I recently presented the results of my niche modeling work at the 2016 Northeastern Plant Pest and Soils Conference in Philadelphia. I went the the conference along with most of the rest of my postdoc advisor’s (Jacob Barney’s) lab and we had a great time. I met a lot of people, including the First American, Benjamin Franklin, who looked great despite being only a week away from his 310th birthday.

At the conference, I presented the results of our study of climatic niche shifts in introduced species. Jacob and I have found that species experience major niche shifts as they cross continents. This work is in preparation for submission.

Also, congratulations are in order for “Little” Dan Tekiela, who won the Robert D. Sweet Outstanding Graduate Student Award and placed first in the Student Paper Contest. Virginia Tech also won the NEPPSC quiz bowl, besting teams from Cornell, Penn State, UMass, Maine, NC State, and Delaware, as well as the EB-ESA Linnaean Games. Graduate students Morgan Franke and Dan Tekiela both gave excellent presentations of their research.