Author Archives: Kathleen Grogan

#NewPI in the time of Covid – A recap

Whew. The spring semester has wound down for most of us or will in the next couple of weeks, and summer research (and recovery!) time has begun. I’m now 9 months into being a #newPI at the University of Cincinnati … Continue reading

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Marmots, seasons, and climate change

I love when nostalgia for a project, place, or species intersects with a current interest, as happened this week for me with a paper by Cordes et al. 2020, about the contrasting effects of climate change on the seasonal survival … Continue reading

Posted in climate change, ecology, mammals | Leave a comment

Simple rules for organizing data in a spreadsheet

Most scientists collect and organize at least some data in spreadsheets, usually Excel or Google Sheets, despite the potential pitfalls of using such products (there are even archives of spreadsheet horror stories). The most commonly bemoaned problem in Biology, that … Continue reading

Posted in data archiving, howto, methods | Leave a comment

Genetic Rescue – Fitness and genomic consequences

As a PhD student studying the effects of genetic diversity overall and immunogenetic diversity specifically on survival and reproductive success in an endangered primate in captive and wild populations, I thought a lot about the potential effects of inbreeding and … Continue reading

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Sparrows and spiders and aggression, oh my!

One of the major goals of evolutionary biology is to link phenotypic variation with specific genetic variation, yet for behavioral phenotypes in non-model species, this task remains daunting and generally elusive. Although behaviors are heritable and clearly acted upon by … Continue reading

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Urban ecology, evolution, and racism

Occasionally, while reading the literature, you stumble across a paper that is so eloquent and beautiful that you are awestruck. Since that happened to me this weekend, today’s post is a call to you to go read the incredible synthesis … Continue reading

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Online Resources for Student/Postdoc/Faculty Professional Development

I’m fascinated by the question of how someone learns to be a good scientist, academic, colleague, collaborator, mentor, etc. The obvious answer is that we learn from our peers and mentors during our PhD and postdoctoral training. However, especially as … Continue reading

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Dreaming of Fieldwork Post 1

For many of us, fieldwork has been cancelled this summer due to COVID-19, leading to a lot of fieldwork nostalgia. We forget the dirty clothes (and everything else), the long hours, the bruises & cuts, the broken or stuck vehicles, … Continue reading

Posted in ecology, fieldwork, just for fun | 2 Comments

Pre-NewPI Summer To Do List

As my last postdoc summer begins (holy sh*t), I’ve been thinking a lot about how to prepare for the fall – what should I be doing in now to set myself up for success in my first year on the … Continue reading

Posted in career, Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

Applying for a faculty job is a full-time job – the emotional cost

My last few posts have described my experiences with the time required and financial cost of applying for faculty positions as a postdoctoral fellow. The amount of time it takes to submit X number of applications and how much it … Continue reading

Posted in career | 3 Comments