FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Save the date: VA Tech Ph.D. candidate awared BBC Graduate Lectureship

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Brian Olsen, a Ph.D. candidate in biology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & 
State University, has been awarded the Stephen M. Russell Graduate Lectureship 
for 2005 by the Bristol Bird Club. 
His lecture will be presented Tuesday,  April 19, 2005, at the East Tennessee 
State University -- Bristol Center.  The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. It is open 
to the public, high school and college students and faculty from throughout the 
region.

Please save the date of April 19, on your calendar.

He is conducting research investigating the differences in morphology, 
demography, and behavior between the tidal and freshwater sub-species of the 
Swamp Sparrow, Melospiza georgiana. You will find him to be an articulate and 
engaging speaker.

Brian will join our group at 6 p.m. for dinner at the Mad Greek Restaurant on 
the Volunteer Parkway in Bristol Tennessee.  You will have an excellent 
opportunity to chat with this talented and promising researcher.

He earned his Bachelor of Science in zoology, magna cum laude, at Juniata 
College, Huntingdon, PA.

He is working with Dr. Jeffrey Walters, the Bailey Professor of Vertebrate 
Biology at VA Tech, who is a well known avian behavioral ecologist.  Brian also 
is one of the senior graduate students who is teaching a formal course this 
semester (senior level ornithology)  in the Virginia Tech Graduate Education 
Development Institute.  



Brian was a Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Intern, May - Aug 2002, 2003 
and a Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, Educator, Sep 2001 - May 
2002 and an Audubon Society of New Hampshire, Field Technician, May - Jul 1998:
He has been published in The Auk, Delmarva Ornithologist, The Journal of 
Ecological Research and presented a paper at the American Ornithologists' 
Union. Quebéc City, QC.

Brian has been awarded grants from the Washington Biologists' Field Club, · 
Maryland Ornithological Society,  Smithsonian Institution Graduate Fellow, · 
Delaware Division of Fish & Wildlife and Virginia Tech Graduate Student 
Association. 

He has been presented a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship honorable mention 
award, American Ornithologists' Union Student Membership Award, Cooper 
Ornithological Society Student Membership Award and Presidential Scholarship -- 
a four year full tuition scholarship.

The BBC graduate lectureship honors Dr. Russell, who was a charter member and 
founder of the Bristol Bird Club while a high school student at Abingdon, VA in 
1950.  The BBC Stephen M. Russell Chapter is named in his honor.  He is retired 
(Emeritus),  from teaching and research in ecology and evolutionary biology at 
the University of Arizona and is well known as an authority on the birds of 
Sonora. He is Curator Emeritus of The University of Arizona's Bird Collection . 
 He served with distinction on committees and boards for the American 
Ornithologists' Union (including the office of secretary).    He received his 
B.S. from Virginia Tech and a Ph.D. from LSU under Dr. George H. Lowery.  His 
dissertation studied the ecology and distribution of the birds of British 
Honduras (Belize), which was published as the first A.O.U. Ornithological 
Monograph.  He taught six years at LSU-New Orleans before joining the faculty 
at the University of Arizona in 1964.  He retired from Arizona in 1996. 
Last year's lectureship award was presented to Lesley Bulluck, the Department 
of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, who 
spoke on "The distribution of Golden-winged Warblers in eastern Tennessee and 
an overview of future goals."

Let's go birding.......

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN



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