Four of our undergraduate researchers,  Quinn Iffert, Dain  Manella, Claire Crookston, and Selena Aguiniga, presented their work at the annual Celebrate Undergraduate Research and Creativity (CURC) Showcase today! All four  students did REU projects with the lab  - two with guppies and two with toads.  Quinn, Dain, and Claire are all graduating next month and we are so proud of all that they've  accomplished here.  Dain and Quinn will be joining Laura at  the University of Oklahoma as her lab managers next year.

Congratulations to all four of our presenting undergraduate researchers! 

Welcome to our 2019 Team Toad Summer REU students!  Hoke lab welcomes Emily Sikora, Jesse Espinoza, and Stephanie McMahon, who will all be starting in the lab on June 3. 
​Look out for updates to our "People" tab next month as current students graduate (woohoo!) and new students are added. 

After being nominated by Kim Hoke, Leorah won an AP Star Award .  And she had no idea it was coming!  The award is for outstanding individual performance at CSU,  recognizing Administrative Professionals who make a difference and “shine” in our CSU community.  Kim D., Rachel and Kim H. came the ceremony to help her celebrate!

Selena, who was an REU student in summer 2018 on the toad project, presented her work at MURALS last Friday. She created an art piece inspired by her research last summer, using acrylic paint on canvas.  The piece was also inspired by cloud-watching and we particularly liked the  high- and low-frequency  sound waves depicted at the top and bottom of the canvas, relating the the different hearing capacities of eared and earless toads.  Leorah volunteered for the event and she and Kim H. were both able to attend Selena's wonderful formal presentation of her work. 

The Multicultural Undergraduate Research Art and Leadership Symposium is in it's fifth year at CSU. It provides students with an opportunity to present their research, art or other scholarly work and receive support and guidance throughout the month-long process leading up to the showcase, where their presentations are evaluate by graduate students. All undergraduate are welcome to participate but MURALS  intentionally reaches out to students of color, especially black and Latinx students who are often underrepresented in research. 

Kim Hoke will be heading to Uruguay next week, after a brief stop at the University of Oklahoma (future home of Dr. Laura Stein!) to give a seminar on April 3. She will be teaching the second half of a bioinformatics course with the Sociedad de Neurociencias del Uruguay that includes electric fish and toads. The course on the neurobiology of social behaviors will take place at el Instituto ​Clemente Estable over March and April 2019.  See here for more information: 

1. sociedadneurocienciasuy.com/2019/02/26/curso-neurobiologia-de-la-conducta-social/
2. drive.google.com/file/d/0B1L6JbOOcLK3SlcxbDY0dUJGN3BPU29GMFFIYXZRSTRiVHZV/view

Kim Dolphin competed in  the Vice President for Research 3 Minute Challenge at the beginning of February. She,  along with 38 other graduate students, presented her research in three minutes to a panel of judges, using only one slide to tell her story. Kim gave a great talk and was among the fifteen VPR Graduate Student Fellows selected, along with two the two other women from the  Biology Department that competed. 

Fellows receive a $4,000 scholarship, as well as participating in professional development workshops, mentoring, leadership and engagement opportunities over the 2019-20 academic year.

Great job, Kim! 

 Title: Hoke Lab REU Summer Research Opportunity
Compensation: $12.50/hr
Number of positions: 3
40 hrs/week
​
Eligibility: Current undergraduate students who are  citizens or permanent residents of the United States or its possessions; sophomore standing or higher preferred

The Hoke Lab is seeking motivated, outstanding undergraduates interested in the study of animal behavior, neuroscience, skull structure, and evolution to conduct research over the summer via NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). The primary goal of the Hoke lab is to understand the processes that shape evolutionary trajectories. We focus on the mechanisms of convergent evolution of behavioral and morphological traits. More information about the Hoke Lab can be found at   http://hokelab.weebly.com.

Student will complete independent research projects, as well as working together as a team to contribute to large-scale experiments. REU students will formulate a project to explore the evolution and development of anurans, particularly the middle ear structures. Students will develop a wide variety of skills that may include tasks such as microscopy and microCT scan analysis under the guidance of senior lab members. There may be opportunities for field work as well. Pay is $12.50/hr, and students will be expected to work full time (40hrs/week for 10 weeks).

If interested, please send a CV and a brief (one paragraph) statement of interest to Leorah McGinnis (leorah.mcginnis@colostate.edu) by March 1st, 2019. Please include a description of any previous lab or field experience.

We've sent Rachel off to Ecuador for six weeks to get the lay of the land.  This is her first time going abroad and we're excited to hear all about her experience. While she's there she will be connecting with Dr. Guayasamin  and other Ecuadorian research colleagues,  investigating frog mating behavior by doing field work in the Amazon and  visiting the   University San Francisco de Quito (USFQ). She's hoping to find methods for making 3D models of individual frog movement over the course of a few weeks, and to see how we may be able to visually keep track of where we find the frogs.
Read all about her first week in her own words here:
amphibiousrach.wordpress.com/2019/01/23/first-week-in-ecuador/

The Hoke lab rang in 2019 by sending Kim Hoke and Laura to the 2019 Annual Meeting for the Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology (SICB) in Tampa, Florida.  Laura gave a well-received talk in the Monday morning Neuroethology session entitled "Sex on the brain: Effects of reproduction on brain and behavior in Trinidadian guppies."  On Saturday morning Kim co-chaired a session for  the DEDB Best Student Paper. Lab alum, Molly Womack, also presented a poster on Saturday entitled "Signatures of Relaxed Selection Characterize Earless Toad Lineages."  A lovely time was had by all as we start off the new year with great research and great friends!
​You can check out #SICB2019 on Twitter to see more highlights from the weekend.