Announcements

Another great Research Day in the Biology Department at UNM. Congratulations to Renee Brown for winning best undergraduate poster for her presentation on her Senior Thesis, "Soil Nitrogen Availability Following Rainfall Pulses in a Desert Grassland During the Summer Monsoon." Additional congratulations go to Amy Bennett for her 3rd Place grad student poster, "Examinging Patterns in Precipitation Pulses and Carbon Fluxes." Three cheers for Renee and Amy, and all the other participants.

Matt Petrie successfully defended his dissertation on 12 September 2014. After an excellent presentation to an enthusiastic audience he artfully managed to get his committee members talking to each other rather than asking him hard questions during the closed-door phase of the defense. It was masterful! Fortunately, Matt will stay at UNM through the Fall semester to complete his RA on our EDGE Project, and to finish up some publications. Two of his three chapters are published and the third is already in review.

Everyone please congratulate Dr Laura Ladwig after a wonderful departmental seminar attended by a large audience followed by a successful defense of her dissertation research. Laura plans to get the rest of her chapters submitted for publication before leaving for a work environment with higher mean annual rainfall. And she has successfully fulfilled that goal! Laura, who just happens to be from Wisconsin and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, will start a postdoc with Ellen Damschen at the University of Wisconsin on 1 July! Three Cheers!