J.A.Riffell, C.A. Zimmer and R.K. Zimmer. 2011.Sperm chemotaxis is revealed with live andsynthetic eggs, The Biological Bulletin 220:1-5). This journal is published by The MarineBiological Laboratory, Woods Hole, and ishighly respected as the top peer-reviewedjournal on work in marine organismal biology.!7

BIRDS OF THE CAMPUSworld. I am proud to be a member of theUniversity of California, north, south, eastand west, and long may she live!”In 1947, Dr. Loye Holmes Miller, of the UCLA!Zoology faculty, published a book of hisobservation of the birds on the UCLACampus from his notes dating back to 1929.The book is a fascinating picture of thecampus as it was then, with chaparral,!One of Dr. Miller’s note cards!jackrabbits, roadrunners, quail andmeadowlarks. The beautiful, atmosphericdrawings were done by Robert C. Stebbins,now an Emeritus Professor of Zoology andEmeritus Curator in Herpetology at Museumof Vertebrate Zoology, University ofCalifornia, Berkeley. The book is availablefor download at Birds of Westwood, acompendium of information about thenatural environment of the campus.Dr. Miller writes, “The Road-runners havebeen something of a surprise to me bydisplaying a high degree of adaptability.They seem to like us and their tribe hasdefinitely increased since we came. Iwatched one from my office window one dayas he trotted along the concrete driveway,hopped onto the radiator of a parked car --up over the top to pause and swing his longtail -- then down off the back end tocontinue his tour of inspection. One of themjumped up to the north rail of the bridge onemorning this spring in answer to my call fromthe south walk. We paralleled each other --stop and go, stop and go, all the way across-- talking back and forth all the time. Theynest in the tangled vines of the lath house inthe Botany Garden. Their peculiar ‘doubleended’tracks are registered in the ‘DustBowl’ parking area south of Physics-Biology.”In a 1967 interview Dr. Miller said, “You haveasked about my attitude toward theUniversity today. That is hard to say. Onlythis I would say: in the words of an old poet,‘Rome, Imperial Rome, who sat upon herseven hills, and from her throne of beautyruled the world.’ I feel just that way aboutthe University of California and her nine-ornow more?-campuses, from which shedoesn’t rule the world, but from which shehas sent out those who have influenced theThis 1932 aerial photograph shows theeastern arroyo in the foreground, withwestern arroyo and Faculty Ridge in theupper left. The eastern arroyo was filled in1947, while the western arroyo (SunsetCanyon) remained native habitat until the1980s. (from 419 Acres: UCLA's NaturalHistory, by Travis Longcore and CatherineR i c h , a t w w w. u r b a n w i l d l a n d s . o r g /Resources/419acres.pdf.)8

NEWS FROM STU NT RANCHCarol Block (Chancellor Block's wife) led a morning of hiking at theUCLA Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountains Reserve on Sunday,March 6, 2011, exploring the 310-acre biological field stationlocated four miles inland on the north central flank of the SantaMonica Mountains.On Sunday, May 15, 2011, the second annual UCLA La KretzCenter for California Conservation Science public lecture andreception was held at the King Gillette Ranch in Malibu, California.Professor Paul R. Ehrlich, president of Stanford University's Centerfor Conservation Biology and author of The Population Bomb, wasthe featured speaker.MEDECOS XII will be held September 6-9, 2011, in Los Angeles atthe Covel Commons Conference Center on the UCLA campus.Hosted by the UCLA Institute of the Environment andSustainability, UCLA La Kretz Center for California ConservationScience and the UCLA Stunt Ranch Reserve. MEDECOSconferences bring together ecologists and resource managersfrom all five Mediterranean-climate regions of the world. Theinternational MEDECOS Conferences on the ecology, biodiversity,and conservation of the world's five Mediterranean climateecosystems began in 1971 in Valdivia, Chile. This year will markthe 40th Anniversary of this conference at the University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles. The conference will include topicalsymposia, open sessions for contributions, and a poster session.M ore information and a conference website will be available soon,as well as details on available scholarships to encourage studentattendance. You are invited to join the MEDECOS mailing list atMEDECOSXII@ioes.ucla.edu.9

UNDERGRADUATE NEWSJanice Chan (EBE) and Tim Hipp (Biology) were awardedJoseph Epperson Memorial Scholarships for the Winter 2011Field Biology Quarter in Nicaragua, taught by Greg Grether andDebra Shier. Four undergraduate students were awarded theWhitcome Summer Research Fellowship: Jonathan Chang(Biology), Alvin Chan (Marine Biology), Katie Lubarsky (MarineBiology), and Ruthie Musker (EBE).23 students participated in the Fall 2010 Marine Biology Quarterat Bodega Bay, taught by Don Buth and Malcolm Gordon. Anumber of these MBQ students have continued and expandedtheir research from Bodega over the past two quarters.Undergraduate Student SpotlightJanice Chan is currently a third year student pursuing a B.S. inEcology, Behavior, and Evolution, with a minor in AsianLanguages. She began working in Dr. Thomas B. Smith’s labduring Winter 2009, but began research in systematicconservation planning under the supervision of Dr. Trevon Fullerin Winter 2010.There is a growing international consensus that globalbiodiversity should be conserved, as exemplified by agreementssuch as the Convention on Biological Diversity, which has beenratified by 187 countries since 1993. One technique ofconserving biodiversity is the design of Conservation AreaGRADUATE NEWSThe Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology is pleased andproud to announce that three of its graduate students received the veryprestigious and highly competitive NSF Pre-doctoral Fellowships for2011. They are: Nicole Munoz, Samantha Cheng, and AbrilIñiguez. Receiving honorable mention in this year's competition isGary Buccarelli.Networks (CANs) with thea i d o f b i o d i v e r s i t ysurrogates. Within thecontext of conservationbiology, a parameter is ane ff e c t i v e s u r ro g a t e i festablishing reserves toDr. Thomas B. Smith, Janice K. Chan, &Dr. Trevon Fullerconserve the property alsop r o t e c t s t h r e a t e n e d!s p e c i e s . B e c a u s esurrogates are easily measured in nature, they are especiallyuseful in the effort to protect rare species that are more difficult totrack. Currently, Janice is exploring the use of adaptive variation,in the form of genetic and morphological variation, as abiodiversity surrogate. She uses cell prioritization software todesign Conservation Area Networks and ArcGIS spatial analysistools to evaluate the extent to which endemic or threatenedspecies are protected by surrogates.Janice would like to express her sincerest gratitude for thementorship provided by Dr. Trevon Fuller and Dr. Smith. Shewould also like to convey her appreciation for their intensecommitment to undergraduate research, as well as their devotionto understanding and preserving currently suffering biodiversity.Beyond gaining invaluable technical experience, she has beenable to travel beyond coursework to pursue her specific passionin biology.RECENT MASTERS ANDDOCTORAL GRADUATESDoctorates in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology were awarded in Fall2010 and Winter 2011 to Lauri Green (Fong), Karen Kapheim(Nonacs/Wayne), Christopher Winchell (Jacobs), and Tina Wey(Blumstein). A masters degree was awarded to Christina Tellez (Buth).Nicole is a member of Dan Blumstein's lab and her thesis projectinvolves studying how marmots may use multiple sensory modalities toassess predation and other risks in their environment. Samantha andAbril are both members of Paul Barber's lab. Samantha is interested inthe effects that larval dispersal has in driving the evolution of marinebiodiversity in Indonesia's coral triangle. Abril’s interests are also inevolution and speciation of fish in the coral triangle, and in particular therole that color polymorphism may play. Gary, a member of Dick andCheryl Ann Zimmer's lab, is studying newts in the local Santa MonicaMountains and their effects on stream community structure throughtheir production and secretion of toxic defensive compounds.Graduate student Megan Bartlett (in Lawren Sack’s lab) has receiveda National Science Foundation East Asia and Pacific Summer InstituteAward. Megan received the award to fund her research in the rainforestin Summer 2011, based on her proposal, "Quantifying the Contributionof Niche Dynamics to Tropical Species Coexistence.”10

IN MEMORIAMOWEN RAYNAL LUNT (1921 – 2011)As this newsletter goes to press, we havejust received word that Emeritus ProfessorOwen Raynal (Ray) Lunt passed away onApril 3, 2011. A full obituary will appear onthe EEB website in a few weeks, and in theFall 2011 Alumni & Friends Newsletter. Hisson, Dr. David Lunt, sent us the following:“He started at UCLA in 1951. In 1964 hewas transferred from the Department ofIrrigation and Soil Science to the Departmentof Botany which later merged with theDepartment of Zoology to form theDepartment of Biology.“In 1965 my dad was approached by Dr.Sherman Mellinkoff, Dean of the School ofM e d i c i n e a t U C L A , a n dChancellor Franklin Murphyto accept administrativeleadership of theL a b o r a t o r y o fNuclear Medicinea n d R a d i a t i o nBiology at UCLA.The laboratory att h a t t i m e w a ssupported by theA t o m i c E n e r g yCommission andlater reorganizedi n t o t h e U . S .Department ofE n e r g y . T h el a b o r a t o r y h a dOwenRaynalLuntabout200 employees with m a n yPhDs working on numerous projects. Hehad to be conversant on a wide range ofre s e a rc h a n d w i t h U n i v e r s i t y a n dgovernment operations. All the while hemanaged to teach graduate students alongthe way...“He was very dedicated to UCLA. He and Iwent to the first basketball game played atPauley Pavilion and we never missed aUCLA football game until he could no longergo.“Good luck in carrying on the good researchand teaching being done at UCLA.”Malcolm S. Gordon,Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyUCLADAVID W. BORST (1945 – 2010)David W. Borst., Jr., 1945-2010 (MS ’70,PhD ’73 O’Connor) passed away inSeptember 2010. From Generaland Comparative Endocrinology170 (2011) 415: “David Borstpassed away on September David27, 2010 in Winter Springs,BorstFlorida, where he resided forthe last five years after joiningthe faculty at the University ofCentral Florida. Dave wasi n v o l v e d i n c o m p a r a t i v eendocrinology for hise n t i r e 4 0 + y e a rcareer. In particular,he was an activem e m b e r o f t h eSociety for Integrativea n d C o m p a r a t i v eBiology, serving as theChair of the Division ofC o m p a r a t i v eEndocrinology (2004–2006) and on the EditorialBoard of Integrative andComparative Biology (1997–2 0 0 7 ) . D a v e ! w a s a l s o a nassociate editor for the Journal ofExperimental Biology (1999–2006) and amember of the Marine Biology Laboratory(MBL) Corporation, Woods Hole (1985–2 0 0 3 ) . D a v e b r o u g h t n u m e r o u sundergraduate and graduate students to theMBL, as well as scientists from the USA andthe world community to collaborate inresearch, and was remembered there bylowering the MBL flags during the first weekof October. He received his BA from ReedCollege.“He obtained a Masters in Zoology (1970)and a Ph.D. in Biology (1973) at UCLAworking with J.D. O’Connor. Dave receivedmuch recognition during his 20 years as afaculty member at Illinois State University,including the Million Dollar Club in 1992 andDistinguished Professor (the highestacademic honor from the institution) in 2003.Dave also was a visiting scholar at UCLA(1984) with F. Engelmann, at University ofWashington (1990) with L. Riddiford, at theUniversity of Liverpool as a FogartyInternational Scholar (1997–1998), atShanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences( P R C ) ( 2 0 0 3 ) , a n d a tU n i v e r s i t y o fBasilicata, Italy(2004). Dave’sr e s e a r c hr e v o l v e da r o u n darthropodendocrinology,p a r t i c u l a r l yi n s e c t s a n dcrustaceans, the topicof 61 of his 70 publications.In particular, he was interested in thefunction and regulation of methyl farnesoatein crustaceans and juvenile hormone andecdysone in insects. He is perhaps bestknown for developing radioimmunoassaysfor both juvenile hormone and ecdysone.“His accomplishments in teaching, graduateadvising, research, and service provide asolid career in comparative endocrinology.He will be greatly missed. An undergraduateresearch scholarship in his name has beenestablished at Illinois State University.Contributions can be sent to: MaryCrawford, Illinois State University, CampusBox 3060, Normal, IL 61790. Pleasedesignate ‘Borst Scholarship’ in the memoof the check. – Brian Tsukimura and JohnHatle.”BRUCE HENRY CARPENTER(1932 - 2009)Bruce Henry Carpenter ’62 PhD (Botany)passed away in February, 2009. Dr.Carpenter was an Emeritus Professor ofBiological Sciences and President Emeritus,Montana State University, Billings. His family11

has generously donated his academic regaliato be passed on to a student completing hisor her PhD in a botanical field at UCLA.From the obituary at the MSU Billingswebsite:“Dr. Bruce H. Carpenter, president of EasternMontana College from 1982 to 1994, died inlate January at his home in California afteran illness. He was 76.During his tenure atE M C , w h i c htransitioned toMontana StateU n i v e r s i t yBillings thesummer afterhe retired,C a r p e n t e rp r o v i d e dacademic andfiscal leadershipthat positionedt h e c o l l e g e f o rg r o w t h i n t o acomprehensive, ! regional urbanuniversity. ‘He was a highly professional,highly dedicated individual whom I alwaysviewed as a mentor and friend,’ said Dr.Ronald Sexton, chancellor of MSU Billingswho served as academic vice presidentunder Carpenter. ‘He will be missed, but heleft an indelible mark on the university andthe community with his service.’ Sextonnoted that when Carpenter retired in July1994, he left the supporters of EasternM o n t a n a C o l l e g e w i t h a ‘ d e e p e runderstanding of our mission andcorresponding challenges,’ but also with abroader portfolio of resources and them e a n s t o p r e s e r v e h i g h - q u a l i t ypostsecondary education in Montana.“Carpenter was a champion for EMC inmany ways, but he also understood thepower of partnerships and the importance ofeducation to a community. He once saidthat ‘education is an investment that goeswell beyond the person we teach, butreverberates throughout the community inwhich he or she participates.’“In his quest to continually improve accessto higher education, Carpenter started theWine Festival in 1993 as an annualfundraising event for the college’sfoundation. Featuring premium wines (manynot available locally) and national wineexperts, the two-night affair was a uniqueand significant addition to Billings’ eventscalendar. The initial event drew 600 peopleand was a significant boost to scholarshipsfor students. The MSU Billings FoundationWine and Food Festival is now a weeklongaffair that draws more than 1,200people to a variety of cooking,tasting and fundraising events.Bruce HenryCarpenterOver its 16-year history, thefestival has netted more than$3 million to support the workof the MSU Billings Foundationon behalf of the university andits students, especially inproviding scholarships.“Carpenter and his wife,Kathryn, came to Billings in July1982. Born in 1932 in SouthDakota, he earned his bachelorand master degrees in biology fromCalifornia State University, Long Beachand his doctorate in botany from UCLA. Hetaught at CSU Long Beach and entered theadministration there as head of the biologydepartment and then Associate VicePresident of Academic Affairs andPersonnel. In 1975, he became Provost andAcademic Vice President at Western IllinoisUniversity.“Before entering the administrative ranks, heauthored or co-authored papers on how theearth’s rotation affects plants, on wayshormones act and on general biologicalsubjects including a book of readings. Healso received grants to study how plantsreact to light and hormones andtaught a course in EMC’sscience department at leastone quarter each year.“When he retired in1994, he movedwith his wife toC a l i f o r n i a .Memorials canbe made in hishonor to theB r u c e H .C a r p e n t e r N o n -RichardsFarnhamTraditional Student ScholarshipE n d o w m e n t a t t h e M S U B i l l i n g s12!Foundation, 1500 University Drive, BillingsMT, 59101.”RICHARDS FARNHAM (1920 - 2010)Richards Farnham ’42, MA ’50, passedaway on December 13, 2010. From thePalisades Post: “Richards KennedyFarnham, a teacher at Palisades HighSchool from 1961 to 1990 and a resident ofSanta Monica, passed away on December13. He was 90 years old.“Richards was born in Thermopolis,Wyoming on July 27, 1920, while his parentswere en route from South Dakota to LosAngeles, where his father and grandfatherwere going to take over a mining assaybusiness. The family settled in the Altadenaarea on what was then ranch land, whereRichards raised rabbits and guinea pigs andattended Pasadena city schools, includingPasadena Junior College.“This ranching life led to a lifelong fascinationwith animals. Summers spent at miningoperations managed by his father in desertareas around Death Valley and in Arizonaintroduced Richards to the reptiles of theSouthwest, so that by the time he graduatedfrom high school, he had a large snake andlizard collection in the family garage. AtUCLA, he majored and graduated in zoologybut always preferred the study of reptiles.“While at UCLA, he met and married CarolynMarie Bartlett, before he enlisted in the Armyin 1942 as a first lieutenant, serving in thePacific from 1942 until VJ Day.“Returning to UCLA, Richards earned hismaster's degree in zoology with ateaching credential and beganworking at University HighSchool in West LosAngeles in 1950. Hewas on the originals t a f f h i r e d a tP a l i s a d e s H i g hwhen the schoolopened in 1961.He was the sciencedepartment chairmanuntil his retirement in1990.“Richards' passion for animalscarried over into his biology classroom,

Some of our alumni find us, and sometimeswe find them. If we find you first, we’ll askyou for permission to include your news onthe web. If you’d like to let others knowwhat you are doing, please email us ateebchair@eeb.ucla.edu.2000sMaria A. Diuk Wasser ’03 PhD (Taylor) isan Assistant Professor in the Epidemiologyof Microbial Diseases at the Yale UniversitySchool of Public Health. Her researchinterests include environmental andecological drivers of vector-borne andzoonotic diseases; landscape epidemiology;and generation of spatio-temporalpredictions of risk.Professor Henry Hespenheide tells us thatLouis La Pierre ’02 PhD (Hespenheide)now at the Department of Biology &Environmental Science of Lower ColumbiaCollege, Longview, WA, recently learned thata species of parasitic wasp has been namedafter him, Horismenus lapierrei Hansson.Specimens of the wasp were reared byLouis as part of his dissertation research onthe leaf-mining beetles of trees in the genusCecropia at the La Selva Biological Station inCosta Rica. The photo, from the factsheetat www.neotropicaleulophidae.com, showsthe frontal view of the head of a male H.lapierrei.Shirin Moghtanei ’07 writes, “I attendedUCLA from fall of 2003 to spring of 2007and enjoyed every moment of it! I’m totally aBRUIN FOR LIFE! I majored in generalbiology, and loved the freedom to takeclasses within all the life sciencedepartments. I originally had more interest inevolutionary biology, but later discoveredbiochemistry and somehow ended up inpharmacy school shortly after! I am currentlyin Chicago, attending pharmacy school atMidwestern University. I started thisprogram in the fall of 2007 (right aftergraduating!) and will be graduating with aPharmD in March 2011. I can’t wait to comeback to SoCal and be reunited with theBRUIN alumni family. I will be working as apharmacist with CVS/pharmacy in theVentura County area. This will allow me tostay connected and hopefully attend EEBevents in 2011!”Jacqueline Ng ’0), a past recipient of theCharles Young Award and the 2006 EEBC o m m e n c e m e n t S t u d e n t S p e a k e r,graduated from Stanford Medical School in2010. She began her residency/ internshipin ophthalmology this fall in northernCalifornia.Virginia (Vicky) Perez ’02 writes, “After Ileft UCLA in the summer of 2002, I came toVillage School, a private elementary schoolin the Palisades. I worked first in the sciencedepartment as an assistant teacher. Since2006, I have been working as the head oft h e S p a n i s h d e p a r t m e n t t e a c h i n gkindergarten through fourth grade. It hasbeen an amazing experience to be able toexpress my appreciation for the arts,language, and culture of the Spanishspeaking countries. Working in an area thathas very little to do with my background hasalso provided me with the opportunity toknow how deep my passion for science andnature is engraved in my soul. In essence,this is my last year teaching Spanish. I amready to take flight again. I am not surewhere, but definitely it would have to besomething that involves being able toexpress my passion for nature and science.When I first came to UCLA, I was pregnantwith my son. He is now sixteen and a juniorat University High School. My biggestpassion and accomplishment is my son. Heis my driving force and the reason I do thingsthe way I do.“Ritesh Salvi ’07 writes, “As of right now Iam currently working as a part time tutor andtaking classes at a community college inpreparation for my start of Dental Schoolnext year at Western University of HealthSciences. At UCLA I had been assistingBrian Smith (’08 PhD, Blumstein)with someof his experiments involving guppy fish forhis PhD thesis.”Andrew Tsiu ’08 writes: “Currently, I amcontinuing my academic career at UCLA'sSchool of Public Health in the EnvironmentalHealth Sciences department to achieve myMasters in Public Health. I am also anintern at the Los Angeles & San GabrielRivers Watershed Council working on theirAngler survey project. Additionally, I am theCo-President of the Public Health StudentsAssociation and am applying to theEnvironmental Science and EngineeringProgram at UCLA.”1990sJerika Lam ’98, who double-majored inBiology and the History of Art at UCLA,received a PharmD from USC in 2003 and iscurrently an Assistant Professor ofALUMNI!!!Maria A. Diuk WasserVicky PerezGwen NodaEve HaberfieldErnest Chang!Arnold Hyndman14

Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Scienceat the Loma Linda University School ofPharmacy. Along with her facultyresponsibilities as an Assistant Professor,Dr. Lam works as a clinical pharmacist andHIV expert at her clinical practice siteslocated at the Desert AIDS Project,Riverside Neighborhood Health Center, andthe Perris Family Care Center. She has alsoimplemented and established an HIV/HCVco-infection clinic at these practice sites.Gwen Noda ’99 (Marine Biology), MA ’06 isthe co-Director at UCLA for COSEE-West,one of a network of COSEE (Centers forOcean Sciences Education Excellence)Centers around the United States that isfunded by the National Science Foundation.Gwen has worked and volunteered in avariety of field and lab science researchpositions as well as in informal and formaleducation settings, including shipboardinstruction and summer outdoor sciencecamp in the Sierra Nevada. Her currentvolunteer efforts are dedicated to diving inthe Kelp Forest exhibit in the newEcosystems wing at the California ScienceCenter.1980sRosanna Giordani-Clegg '82 is a teacherat Monte Vista High School, Simi Valley,California.Eve Haberfield ’80 PhD (Morin) recentlyretired as the Director of Humanities,Health, Science, and Social Science atU C L A E x t e n s i o n , w h e re s h e w a sresponsible for overseeing courseprogramming for more than 1,000 courseseach year. She is a member of the Board ofDirectors of the Griffith Observatory. Fromthe UCLA Extension Newsletter: “EveHaberfield, recently retired director andprogram director for the Humanities,Sciences, Social Sciences, and HealthSciences Programs, was honored at theUniversity Professional & ContinuingEducation Association’s 2010 Fall RegionalAwards ceremony. Haberfield won in theWest Region’s Professional Contributions toContinuing Education category for her 33years of service and dedication developinginnovative courses and programs for UCLAExtension.”1970sErnest Sun Mei Chang '78 PhD(O'Connor) writes, “I am currently Professorof Animal Science and of Neurobiology,Physiology and Behavior. I study thehormonal control of crustacean growth,development and stress responses. At theBodega Marine Laboratory (BML), I enjoyinteracting with the UCLA faculty who bringtheir marine science classes to BML everyother year.”Arnold G. Hyndman '78 PhD (Zamenhoffand Grinnell) is a Professor in theD e p a r t m e n t o f C e l l B i o l o g y &Neurosciences and Director of theOrganizational Leadership Program atRutgers University. He has recentlyreturned to the faculty after 14 years asDean of Livingston College, Rutgers.Charlene A. Jope Frontiera ’76 PhD(Wildman) is the Dean of the Math andSciences Division at the College of SanMateo.Stanley S. Hillman ’77 PhD (Gordon) isProfessor of Biology at Portland StateUniversity.1960sElinor Ben-Menachem ’65 received herM.D. and Ph.D. degrees in neurology at theUniversity of Gothenberg in Sweden, whereshe is Professor of Neurology at theSahlgrenska Academy, Institute for ClinicalNeurosciences and Physiology, and ChiefEditor of Acta Neurologica Scandinavica.She writes, “My field of expertise by the wayis epilepsy and I am currently the head ofthe annual meeting of the AmericanEpilepsy Society, and I do have a Californialicense to practice medicine which Ireceived when I did a post doctoralfellowship in epilepsy at the VA in West LosAngeles. I have over 104 original researchmanuscripts that are published especiallyon treatment of epilepsy.”Donata Oertel ’69 received a PhD fromUC Santa Barbara in Biology, and is aProfessor of Neuroscience at the Universityof Wisconsin-Madison Medical School. Herresearch is on the cellular basis for theprocessing of acoustic information in themammalian cochlear nuclei.David R. Zusman ’67 MA (Botany), ’70PhD (Microbiology) is Professor of theGraduate School Division of Biochemistryand Molecular Biology at UC Berkeley. Thefocus of his laboratory’s research is todetermine how signal transduction regulatesdirected motility and behavior in thebacterium Myxococcus xanthus using anintegrated approach that combinesbiochemistry, genetics, and cell biology.1950sDaniel Lippencott ’59 writes, “Afterreceiving my BA from UCLA, I spent thenext four years at the College of Physiciansand surgeons (now UOP) in San Franciscoearning my DDS degree. I spent the next33 years practicing dentistry for children inCalif. After retiring in 1996 my wife and Imoved to the state of Washington. I amnow a lieutenant in our volunteer fire dept, Iam also an EMT. Recently, in the past fewyears, I have volunteered my services as adentist in countries such as Afghanistan,India, Nepal, Gradumala, Mexico, and justrecently returned from 5 weeks aboard theUSNS Mercy doing dentistry in Timor Leste.I have also volunteered in Pakistan and Haitias an EMT following their devastatingearthquakes.”Eugene Spaziani ’58 PhD (Szego) isProfessor Emeritus of Biological Sciences atthe University of Iowa.15