Welcome Back Softball Game and BBQ!

Hear ye hear ye! To celebrate the beginning of what promises to be another fantastic year in the McGill Biology Department, the Biology Graduate Students Association (BGSA) cordially invites YOU to the WELCOME (BACK) BBQ & SOFTBALL GAME this Friday!

WHO: All Biology graduate students and postdocs
WHAT: BBQ (veggie and meat options), drinks, softball and frisbee
WHEN: Friday, Sept 3 from 4-6 pm
WHERE: Reservoir field, the big grassy field across from Thomson House between Dr Penfield, des Pins and McTavish streets (just go around the construction...)
WHY: Because the food is FREE and some of Quebec's FINEST beer will be on hand for $2

This is a great way to meet new students, catch up with old friends, and kick off the Labour Day long weekend. You don't have to be able to catch, throw or hit the ball in order to play with us -- and we still came second in the league! Please bring your labmates!

Hope to see you there.

Cheers,

Your friendly neighbourhood BGSA

Stats Workshops 2010

The BGSA is proud to bring you a series of Statistics Workshops starting this fall! Workshops will be taught by your peers (grad students and faculty), and designed to be hands-on. We will be using the R statistical software package, and as many open-source resources as we can find!

Workshops will be held Friday afternoons in the Stewart Biology computer lab (N4/17), from 2 - 4 PM (14h - 16h). Every other week in between main workshops will be informal help sessions for you to come with specific questions regarding previous topics: e.g. help applying a method to your data.

The series starts off with an ever popular introduction to R and probability, on Friday September 17 & 24, 2010. This will essentially be two topics taught concurrently over two workshops to help you get comfortable with working in R, and some elementary principles to help you perform statistical analyses in R more efficiently. No experience required.

Registering for individual workshops will guarantee that you reserve a seat in the room, but it is not required in advance. There is a registration form on the web site, and spots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration will remain open until the start of the workshop, so even if you didn't register ahead, you are welcome to join us, as long as there are seats available! So don't be late! We'll announce on the web site if any workshops are getting full, so you have time to get a seat for your favourite topic(s).

Computers are available in the computer lab, as long as you have a McGill ID. There are more seats than computers, however, and you are welcome to bring your own laptop to work on (laptops are also available to sign out from the library or teaching services, I think).

More information is available on the BGSA website (see the link on the sidebar to the left):

Temporary web site for the workshops

Feel free to forward this to your colleagues in other departments who may be interested.

See you in the computer lab,

Jonathan Whiteley & Neeltje Boogert

Biology Graduate Students' Association

McGill University

September Orientation Camping Trip

We've reserved group campsite number 5 in Gatineau Park (it can be found by clicking the Taylor Lake link). We already have about 25-30 people coming; even if no one else signs up, it will only cost each person < 4 dollars per night for camping + food + transportation + gear. This also means that you are all welcome to invite significant others (just be sure to let me know soon so we dont over book the trip).

To make sure we don't over or under book the trip, we are collecting a $20 deposit (non-refundable) per person. Please email me if you are not in town (you can give me money when you get to town), if you are in town, please bring your deposit to my office W 6/1 in Stewart biology by Monday (August 30th). I have meetings all week, so ill be in and out, but if i'm not there, just leave an envelope under the door with the money and your name on it and email me to let me know you dropped it off (talk about a run on sentence).

Gatineau Park offers a variety of outdoor activities: hiking, swimming, canoe/kayak rentals, fishing, bike rentals. As far as food is concerned, we're going to create groups that are responsible for buying and preparing one meal. Please let me know if you have any dietary restrictions (i.e. vegan/vegetarian, allergies, etc.) so we can accommodate. The total cost of the weekend will depend greatly on the number of vehicles owned by graduate students. I'll let everyone know the projected price as soon as I know how many cars are coming.

Details:

Date: Friday Sept 10th to Sunday Sept 12th

Alcohol policy: Officially, they dont allow it, unofficially they dont care as long as everyone is cool.

Gear: Please email me back with whatever gear you have (including extra gear you can bring), what we need:

Cars

Tents

Sleeping bags

Sleeping Mats

camping pots and a camping grill grate (not backpacking stoves, just a grate to put over the fire pit)

tarps

coolers

cooking utensils for fire

We have some instruments coming (guitars, fiddle, banjo, washtub bass), but if you have anything especially awesome, let me know , and ill let you know if we can squeeze it in!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! BUNGEE JUMPING

Monica Radovski has organized BUNGEE jumping as a side trip on the camping trip!

monica.radovski@mail.mcgill.ca.

For all the adventurous people:
Have you ever wanted to plummet towards an aqua-blue, spring-fed
lagoon, whilst being tethered to beautiful limestone by a large
elastic cord? Well now's your chance! We're lucky enough to be
camping very close to the highest bungee jump (200 ft/61 m) in North
America! The jump is with Great Canadian Bungee in Wakefield, Qc.
Some of us are planning to go there during the day on the Saturday.
If you don't want to take the plunge they also have a zipline, B.B.Q.
and picnic facilities, a lifeguard beach, a volleyball net and much
more. You can check it all out on their website:
http://www.bungee.ca/

It's cheaper to bungee jump if we're a group of at least 10 people,
and we have to book the jump a couple of weeks in advance because
they're pretty busy on weekends. We also have to figure out the car
situation before we go, so please let me (Monica R.) know if you're
interested in bungee jumping or just coming along to watch and/or take
part in the other activities they have. My email address is
monica.radovski@mail.mcgill.ca. This is just one option for something
to do on Saturday, so there's no pressure to come.

Here are the prices as listed on the website:

BUNGEE JUMPING
First Jump (Regular Price) $97.45
Additional Jumps (Same Day) $53.16
Group of 10 or More $70.87 ( 48hr advance reservation )

RIPRIDE
The RIPRIDE® $31.01
(add on with any Bungee or raft trip) $22.15

PACKAGES
Jump and Rip Ride $119.60
Jump, DVD and T-Shirt $132.89
Jump, Rip Ride, DVD, T-Shirt $155.04
(DVD is a 2 disc set with Adrenaline Overload Promo
video and your personal jump video)

Peace,

Caolan

--

Caolan Kovach-Orr

Ph.D. Candidate, Fussmann Lab
McGill University
Stewart Biology Building
1205 Docteur Penfield
Montreal, Quebec H3A 1B1


Lab: Stewart Biology Building, Room W 6/3.
(514) 398-4096

Office: Stewart Biology Building, Room W 6/1.
(514) 398-6467

Grad students lunches with candidates for the Animal Behavior position

Hi everyone,
In the following weeks, the Biology Department will welcome and interview five candidates for the Animal Behaviour position.
We received more than 95 applications from very strong candidates and these five are "la crème de la crème"!

As the grad student representative of the Animal Behavior Search Committee, I am strongly soliciting your participation to evaluate and give your impressions about
our top candidates. I am particularly interested to get your feedback during lunches where we can discuss and interact with candidates in a more relaxed atmosphere.
What I am expecting from you: Joining us for lunch (not that difficult) and, afterward, give me your general impressions about the candidate (not that difficult either!).

**Because I am having my Ph D seminar on April 28th and leaving May 7th for a month, Xoxo and Aerin kindly accepted to help me organize and coordinate
lunches with the grad students.

The five candidates are:
Simon Reader, Utrecht University, Behavioural Biology, The Netherlands
Seminar: April 28, 2010 – W4/12 4pm – “Cognitive mechanisms for a changing environment: The evolution and ecology of social learning”
Roundtable discussion: April 29th 10:30-12:00, room W5/2. Coffee & goodies will be served.
Lunch with grad students: April 29th 12:00 to 1:30

Mark Laidre, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, and Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University
Seminar: May 3rd W4/12 4pm “The evolution of animal communication: displaying crabs, singing birds, gesturing monkeys, and gossiping humans”
Roundtable discussion: May 4th 10:30-12, room W5/2. Coffee & goodies will be served.
Lunch with grad students: May 4th 12:00 to 1:30

Julie Desjardins, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, California
Seminar: May 5th, 2010 - N2/2 4pm seminar - "The influence of social information on the brain "
Roundtable discussion: May 6th 10:30-12:00, room W5/2. Coffee & goodies will be served.
Lunch with grad students: May 6th 12:00 to 1:30

Frances Bonier, Queen’s University, Department of Biology
Seminar: May 7th 9:30am W4/12 - "Coping Mechanisms: Behavioural and physiological responses to environmental challenges"
Roundtable discussion: May 7th, room N5/1. 10:30-12:00. Coffee & goodies will be served.
Lunch with grad students: May 7th 12:30 to 1:30

David Lusseau, University of Aberdeen, Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences
Seminar: May 13th 9:30am W4/12 - "Complex communal decisions emerging from simple socio-ecological interactions"
Roundtable discussion: room N5/1, May 13th 10:30-12:00. Coffee & goodies will be served.
Lunch with grad students: May 14th 12:30 to 1:30

Cheers!
--
Katrine Turgeon, Ph.D candidate
McGill University
Biology Department
1205 Docteur Penfield Ave.
Montreal, Quebec, H3A 1B1
Tel.: 1 514. 398.6462

Symposium and BBQ

Hello students, post-docs, staff and faculty!

As you know, the end of the semester has been a flurry (thankfully not snow) of end of semester activities ranging from marking papers to staff appreciation day. As one last hurrah for an amazing 2009-2010 academic year, the annual biology graduate student symposium is this Monday, April 26th from 9am to 4.45pm in W4/12. Come see talks about everything from proteins on up to primates!

Following the symposium, the BGSA is holding a *BBQ & SOFTBALL GAME* that promises to be a fun filled way to welcome in the summer. The bbq will be from 5-7pm at the Reservoir field (McTavish & Dr Penfield), weather permitting. Otherwise, we'll set up fake sun and grass in the TH basement and try not to break anything with a round of indoor softball (kidding!). There will be free burgers (veggie too) and various other tasty goodies. Beer will be available for $1 so don't forget your loonies.

Everyone (that means YOU!) is invited to both the bbq and the symposium. For those who will be attending the very cool sounding Alma Howard lecture (4:15 pm in N2/2), you are also cordially invited to come to the reservoir post wine and cheese.

Bring your softball gloves and frisbees!

And... We need helpers! If you are able to help please send an email to kiyoko{.}gotanda{at}mail{.}mcgill{.}ca

Volunteers are needed mostly for set-up (around 4 pm) and clean up (around 7 pm), so please indicate which you can help with (or both!!). You will get a free burger (optional) and a big hug (not-optional).

Cheers

the BGSA