2011 Nominations Committee: Craig Benkman (Chair), Bonnie Bowen, and John McCormack.
The following five people (in alphabetical order) have agreed to be nominated for the Cooper Ornithological Society (COS) Board of Directors to serve from 2012 to 2015.
Carla Cicero is the Staff Curator of Birds at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley. She holds both a B.S. and Ph.D from UC Berkeley. Her research uses morphologic, molecular, vocal, and GIS data to examine patterns and processes of differentiation and secondary contact in bird populations of western North America. She also uses molecular phylogenetic methods to investigate the evolution of behavioral and ecological traits at the species level. In addition to research, Carla is active in biodiversity informatics. She served as a principal investigator on the NSF-funded project to develop ORNIS ( http://ornisnet.org), an online network of distributed data on avian biodiversity from museum collections and observational datasets (currently 48 data providers and over 65 million records for birds). She is currently the PI on a related NSF-funded project, VertNet ( http://vertnet.org), which will bring ORNIS together with other vertebrate-biodiversity networks into a cloud-computing platform. Carla has authored or co-authored 52 papers in a diverse array of journals, including the Condor, Auk, Ornithological Monographs, Evolution, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, and Molecular Ecology. She has written one monograph (University of California Publications in Zoology) and co-edited a volume of Ornithological Monographs. She also has reviewed 87 papers for 20 journals and 21 grant proposals for 7 programs, and has presented 52 papers or posters at professional meetings. Carla joined the COS as a graduate student and has served on the society's Painton Award Committee and as COS representative to the Committee for Selection of Travel Award Participants to the 2010 International Ornithology Congress in Brazil. She has also served as an Elective Councilor to the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU), as well as on numerous AOU committees including Birds of North America Liaison (current), Nominations of Fellows and Elective Members, Classification and Nomenclature (current), Bird Collections (current), Web Site, Early Professionals, and Student Awards. Although Carla does not formally advise students, she has served on the graduate thesis committee for students from Canada and Guatemala and has trained over 75 students in museum curation, biodiversity informatics, archival and audio digitization, field collection methods, specimen preparation, molecular research, and analysis of sound recordings. Carla is committed to engaging students in ornithology. As a member of the COS Board of Directors, she would work to ensure support for research and travel to meetings by students and young professionals and would strive to increase involvement by students in the society's business and activities. Carla is enthusiastic about the opportunity to serve on the COS Board of Directors and to be involved in current initiatives including the potential new Society for Ornithologists and what that means for publications, research, meetings, and support services for students and professional ornithologists.
Renée Duckworth is an Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Renée received her M.S. from Auburn University and her Ph.D. from Duke University for her studies of the evolutionary mechanisms underlying range expansion in birds. Her postdoctoral research was split between Edinburgh University, where she focused on quantitative genetics of complex phenotypes, and Harvard University, where she focused on evolutionary diversifications in relation to niche shifts. In 2008, she was awarded the Young Investigator's Award by the American Society of Naturalists and in 2009 the Ned K. Johnson Young Investigator Award from the American Ornithologists' Union. She joined COS for the first time as a postdoc and since then has been an active member, attending annual meetings and volunteering for service. From 2008 to 2011, she served as an Associate Editor for the Condor, and she has served twice on the Student Awards Committee during joint AOU/COS/SCO conferences. Her current work involves large-scale ecological experiments in western Montana to understand the effect of conservation programs and climate change for range shifts and coexistence of cavity-nesting birds. Renée recognizes the immense challenges and opportunities that COS faces in the digital age and is dedicated to helping COS move forward. Of highest priority is to address issues of declining membership by developing new strategies to continue to make COS relevant to beginning investigators. Also of high priority is encouraging high-quality research through support of young investigators and by maintaining the highest standards for publication in the Condor.
Robert Fleischer is head of the Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park. He received a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1978 and a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 1983. His primary fields are evolutionary and conservation biology. He conducts individual and collaborative research in population and evolutionary genetics, systematics, and molecular and behavioral ecology, mostly on free-ranging bird and mammal species. Robert is author or co-author of more than 200 scientific papers, or which roughly three-fourths are on birds and/or their pathogens. Much of his current research involves application of DNA analyses to studies in conservation, evolution, and animal behavior. He has particular interests in (1) methods for using ancient DNA to document changes in genetic variation through time and phylogenetic relationships of extinct or endangered organisms; (2) the use of highly variable genetic markers to measure genetic structure and relatedness and to ascertain mating systems in natural populations, and (3) the use of genetics to study the evolutionary interactions between hosts, vectors, and infectious-disease organisms. He has served on the AOU Council, as an associate editor for the Auk (among other journals), and on other committees for the AOU and Cooper Ornithological Society during the past 25 years. He would enjoy being of service to the COS, especially during this period of potential change in the structuring of academic ornithology.
Thomas E. Martin is a Senior Scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit and Adjunct Professor at the University of Montana, Missoula, Montana. His research interests focus on life-history evolution and demography of birds, community ecology, habitat selection, effects of climate change, and applying these areas to conservation issues. His work includes ecological, evolutionary, behavioral, and physiological approaches. He has published >140 papers, with some in the Condor, Auk, Wilson Journal of Ornithology, and Journal of Field Ornithology as well as Science, Nature, Nature Climate Change, PNAS, and other broad journals. He has served as President of the Cooper Ornithological Society, served on its Board of Directors, and served on or chaired several of its committees. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of the Auk and on several committees for the AOU. He is an Honorary Member of the COS, recipient of the AOU's Elliott Coues award, Fellow of the AOU, and Fellow of the AAAS.
Blair Wolf is an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His research interests focus on the natural history, nutritional ecology, ecophysiology and reproductive biology of birds. His current research examines the effects of global warming and heat waves on bird communities. He has published papers in the Condor, Auk, and Journal of Field Ornithology and has co-authored three accounts for the Birds of North America. He teaches ornithology, general biology, animal physiology, and graduate courses in Ecology at UNM. He served as the chair of the Publications Committee for the COS from 2000 to 2007 and has served one term on the Board of Directors. He is the instigator and coordinator of SORA, the Searchable Ornithological Research Archive, which continues to offer free access to electronic archives of ornithological journals. He is very interested in extending the influence of the COS into the lives of students and researchers in developing nations and in continuing to work to maintain the COS within the ranks of the top ornithological societies globally.
