Back from SICB already! As always, SICB was a great week of amazing people doing amazing science. Highlights included a talk in which 3D glasses were put on cuttlefish, and the aplacophoran mini-symposium resulting from Meghan and Kevin giving back-to-back talks.

I presented both a talk on the chiton genome and a poster on chiton radular physiology... on the same day! Which means by 5:30pm on the 5th, I was functionally mute. Wonderful feedback from a supportive scientific community strengthened both projects. 

Now I'm back, eager to work toward publishing both, and really genuinely excited about what the future holds. 

Science is at its best a group of nerds trying to figure out this crazy world around us. Missing my SICB family already.

I am SO EXCITED to share that the species description of Echinoderes kohni, the kinorhynch that I found at Friday Harbor Laboratories, is officially published! Manuscript HERE!

The species is named for Alan J. Kohn, the retired UW professor responsible for the Kohn Fellowship, which funded my trip to Friday Harbor in summer 2017 to take Invertebrate Zoology. I am so thrilled that my first species description, something I wanted to do since I was 5, was able to honor somebody who continues to support students. 

Even more magical, I was informed that Gustav Paulay, who taught the course along with my coauthor Peter Funch, used my paper in Invertebrate Zoology this week to teach kinorhynchs. That last time Gustav taught that class, I was a student in the process of discovering it! What an incredible full-circle at Friday Harbor Labs! 

Today I was presented with the Joab Langston Thomas Scholarship. This one-time award is presented to an outstanding graduate student based upon scholarship, creativity, and potential for becoming an outstanding scholar and teacher.

Most importantly, it was an excuse to wear my DNA x-ray crystallography skirt! :-)

Thank you to my department, and congratulations to all students who were honored today!

Highlights of USC included: spending time with chiton nerds (obviously!), a giant clam downstairs, and a really cool chiton paper coming out while I was there (check it out). We also got to take some pictures on a VERY nice microscope. More soon!

Scalidophora was in BRAZIL this year! It was my first time in the southern hemisphere, but there were kinorhynchs waiting to greet me! I delivered a talk on a transcriptome from a single individual, and had the pleasure of learning more morphology and sampling from the best in the world.

The highlight of the conference was being reunited with my two kinorhynch mentors. Peter Funch (left of me) was my professor at Friday Harbor Labs and introduced me to my very first kinorhynch almost two years ago. Martin Sorensen (right of me) taught me everything I know about kinorhynch morphology, and encouraged me to pursue these amazing little animals further. Working on completing this manuscript with both of them is a great feeling- look out for a new species coming (hopefully!) late this summer.

SICB2019 was in Tampa this year, and I was there with Kevin and my lab mates Maddie and Meghan. I presented a poster and got great feedback, met some amazing scientists, and got to spend time with the people I find inspiring. I'm back with lots of new ideas, excited to work, and utterly exhausted!

Highlights were a lunch session run by Eliza VanCort on deliberate communication, and a lunch workshop run by Danielle Lee and Elizabeth Congdon about engagement of diverse student bodies via course design. And the talk on fire ant rafts behaving as a gel.

Below, the results of a booth that made two invertebrate biologists pose with an Orca. :) (with Jessie Whelpley of the UF Ryan Lab)

The Global Invertebrate Geneome Allicance (GIGAiii) was in Curacao this year. It was delightful to be surrounded by scientists equally enthusiastic about invertebrates, an enthusiasm that the conference furthered with conversation and connection. Thank you to the American Genetics Association for generous student funding that permitted me to travel and stay, even free of the worry of reimbursement!

I had a wonderful time presenting my poster in what was by far the most thought-provoking and productive session I've seen. Most of us are exchanging protocols and tips now, which is great.

After the conference, Kevin and I stayed for another week to conduct fieldwork at Carmabi Research Station. We collected chitons of three genera (check out those gorgeous sutural tufts on the left!), and found Kevin, Meghan, and Maddie >25 solenogastres. Notably, I collected my first live aplacophorans on this trip. Thanks to the University of Alabama for the student travel grant to cover the suitcases of laboratory equipment (including microscopes!).

Most memorable from the trip was my first exposure to ostracods, tiny crustaceans that produce flashes of bioluminescence defensively but also to communicate. In the best night dive of my life, we dropped without lights and watched the males flash a distinctive pattern to attract females. I had to remind myself not to hold my breath! Thanks to Todd Oakley and Jessica Goodheart of the Oakley Lab for sharing!