News from Fleishman, Gillikin, Hatke, Clarke

Leo Fleishman, the William D. Williams Professor of Biological Sciences, was recently awarded $220,000 from the National Science Foundation’s Directorate of Biological Sciences. The grant enables Fleishman and his students to collaborate with researchers from the University of Puerto Rico and Duke University while conducting intensive field work in Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic.

The research group will examine the role of communication in facilitating species boundaries in the communities of Anolis lizards. Focusing on lizard communities on the islands of Jamaica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, the study will employ techniques from physics, optical engineering, neuroscience, behavioral biology, anatomy, and computer modeling.

David Gillikin, assistant professor of geology, received a $20,000 grant from the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration in support of his research project “Past biogeochemistry of remote African rivers recorded in freshwater mussel shells.” The funding will support research and fieldwork in the Central African Republic, specifically in the Oubangui River, the second largest tributary of the Congo River, and its tributaries.

“New Works,” a show by Walter Hatke, the May I. and Walter C. Baker Professor of Visual Arts, runs today, Feb. 17, through March 18 at the Gerald Peters Gallery in New York.

Michael Clarke ’12 was recently featured on CBS 6 news after his term abroad in Egypt was cut short following anti-government protests in Cairo. The student joined a civilian militia to help protect homes from looters.