-- Colin Donihue, Karin Burghardt PhD Candidates

2014 has already been a big conference year for the Schmitz labbers! The week after the Predator/Prey Gordon Conference, Karin and Colin went to the American Society of Naturalists conference in Monterey. This conference aimed to "integrate pattern and process to understand biodiversity" by bringing together ecology, evolution, and behavior folks to think about some of the major questions that bridge our fields. 

Overall, the quality of the talks and symposia were fantastic (including a debate with lots of zombies) and we both left with great feedback on our research. Karin presented results from her greenhouse experiments on tolerance and resistance traits in goldenrod and Colin gave a quick talk about last summer's work comparing lizards from different island and human contexts.

Additional highlights of the trip were the beautiful Asilomar conference grounds, the 75 degree weather, the pacific ocean tidal pools, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was hard to trade sunny CA for arctic CT, but we're excited to get back to work after the stimulating conversations at the conference.

Photos: The conference grounds at Asilomar, and shots from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Credit: Karin Burghardt

-- Jennie Miller, PhD Candidate

Os, Anne, Adam and I just returned from a science-packed week in sunny Ventura, California at the very first Gordon Conference on Predator-Prey Interactions. The week was jam packed with conversations with old and new colleagues, and we even reunited on the beach with Schmitz Lab alumni Andrew Beckerman, Brandon Barton and Adalbert Balog. Thanks for a great week, California!