Message from DAB Leadership

Avery Russell, Chair, Chair.DAB@sicb.org; Fernanda Duque, Interim DPO, DPO.DAB@sicb.org; Allison Welch, Secretary, Secretary.DAB@sicb.org; Conner Philson, Student Postdoctoral Affairs Committee Representative

Preview of SICB 2024!

With the upcoming SICB 2024 meeting, we are excited for many opportunities to interact in person in Seattle, WA. Based on abstract submissions, we expect a fantastic showing, both for SICB in general and for DAB specifically.  We warmly invite you to take part in the many DAB events and opportunities, especially those that support our students and early career members! Please join us for the following:

DAB Mentoring Program

Building on the success of our mentoring program in past years, we are holding a mentoring program for those attending the 2024 SICB conference in Seattle. PLEASE SIGN UP TO BE MENTORED OR TO BE A MENTOR! The purpose of this program is to help DAB members, especially students, gain broader perspectives and career advice from others in their field. The program will match a mentor with one or more mentees and the team will communicate before, during, and after the meeting. Please sign up using THIS FORM by December 1. Help spread the word by sharing this information with trainees and through social media! More details about the program are on the SIGN UP FORM.

Student talk and poster competitions

Our Best Student Presentation competitions highlight and celebrate the outstanding work of students in DAB. This year, the Marlene Zuk competition will include eight student finalists who will present talks in a special session on Thursday, January 4, from 1:30 – 3:30 PM. Our Zuk Award finalists are featured below. The Elizabeth Adkins-Regan poster competition will include 40 poster presentations in various sessions throughout the meeting. Please support our students and enjoy some of the best DAB has to offer by attending the Zuk session and seeking out DAB student posters!

DAB’s best student presentation competitions are made possible by the many dedicated members who volunteer to serve as judges. In addition, our students benefit from the encouraging engagement and thoughtful feedback provided by judges. As you prepare for SICB in Seattle, please consider volunteering to serve as a judge for the DAB poster competition. Please indicate your interest in serving as a judge when you register for the conference, or contact DAB Secretary Allison Welch at Secretary.DAB@sicb.org.

Building community

Please join us for the DAB Members Meeting and for the DAB Social! The DAB Members Meeting on Wednesday, January 3, at 5:45 PM brings together attendees across career stages to meet fellow DAB members, learn more about our Division, and find ways to engage with our group. This year’s DAB Social will be held jointly with DNNSB, DCE and DEDE on Thursday, January 4, at 8:30PM. Our social is an opportunity to get together in a more relaxed atmosphere to socialize and enjoy some refreshments. All DAB members and prospective members are warmly encouraged to attend both the Members Meeting and the Social. These events are open to all who are interested, especially students and early career members, and we hope to attract a large group representing diverse backgrounds and areas of interest!

Finally, in the spirit of building community within DAB and across SICB, please make plans to attend the society-wide Closing Celebration on Saturday, January 6.

Events for students and postdocs

The Student/Postdoctoral Affairs Committee (SPDAC) is ramping up for SICB 2024! With a variety of initiatives and opportunities for you to engage, SPDAC hopes to see you in Seattle. SPDAC is always a resource for you, before, during, or after the conference, so please never hesitate to reach out (DAB Rep: Conner Philson, cphilson@ucla.edu). See you in January!

Symposia

Be sure to check out the following four DAB co-sponsored symposia at our 2024 SICB meeting. Because we are so integrative, our division supports a lot of symposia. If you have ideas for a future symposium focused on behavior – including diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of behavior – please contact our Program Officer at DPO.DAB@sicb.org. Organizing a symposium can be a great way to highlight your work, and all symposium papers are published in Integrative and Comparative Biology.

• S1. Feel the Flow: How Water Movement Shapes Organisms and Ecosystems, Wednesday, Jan. 3, Organizers: Molly Womack, Bryan Juarez
• S3. Moving in an Uncertain World: Adaptive Locomotion from Organisms to Machine Intelligence, Wednesday, Jan. 3, Organizers: Jean-Michel Mongeau, Kaushik Jayaram
• S7. Convergent Evolution Across Levels of Biological Organization, Organisms, and Time, Friday, Jan. 5, Organizers: Emily Lau, Jessica Goodheart, Rebecca Varney
• S10. What Do Trade-offs Mean to Reproducing Females?: An Integrative Look at Whole-Organism Trade-offs, Saturday, Jan. 6, Organizers: Chloe C. Josefson, Teri J. Orr

We look forward to seeing you in Seattle!

DAB Student Spotlight

Zuk Award Finalists

Eight students have been selected to compete in this year’s Marlene Zuk Award competition for Best Student Presentation. These finalists will present the results of their research in-person in a “Zuk Award” special session. Our judging panel, composed of the DAB executive committee, the DAB graduate student/postdoc rep, and one DAB member at large, selected the finalists on the basis of their extended abstracts. The finalists are (in reverse alphabetical order): Madison Schumm, Maria Salazar-Nicholls, Tessa Patton, Kate Otter, William Kirkpatrick, Moth Castagna, Cory Berger, and Miya Ball. Please join us in congratulating these finalists, and please join us for the Zuk Award session!

Congratulations to Student Research Grant Recipients

Graduate student members of SICB are invited to apply for Student Research Grants. Congratulations to the following DAB Student Members who were awarded SICB Grants-in-Aid of Research (GIAR) or Fellowships for Graduate Student Travel (FGST) in 2023.

• Amrhein Rose, University of Louisville – A Comparison of the Vocal Repertoires of Green Monkeys in the Caribbean – Abbot S. “Toby” Gaunt Award
• Moth Castagna, Missouri State University – Take it or Leaf It: Is Leaf Shape a Reliable Pollinator Learning Cue?
• Tessa Patton, Loyola University Chicago – The Development of Sexual Dimorphism in a Socially Polyandrous Shorebird
• Jacob Schmid, Minnesota State University, Mankato – The Effects of Chronic Clothianidin Exposure on Swimming Behavior in Developing Rainbow Trout (Onchorhynchus mykiss)

DAB Leadership Opportunities

Getting involved in SICB service and leadership is an excellent way to build your network and service portfolio, particularly for early career members. DAB has two upcoming leadership openings.

DAB will be holding an election for Division Chair in Spring 2024, for a term to begin in 2025. Please consider nominating yourself or someone else for this position! Nominations and inquiries can be made by contacting DAB Chair, Avery Russell at Chair.DAB@sicb.org.

Additionally, DAB will be nominating a student or postdoctoral member to serve as our Division’s new Student/Postdoctoral Affairs Committee (SPDAC) Representative. Please reach out to DAB Chair, Avery Russell (Chair.DAB@sicb.org) to express interest, or to our current SPDAC Rep, Conner Philson (cphilson@ucla.edu) for more information about the position.

Introducing DAB’s Interim DPO

DAB Divisional Program Officer, Stephanie Campos, is on family leave for the second half of 2023. Best wishes to Stephanie and her family. We look forward to welcoming you back in 2024!

During Stephanie’s leave, Fernanda Duque has stepped up to join the DAB Executive team, serving as interim Divisional Program Officer. Fernanda has done an excellent job representing DAB during this time, including at the Fall SICB programming meeting.  Welcome and thank you, Fernanda!

Welcome DAB’s Incoming Secretary, Caitlin Gabor!

It is our pleasure to welcome Caitlin Gabor as the incoming DAB Divisional Secretary. Caitlin is a Professor of Biology at Texas State University. Her research interests are in the behavior, evolution, and conservation physiology of fish and amphibians. As Divisional Secretary for DAB, Caitlin’s goals include fostering diversity and providing a welcoming and supportive community within DAB while promoting open communication and connection among DAB members, including between young scientists and more established ones.