Janis Dickinson's Lab

2007-2008

Kaylan Kemink , Undergraduate Researcher and Work Study student, Celebrate Urban Birds  

A senior in the Department of Natural Resources, Kaylan is interested in shorebirds and has spent two summers as an intern on shorebird projects in coastal Massachusetts and on the Mississippi River. At Cornell, she has taken part in graduate seminars, taken a field ornithology course in Hispanola, and participated regularly in the Ornithology Seminar at Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Kaylan worked in citizen science in fall of 2007 investigating methods for using satellite photos to quantify greenspace in urban landscapes.

Allison Fritts-Penniman , Undergraduate Honors Program, Personality Profiles  

A senior in the Department of Natural Resources, Allison spent spring of 2007 at Hastings Reserve studying western bluebirds. She is conducting honors thesis research on western bluebird personality profiles, a method for studying neophobia, and will examine the relationship between fear of novel objects and proximity to roads, age, and gender.

2006-2007

Mike Harvey , Undergraduate Researcher and Work Study student, Project FeederWatch  

A junior studying Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Michael has been interested in birds for most of his life. At Cornell, he continues to develop his passion for birds and plans to pursue a career in ornithological research. His major interests are in evolutionary biology, neotropical ornithology, and biogeography. At the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, he works for the Citizen Science Program (FeederWatch) and conducts research for citizen science as well as in the Evolutionary Biology Program. This semester, he intends to use data from citizen science projects to analyze trends in the distribution and abundance of the Evening Grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus), a species that has experienced dramatic and unexplained declines over much of its range.

Tessa Murante , Undergraduate Research student, MyYardCounts

Tessa Murante graduated in May 2007 from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell. She was a Biology major concentrating in Neurobiology and Behavior (NB&B) and spent four semesters working with researchers from the Lab of Ornithology. As a senior Tessa collaborated with Caren Cooper and Janis Dickinson on the “My Yard Counts” project, helping to develop and distribute a participant survey in addition to analyzing recent and incoming data. She wrote an honors thesis estimating on average that 3 birds per year are killed in backyards and that feeders act as point sources for cat predation on birds. Tessa learned how to organize data and conduct statistical analysis finishing with Latin honors based on her grades and producing an honors thesis in NB&B. Citizen Science enjoyed having Tessa on its research team and wishes her the best of luck in her teaching position in New York City.

Cheng Cheng , Undergraduate Research Student, Project PigeonWatch

Cheng Cheng was a freshman majoring in chemical engineering at Cornell University when she began working for two semesters at the Lab of Ornithology. Cheng originally began her research at the Lab as a volunteer helping to analyze eastern bluebird incubation patterns from dataloggers. As a sophomore she concentrated on the relationship between color morphs and courtship behaviors among feral pigeons as part of Project PigeonWatch under the supervision of Research Associate Caren Cooper and Professor Janis Dickinson. Through statistical analysis of the summaries and graphs collected from the PigeonWatch volunteers, Cheng produced preliminary results for bird lovers who have actively collaborated on the project over the years.

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