Category: Uncategorized (Page 3 of 6)

The 8th Conference of Poeciliid Biologists is coming up in September! I will submit my abstract today! I plan to talk about a mate choice project with guppies…….

For more info go to the conference homepage!

I spent the last few days of February in the UK. I met with the editor of my book in Oxford and spent a few hours discussing all the questions I had (or have). I will never forget the weather because it felt like summer as I explored the famous botanical garden wearing a T-shirt.

Rodet and I went to Cuba for another expedition and adventure. The trip was marred by travel problems, grounded flights, and rental car trouble. But nonetheless we collected fishes from many localities. It was an amazing trip!

Later in January I spent a few days in Potsdam again to work on a proposal.

December did not see a lot of action. Trai and I submitted a paper on female choice in Limia. And I am making progress with my book.

Potsdam is a special place for me. In October I returned for a week to work on a project and a grant proposal. It was intense and productive. Now back to working on my book.

Town Lake in Plön

Not far away from Kiel and also pretty close to the small town where I was born is a lovely small village named Plön. It is home to a nice little federal research Institute, the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Biology (http://www.evolbio.mpg.de/2169/en) I think it is a little bit of a misnomer, as all biology is Evolutionary biology, but the focus of this Institute is on hardcore evolution. The Institute hosted a wonderful small conference on the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. Friend or critic of the idea, it is something that is discussed widely in the community.

Thanks to delightful hosts and a great, friendly atmosphere we all had a good time!

After Trinidad, there was one more trip: Cuba. Rodet and I went to study Limia in their natural habitat.  After that, there was not much time left in the summer.  In September I focused on my new book on Male Mate Choice. The next adventure will be a small conference in Plön, Germany.

Malecon in Havana

After more fieldwork in June (this time in Jamaica), the highlight for July was the LACCCB conference in Trinidad. The conference was fantastic, and the symposium on invasive fishes that Amy Deacon organized was very successful.

Rodet gave a great presentation on freshwater fishes of Cuba!

And being in the homeland of Guppies was fun, too.

As we discussed at the conference I am making a field-sheet available for all. You can download it from the Resources page on this website,

Trai and I attended a symposium last year in Estoril, Portugal. The speakers contributed to this Special Column in Current Zoology. Some fine papers!

Rodet and I had a chance to work with Patricia Torres in the Dominican Republic. The trip was a full success leading to the collection of fishes of several species of Limia and – unfortunately – many invasive species.  Also, a long awaited paper came out this week in BMC Research Notes. Congratulations to Ulrike Scherer and Ralph Tiedemann.

Patricia inspecting a river near the North Coast