Eleven more faculty at the School of Natural Resources and Environment have become part of winning MCubed projects funding by the university under a new interdisciplinary program.
Each September, as the promise of a new academic year unfolds, the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology invites high-performing students from underrepresented minorities to experience U-M graduate programs. The Fall Recruitment Partnership gives students an idea of what it’s like to be a graduate student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the School of Natural Resources and Environment. The initiative began in 2007, originally supported by a grant from the National Center for Institutional Diversity to Professors John Vandermeer (EEB) and Ivette Perfecto (SNRE). The Rackham Graduate School now funds the program.
Predatory beetles can detect the unique alarm signal released by ants that are under attack by parasitic flies, and the beetles use those overheard conversations to guide their search for safe egg-laying sites on coffee bushes.Azteca instabilis ants patrol coffee bushes and emit chemical alarm signals when they're under attack by phorid flies. In an article published online July 27 in the journal Ecology and Evolution, University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues show that pregnant lady beetles intercept the ants' alarm pheromones, which let the beetles know that it's safe to deposit their eggs. The findings, which may have practical implications for pest management on coffee plantations, are the first documentation of a complex cascade of interactions mediated by ant pheromones, according to the authors.
At its meeting this month in Honduras, the Council of Ministers of the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD) named SNRE Professor Ivette Perfecto as a founding member of its new biodiversity science council. The Scientific Council on Biodiversity for the Central American Integration System will ensure the technical quality of work plans of the Regional Institute of Biodiversity, the technical body of the CCAD.
SNRE Professor Ivette Perfecto is receiving this year's ERHC Diversity Award from the Ecological Society of America during its Annual Meeting next month.
The award recognizes her "outstanding contributions to increasing current and future diversity in the ecological community" and is given by the ESA's Education and Human Resources Committee (EHRC). The EHRC Diversity Award recognizes long-standing contributions to increasing the diversity of future ecologists through mentoring, teaching, or outreach.
SNRE Professors Dave Allan and Ivette Perfecto were honored Tuesday (Oct. 5) with university-wide awards for their contributions to research and service. Professor Allan received the 2010 Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award. Professor Perfecto received the 2010 Faculty Recognition Award.
Two School of Natural Resources and Environment professors were among 10 University of Michigan faculty elected as Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dan Brown and Ivette Perfecto joined 530 scientists and researchers elected as part of an annual process conducted ty the AAAS. Professor Brown, who joined SNRE in 1999, was recognized for contributions to the understanding of the consequences of land-use change on ecosystems and human vulnerability via the innovative blending of social and ecological analysis. Professor Perfecto, who joined SNRE in 1989, was recognized for contributions to preserving biological diversity, particularly in demonstrating the importance of incorporating agricultural systems in models for conservation of biodiversity.