Annual Report 2009 - Department of Zoology - University of ...

a Lecturer in 1964 and a Reader in 1976. He retired in
1995. Many members of Zoology will have vivid and happy
memories of Martin. The legacy of his science, his art and
his writing still permeate the Department.
Mike Majerus (1954 - 2009)
The Department lost a close
colleague in Professor Mike
Majerus, who worked at the
Department of Genetics. Mike
was a traditional Cambridge
scientist; a charismatic individual
for whom the boundaries
between life and work, and
teaching and research, were very hard to discern. He
was a world authority in his field, a tireless advocate
of evolution and an enthusiastic educator of graduate
and undergraduate students. Mike’s enthusiasm for his
subject and his rapport with students made him an ideal
undergraduate lecturer. He had a great enthusiasm for
field work and was tireless in training all of his students
in practical skills. Never shy of publicity he took every
opportunity to promote his field of evolutionary biology
to the wider public. In 2004 the arrival of the harlequin
ladybird in Britain was a disaster for native species but
catapulted Mike into the public eye and on to the front
page of The Times. Such was the appetite of the press, TV
and radio for Mike’s work with the harlequin ladybird that
for weeks he was omnipresent in the media. An enthusiast,
a natural teacher and a man who radiated a passion for his
subject he will be very sorely missed by all of his friends
and colleagues in the Department.
(Dr David Summers, Head of Department of Genetics)
Tropical Biology Association in the Zoology
Department
The Department of Zoology has hosted the Tropical
Biology Association for over ten years. Alumni of the
TBA are playing a more and more prominent role in
conservation. Almost all of TBA’s former trainees (98%)
are engaged in conservation science or related fields and
many have returned to teach on TBA courses. There are
now 13 autonomous TBA alumni groups across Africa that
provide a platform to promote good conservation practices
and collaboration, as well as an avenue to nurture and
mentor the next generation of conservationists in their
countries. In 2009, the TBA welcomed five new countries
to its growing network, with students from Guatemala,
25
Laos, Liberia, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam attending
courses for the first time.
Students on a 2009 TBA field course at
Danum Valley in Sabah
Events of the year
Departmental Seminar Day
A high point in the year was again our Departmental
Seminar Day, which was held on 13 March at St. John’s
College. The talks this year, in a programme coordinated
by Chris Jiggins, were as follows:
Peter Lawrence - Francis Crick and his approach to
science
Jennifer Clack - The humerus of Ichthyostega: no joke
Kate Jones - Evolution of echolocation and its use as a
monitoring tool
Matthias Landgraf - Development of neural networks:
global patterning cues arrange rendezvous
between partner neurons
Kelly Moyes - Climate change and phenology in a wild red
deer population
Martina Boerner - Killing me softly (or: How to charm your
hosts whilst killing their chicks)
Torsten Krude - Non-coding Y RNA and the control of
DNA replication in vertebrates
Irene Miguel-Aliaga - Insect gut feelings: development
and physiology of visceral neurons in Drosophila
Simon Laughlin - How your rod photoreceptors cut the
cost of night vision
The Seminar Day included a poster session, where Chris
Bird (Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour) won the
first prize for his poster on “Tool use in the rook (Corvus
frugilegus)” and the runner-up prize was given to Karin
Moll (Insect Biomechanics Workgroup) for her poster
“Balancing acrobats: grass-carrying ants avoid falling over
by controlled head movements”.
Media
In a very strong year for media stories, highlights included
Nick Davies’ documentary on cuckoos at Wicken Fen and
the feature on the Library’s first edition copy of Charles