Reviving the CPBS Summer Seminar Series

Article By: Johnica Morrow

One of my first dinner conversations here at Cedar Point was with Dr. Charles Brown, a researcher that has been gracing CPBS with his presence for the past three decades.  Dr. Brown, a prominent ornithologist with a love for cliff swallows, began to tell me about the good old days...days when Cedar Point had regular seminars.  This piqued my interest so naturally, I had to know more.  It turns out that the station once hosted a variety of seminars 3-5 times over the course of the summer.  I have yet to find records regarding the topics of these seminars, but the suggestion of their prior existence was enough to get the ball rolling for this summer.  

One of the many posters announcing a seminar this summer.

After that conversation, I went to work.  I gained approval from Jon Garbisch, our associate director.  I tracked down the e-mail addresses of every professor that would be out here teaching for the summer and I sent them an e-mail asking them to pick a day to present.  I made posters that found their way onto the bulletin board and the window of the dinning hall door.  Then I sent out another round of e-mails...and a few other rounds after that.  (You'd be surprised how hard it is to convince professors to talk for an hour about their research!)  

Little by little, the summer roster began to fill.  I was able to book professors, master's students, PhD students, and even interns to speak.  The basement of Goodall Lodge became the place to be at 7:00pm on Wednesday nights.  Though we didn't get the number of students we had hoped for, we did get a good deal of interest.  The students that did come were enthusiastic with queries that sparked lively discussions on a wide range of topics.

Jamie Briske and Zach Schafer gave a presentation about their summer internship.

By now you are probably wondering who spoke this summer and what those people spoke about.  Fear not, faithful readers!  Below is a list to satisfy those nagging questions...just for you.

May 22nd

Dr. Charles Brown

Where has all the roadkill gone?: Long-term changes in
highway-associated mortality of cliff swallows

May 29th

Dr. John Faaborg

Long-term monitoring of bird populations
in Puerto Rico and Missouri

June 5th

Alicia Burke

Mature forest bird use of regenerating clearcuts:
Convenience or Necessity?

June 12th

Linden Reid

Helminths of Micaelamys namaquensis
and Aethomys chrysophilus (Rodentia: Muridae)
from Northwestern Botswana

June 19th

Johnica Morrow

Spider diversity of
Cedar Point Biological Station

June 26th

Matt Adams

Arachnological facts and fiction:
How to tell when they're pulling the web over your eyes

July 3rd

Dr. Charles Brown

Coloniality in the cliff swallow:
Insights from thirty years of research

July 10th

Jamie Briske & Zach Schafer

Two year plan on the conservation of piping plovers

July 17th

Johnica Morrow

Archaeoparasitology:
Digging into our parasitological past

 July 24th

Dr. Scott Gardner

Global parasite biodiversity inventories

July 31st

Francisco Tiago de Vasconcelos Melo

Complimentary tools for helmnith taxonomy

Linden Reid gave a seminar regarding nematode taxonomy.

After a summer of swallows, spiders, and parasites, it is clear that the CPBS summer seminar series has been successfully resurrected.  It will be exciting to see what sorts of seminars will be given next year as new people spend their first summer at Cedar Point and seasoned Cedar Pointians return for their yearly dose.  I would especially like to thank Dr. Charles Brown for instigating the return of the seminar series...even if he didn't make it to either of my talks! :-p (You'd better be there next year, Charles!)

If you will be around the station sometime next summer
and would like to give a talk, please e-mail us at cpbs2@unl.edu.  

Include in your e-mail the dates you will be 

staying at CPBS and the title of your presentation.  

We will contact you when your talk has been booked.

Thanks! Can't wait to see you speak next summer!