Gwynne on lab door

Well actually she’s in the latest issue of Knowledge Enterprise which I nearly left behind at the department’s staff letter boxes until I saw Gwynne’s grining face. So I grabbed some masking tape and taped the issue up on the Evo Lab door. It’s the most decent piece on the door right now and Gwynne’s not around to remove (I think).

To read the article online, you can check the NUS NewsHub:

Guess who’s working on reduviids and other bugs?

Confronted with a reduviid-like bug that Ngan Kee tossed on my table, JC Mendoza, with whom I was having an urgent meeting (I may add) wondered if it could be a triatomine instead of my suggestion. Googling, this familiar mugshot appeared:

Alumni Hwang Wei Song and his partner in crime Zahang Guanyang have taken up residence in Christiane Weirauch’s Heteropteran Systematics Lab at the University of California Riverside. We don’t know yet what it is as we did have to get to work but said specimen will await Wei Song’s attention in future at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research.

Stop complaining about the blurry picture y’all, specimen’s in the museum!

Job advert: Research Assistant position in the Terrestrial Ecology Lab

The Terrestrial Ecology Lab is looking for a Research Assistant immediately to help with field and laboratory work in terrestrial ecology. Candidates should have a BSc degree or polytechnic diploma in biology or a related subject and preferably a Singaporean driving license.

Experience of ecological fieldwork would be advantageous but is not essential. The initial appointment will be for 6 months with the possibility of longer-term employment depending on performance and funding availability. Interested candidates are invited to contact Prof Corlett at corlett@nus.edu.sg

Prof Richard Corlett
Terrestrial Ecology Laboratory
Room S2-01-02,
Department of Biological Sciences
National University of Singapore,
14, Science Drive 4,
Singapore 117543
Tel: 6516-1285

Fri 05 Feb 2010: 4pm @ NUS LT20 – Tso on “Factors shaping the color-associated foraging traits of Araneae sit-and-wait predators”

Click to read the pdf file:

Weiting’s civet surveys – The Straits Times (Nov 2009) and continued work

I am playing a bit of catchup here – Systematics & Ecology Lab’s Honours student Xu Weiting’s research with civets in Siglap was featured in The Straits Times in November last year: “The great ‘musang’ stakeout,” by Ang Yiying. The Straits Times, 30 Nov 2009. The aim: To observe the Toddy Cat’s population size and habits. [pdf1 - pdf2]

At the time, Wild Singapore carried the news – link. Some of her honours classmates accompanied her on the survey and you can see them in the larger pdfs of the newspaper pages – just click the images below:

Civetgirl Weiting is still surveying Siglap and she has since seen civets in the day time too., demonstrating that persistence pays off in mammal work. Here she is looking very civet-like during one of our meetings!

This is a photo she obtained of one of the lovely wild carnivores of Singapore – we liked it so much, we use it for the sidebar thumbnail image for the link to mammal records entry on Habitatnews! If you wish to follow her on her night surveys, email her at xuwt87@gmail.com

Ang Yi Ying previously wrote about Marcus honours year project that discovered mousedeer populations on Pulau Ubin – link.

Welcome Érica Sena, Full-Time Teaching Assistant

A warm welcome to Érica Sena Neves, the new Full-Time Teaching Assistant to the Biodiversity Crew. She was hired by the department to manage biodiversity modules and joins us next week, after an early drop in to an IVLE Workshop today.

In her first semester, will manage and teach in LSM1303 Animal Behaviour and LSM2251 Ecology and the Environment and help out with one or two other modules. Originally from Brasil, she has a background in animal ecology and behaviour and is enthusiastic about getting started!

Érica says,

“I am an animal enthusiast since my very first memories. I grew up surrounded by animals and  was always thrilled to understand their behavior; which is why I decided to be a biologist. I have worked with animals all through my academic life, mostly on the behavioral & ecological aspects.

There is a passage in The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins that is just immaculate and illustrates perfectly how I feel: “There is a better reason for studying zoology than its possible usefulness, and the general likeableness of animals. This reason is that we animals are the most complicated and perfectly designed pieces of machinery in the known universe. Put it like that, and it is hard to see why anybody studies anything else!”

Daiqin’s web-decorating spider research featured in Discovery News last Christmas

Click image to read:

Biod Grad Students at Chulalongkorn University, Dec 2009

The 14th Biological Sciences Graduate Congress was hosted by the Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand in December 2009. The NUS Biodiversity Crew was represented by these six graduates: four oral presentations and two poster presentations:

• Alison Wee (Applied Plant Ecology Lab) – Effects of fragmentation on gene flow in mangroves.
• Chow Kwek Yan (Plant Lab) – Family composition and life form changes with extinctions, introductions, and cultivation in the total vascular flora of Singapore.
• Nanthinee Jeevanandam (Terrestrial Ecology Lab) – Phenology of dioecious figs in Singapore.
• Nghiem Thi Phuong Le (Terrestrial Ecology Lab) – Invasive trees in Singapore.
• Toh Kok Ben (Marine Lab) – Camouflage and background matching: How good does the match have to be? Testing the background of prey and background spot size.
• Tran Thi Minh Hang (Marine Lab) – Toward a national integrated coastal management policy for Vietnam.

L-R, Front row – Alison Wee (Applied Plant Ecology Lab), Nanthinee Jeevanandam (Terrestrial Ecology Lab), and Tran Hang (Marine Lab); L-R, Back Row- Chow Kwek Yan (Plant Lab), Nghiem Le (Terrestrial Ecology Lab), and Toh Kok Ben (Marine Lab)

The BioD group did well, with Nanthinee clinching the Best Oral Presenter Award for Biodiversity. The only two other awards up for grabs were for the Biodiversity Poster presentations and these went to Alison and Ben. Congratulations all of you!

Nanthinee reports.

“The congress was a beneficial experience with lots of feedback and questions during presentations by fellow graduates from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. It was a good opportunity to meet and network with fellow graduate students in similar areas of research.

Chulalongkorn’s hospitality and organization was exemplary! I recommend this experience to my fellow graduate students, so look out for news of the 2010 graduate congress, to be hosted by the University of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur next December!”

The award winners: Ben, Alison and Nanthinee

TAs for 2009/10 sem 2 modules

Hi grad students,

TAs are required for the following modules:

• LSM1103 Biodiversity – Fridays 2pm-6pm; 24 hours/session (two sessions max)
• Kent Ridge
• Plant Diversity (lab)
• Animal Diversity (lab)
• Changi Beach
• Singapore Zoo
• LSM2251 Ecology and the Environment – Thursdays, 10am-12pm; 24 hours/session (two sessions max).
• Maps & Google Earth (lab)
• Field Trip prep
• Labrador Rocky Shore (Mon evening)
• Report debrief/Ubin prep
• Pulau Ubin (Sat morning)
• Ubin report consultation
• LSM1303 Animal Behaviour – Mondays, 14 hours/session (two sessions max).
• Consultation, 1 hour face to face/2 hours by email.
• Presentation (your group), 2 hours (evaluation)
• Presentation (one other group), 2 hours (evaluation)
• Extinction Game, 2 hours (facilitation)
• Marking – symposium abstract, report, blog, 5 hours.

Please email FTTA JC Mendoza at dbsjcem@nus.edu.sg or Sivasothi at sivasothi@nus.edu.sg if you are able to TA for these modules. Also welcome are marking specialists – submissions are all electronic, so this is possible even if you are overseas for a semester with compulsory hours to clear.

Faculty Positions in Environmental Biology

Positions in Environmental Biology
Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore

The Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore (NUS), invites applications for tenure-track faculty positions at the Assistant/Associate Professorship level in the following areas of Environmental Biology:

• Microbial ecology
• Ecotoxicology
• Microalgal systematics and ecology
• Environmental genomics
• Applied entomology
• Urban ecology
• Climate change biology
• Environmental modeling

An interest in tropical urban environments will be an advantage. Singapore also retains examples of several natural ecosystems and is at the centre of one of the biologically richest regions of the world. Candidates should have a Ph.D. with relevant postdoctoral experience, an outstanding publication record, and a strong commitment to both teaching and research. Appointment at the Professor level may be considered for exceptional candidates.

Successful applicants will join a growing Environmental Biology group within a diverse and highly successful Department of Biological Sciences. The Department has 60 full-time faculty members and over 260 graduate students from 16 countries. Facilities and research support are world-class. NUS currently ranks number 20 in ‘Life Sciences & Biomedicine’ in the Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings. Please visit our website at www.dbs.nus.edu.sg for further details of the Department and its research and teaching programs.

Interested candidates should forward a letter of intent describing their career goals, research plans, teaching interests, curriculum vita and the names and addresses of four academic referees to:

Chair, Environmental Biology Search Committee (c/o Ms Lisa Lau)
Department of Biological Sciences
National University of Singapore
14 Science Drive 4
Singapore 117543
Fax: (65) 6779 5671;
Email: dbsjobs@nus.edu.sg