{"id":3843,"date":"2025-02-07T02:54:33","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T02:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sicb.burkclients.com\/wp\/?page_id=3843"},"modified":"2025-05-05T14:17:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T14:17:41","slug":"spring-2025-division-of-phylogenetics-comparative-biology","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sicb.burkclients.com\/wp\/?page_id=3843","title":{"rendered":"Spring 2025: Division of Phylogenetics & Comparative Biology"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leigha Lynch<\/strong> (Chair) chair.dpcb@sicb.org<\/a>, Molly Womack<\/strong> (Program Officers) dpo.dbcb@sicb.org<\/a>; Jennifer Hodge<\/strong> (Secretary), secretary.dpcb@sicb.org<\/a>; Zehua (Tony) Zhou<\/strong> (SPDAC representative) tonyzhou.150522@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Statement from Outgoing DPCB Chair <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Samantha Price<\/strong>, Chair, chair.dpcb@sicb.org<\/a><\/h4>\n

It was great to see so many DPCB members at the annual meeting in Atlanta. Our division had a packed schedule, with the ever popular \u201cAsk an Expert\u201d booth during the poster sessions, fantastic presentations by our finalists for the Wake Award for Best Student Presentations and the Chair’s Special Session. Our special session this year celebrated \u201cWhat mammals have taught us through organism-focused evolution<\/em>\u201d with fascinating talks from Anderson Feijo, Anjali Goswami, Christine Lee, Stephanie Smith, Hartrich Zack as well as our incoming DPCB Chair Leigha Lynch. Although I now spend most of time working with fishes, mammals were my first love, so I had a fabulous time learning about the function of the \u2018thumb nail\u2019 in rodents, the impact of altriciality on rates of cranial evolution, the relationship between tails and axial skeleton stiffening, the mechanical properties of small mammalian vertebrae, a new multivariate categorization scheme for locomotor ecology and intraspecific variation in the inner ear of river otters.Thank you to all our speakers and everyone who came to the talks.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>I have greatly enjoyed serving as your DPCB Chair for the past few years. I have been inspired by our incredible early career researchers competing in the Wake Award and encouraged by our increasing membership and divisional engagement. Thank you for your support of DPCB. We have a great divisional and SICB leadership team to guide us through whatever the future may hold.<\/p>\n

Updates on DPCB Leadership <\/strong><\/h2>\n

As we wave goodbye to Sam as our chair, we are happy to welcome some new members to the DPCB leadership. Leigha Lynch is now our Divisional Chair and Jen Hodge is starting her term as secretary elect.<\/p>\n

Ask-an-expert Booth<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"DPCB
DPCB Ask-an-expert booth at SICB meeting in Atlanta.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Ask-an-expert booth returned this year to great success! A few dozen people visited to get coding and methods advice from our esteemed experts. We covered a huge range of topics this year, from bioimaging to systematics to morphometrics. We will be running the expert booth again in 2026 in Portland. If you\u2019d like to get involved as an expert, reach out to divisional secretary Ryan Felice.<\/p>\n

Best Student Presentation Award Winners<\/strong><\/h2>\n

David and Marvalee Wake Best Student Presentation session was a great line-up of fascinating talks and posters. This year the award for best talk went to Jess Sterling for \u201cMitochondrial resilience: Unveiling the secrets of longevity\u201d. Nathalie Alomar was awarded an honorable mention for her talk, \u201cHidden dimensions of diversity in woodland salamanders\u201d. In the best poster category, Dartagnan Mullins was our winner with his presentation \u201cModularity and rate of phenotypic evolution among Appalachian salamanders (Plethodontidae)\u201d. To learn more about student award winners, please read here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Jess
Jess Sterling, winner of Wake Award for Best Student Talk.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dartagnan
Dartagnan Mullins, Wake Award winner for Best Student Poster.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Nathalie
Nathalie Alomar, honorable mention for Wake Award for Best Student Talk.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Election Update<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It is time to vote for DPCB\u2019s next program officer-elect. The elected person will serve as program officer elect for one year, training under our current program officer (PO), Molly Womack, before taking over as our PO for a two year term. The PO plays a key role in setting the program for the annual meetings and scheduling our best student presentation sessions. Here are our candidates and their profiles. We hope that you will take the opportunity to vote in the election and guide the future of the division. Please vote here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Program Officer Candidates<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Name: Thornton (Thor) R. Larson<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\"Thor
Thor Larson, DPCB candidate for Program Officer.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Current Position: <\/strong>Assistant Professor and Curator of James F. Scudday Vertebrate Collection, Sul Ross State University, Alpine, TX
\nEducation: <\/strong>Ph.D., University of Texas at Arlington, 2021; M.S., University of Texas at El Paso, 2015; B.S., Northland College, 2011
\nResearch Interests: <\/strong>Much of the research in my lab looks at how biogeographic mechanisms reflect biodiversity and species distributions. I focus on amphibians and reptiles of Indonesia because the diversity there is absolutely amazing and understated. Indonesia is filled with some of the most fantastic people. We currently utilize phylogenetic and morphometric methods to compare populations of species. The locality of Sul Ross has led to further studies within the Big Bend region of Texas. These studies are more concerned with the color phenotypes of desert reptiles and how they operate within their environments. I am curious about how the environment maintains multiple phenotypes within a small area.
\nSICB Activities:<\/strong> I first got involved with SICB as a graduate student, receiving a Charlotte Magnum and GIAR. I was charmed by how warm and welcoming the meeting was, and I have gotten more involved since. I have gotten myself involved with the membership committee as of January 2024, which is becoming more active after a period of being less so. I also participate in the PUI group at SICB, which has been wonderful to be a part of. For the DPCB activity, I judged the Wake Award and always try to offer myself up for any tasks that I can be useful. I enjoy contributing through small and simple contributions such as an award judge or more significant commitments to my organizations.
\nGoals Statement: <\/strong>My primary goal as a DPCB Program Officer would be to continue the rising profile of the division, especially as it seems our division numbers have seen a rise from our initiatives, such as the Wake Awards and Ask-an-Expert booth. In this role, I would like to enhance and expand our connections to drive a strong sense of belonging to those who come to SICB, whether it is for the first time or for someone more seasoned. Meetings have been a place for me to share research, learn about what\u2019s being researched, and, most importantly, where I continue to find my people (creating connections). I would like to broaden participation to encourage more connections at all levels (student, postdoc, PI, etc.) within the society and believe that acting in the role of Program Officer could build toward that.<\/p>\n

Name: Jason Pienaar<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\"Jason
Jason Pienaar, DPCB candidate for Program Officer.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Current Position:<\/strong> Assistant Professor, Florida International University
\nEducation:<\/strong>Ph.D. (2005) University of Pretoria, South Africa; BSc. (2000) University of Pretoria, South Africa
\nSICB Activities:<\/strong> I am very new to SICB, having attended the 2025 meeting in Atlanta, but was blown away by the diversity of topics, quality of presentations and the excellent mix of student and faculty presentations. I manned the \u201cAsk an Expert\u201d booth on phylogenetic and comparative biology, chaired my session and was pleasantly surprised by the number of old friends and colleagues I reconnected with who are all highly involved in SICB- related service.
\nResearch Interests: <\/strong>My primary research goal is to elucidate evolutionary links between genetic systems, trait adaptations and the ecological context they occur in. I use a combination of evolutionary modeling, genomics, phenotypic trait measurements and phylogenetic comparative methods that I help develop to test the assumptions and predictions of evolutionary models or hypotheses. I am particularly interested in charismatic traits such as fig wasp sex and male morph allocation, desiccation resistance in tardigrades and salinity tolerance evolution in rotifers.
\nGoals Statement: <\/strong>My primary goal as a DPCB program officer would be to continue the excellent service past program officers have provided. SICB\u2019s values are firmly aligned with my own, and my most important goal is to keep working towards making SICB a society where everybody feels welcome to exchange scientific ideas, regardless of career stage, where they are from, or who they are. With regards to programming, I believe that a wide range of topics should be considered for every meeting ranging from theoretical advances in phylogenomic and phylogenetic comparative methodologies to taxon-specific systematics. Furthermore, it is becoming ever more apparent that integrative approaches to phylogenetic inference (i.e. combining evidence from DNA, morphology, behavior, physiology etc.) are a powerful approach for elucidating evolutionary relationships so I would work towards organizing special topic symposia that utilize these approaches.<\/p>\n

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Leigha Lynch (Chair) chair.dpcb@sicb.org, Molly Womack (Program Officers) dpo.dbcb@sicb.org; Jennifer Hodge (Secretary), secretary.dpcb@sicb.org; Zehua (Tony) Zhou (SPDAC representative) tonyzhou.150522@gmail.com Statement … More Spring 2025: Division of Phylogenetics & Comparative Biology<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3843","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sicb.burkclients.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sicb.burkclients.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sicb.burkclients.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sicb.burkclients.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sicb.burkclients.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3843"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sicb.burkclients.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3998,"href":"https:\/\/sicb.burkclients.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3843\/revisions\/3998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sicb.burkclients.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}