It was a reunion of sorts at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, held in Memphis, August 6-12. Ernest Williams, the Leonard C. Ferguson Professor of Biology, Dan Gruner '93 and Jeff Evans '99 were all presenters at the meeting. Gruner and Evans were Williams' senior thesis students during their time at Hamilton and both graduated with honors in Biology.
Williams' presentation (coauthored with Associate Professor of Biology Bill Pfitsch) was titled "Tree removal expands habitat for lupine and frosted elfin butterfly."
Gruner received his Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Hawaii and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Bodega Bay Laboratory of the University of California at Davis. His presentation was "Microparasite colonization, persistence, and extinction: spatial and temporal dynamics of an underground trophic cascade."
Evans is currently a Ph.D. student in ecology at Michigan State University. His presentation was "From 'the rich get richer' to biotic resistance: variable relationships between diversity and invasibility."
Gruner did his senior thesis research on the population biology of the Pearl Crescent butterfly, while Evans did his on an analysis of crypsis in moths.
