The lab wrapped up a successful year by heading off to Austin, TX and the SICB meeting to share what we had learned. SICB is the primary meeting we attend each year and serves as a wonderful opportunity for the students to strut their stuff, network, and gain international exposure.
The photo above is a team photo for all of us who attended the meeting. From left to right Kendra Wisenbaker, Emily Blackwell, me, Emma Ortiz, and Whitney Dobbyn. All four students presented posters of portions of their work on hummingbirds from the past year. Emily presented her work linking body surface temperature and metabolic state, Whitney presented her work on the role plumage plays in restricting heat loss during flight, Kendra presented her work on post-flight heat dissipation from the perch in free-living hummingbirds, and Emma presented her work on thermal microclimates of perches selected by hummingbirds post flight. All the students did an amazing job! Normally I give a talk at this meeting but decided to take this year off. It was nice for a change to not have to think about a presentation.
Beyond the great science always presented at SICB there were several other highlights from the meeting including a wonderful symposium on heterothermy put together by Dr. Anusha Shankar and Dr. Ken Welch, catching up with old friends, some fun sightseeing, and the amazing food in Austin!
