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Timing is everything.

I think I looked like this for most of Botswana.

What’s going on?

Aphid honeydew reduces soil nitrogen and increases host plant growth July 15, 2026
Trapped honey bees reduce floral visitation on milkweed flowers July 9, 2026
Microscale temperatures affect the incidence and implications of predator-avoidance behavior in monarch caterpillars December 10, 2025
Temperature and precipitation explain species-specific phenological patterns in five native California milkweed species (Asclepias spp.) October 22, 2025
Variation in overwintering pharate larval supercooling points between populations of Parnassius clodius (Family: Papilionidae) inhabiting two different elevations in California September 19, 2025
Live fast, die young? Day- and night-warming affect the growth, survivorship, and behavior of caterpillars in the field July 7, 2025
Moisture and competition constrain ephemeral resource quality for burying beetle reproduction June 11, 2025
Welcome Jolene! May 17, 2024
Welcome Melanie and Annalee! May 8, 2024
Welcome Kate! December 19, 2023
Predator-driven behavioural shifts in a common lizard shape resource-flow from marine to terrestrial ecosystems November 17, 2023
Complexity, humility and action: a current perspective on monarchs in western North America July 7, 2023

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Postdoc alumni

Jolene A. Saldivar, 2024-2025

“The progress of science is inherently nonlinear, marked by setbacks and uncertainty. It is the resilience of the scientific mind—its capacity to question, adapt, and persist—that transforms failure into knowledge.” Anika Shah

Nicholas Rasmussen, 2014-2016

“Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” Marie Curie

Heather Kharouba, 2013-2015

“In wildness is the preservation of the world.” Henry David Thoreau

Jonah Piovia-Scott, 2011-2014

“What I have learned is just enough to find my way farther.” Donald Culross Peattie

Erin Wilson-Rankin, 2010

“1) “Never underestimate the benefit of a pilot study; you may discover new questions to answer.” 2) “The plural of anecdote is not data.”

Graduate alumni

Dylan MacArthur-Waltz, 2020-2025
Population Biology Graduate Group, Ph.D.

“Take a break. Take a walk. Eat lunch outside. Happiness is a productivity strategy.”

Tracie E. Hayes, 2019-2025
Population Biology Graduate Group, Ph.D.

“Don’t forget to stop and smell the carrion.”

Elizabeth G. Postema, 2018-2023
Animal Behavior Graduate Group, Ph.D.

“Attention is the beginning of devotion.”

Marshall S. McMunn, 2012-2018
Population Biology Graduate Group, Ph.D.

“The night is coldest just before the dawn.”

Shahla Farzan, 2011-2017
Ecology Graduate Group, Ph.D.

“Seek out people who inspire you and challenge you to be a better scientist.”

Meredith L. Cenzer, 2009-2016
Entomology Graduate Group, Ph.D.

“Don’t be afraid to fail! Failure is a necessary part of science.”

Undergraduate and post-grad alumni

Juan Andres de Domini, Jessica Aguilar, Wanda Bonneville, Miles Claret (RSPIB), Nicholas Delucchi, Joe DeRosa, Geoff Dubrow, Allyson Earl, Shalom Entner (REU), Gwen Erdosh (RSPIB), Sasha Flamm, Gary Ge (RSPIB), Sonja Glasser, Annalee Gonzalez, Lizbeth Gonzalez (REU), Natalie Gonzalez (REU), Melanie Gordon, Griffin Hall, August Higgins, Ian Jett (RPSIB), Heather Kenny (REU), Cailin Kessen (REU), Patrick Lahey (RSPIB), Leo Lasseres, Vivian Le, Ivana Li, Jenn McKenzie, Marshall McMunn, Laura Morgan, Geoffrey Osgood (RSPIB), Kenya Oto (MMMILC), Emily Patterson (RSPIB), Jacob Penner (REU), Kabian Ritter (REU), Hilary Rollins, Robyn Screen, Ryan Schemrich, Prabhjot Singh (RPSIB), Sarah Solis, Dylan Sommer, Kaia Springer, Sylvie Thompson (RSPIB), Malin Von Knorring (RSPIB), Nolan Walt (RPSIB), James Whitney (RSPIB), Putra Winarto, Darren Wong, Violet Wu

Land Acknowledgement Statement

We should take a moment to acknowledge the land on which we are gathered. For thousands of years, this land has been the home of Patwin people. Today, there are three federally recognized Patwin tribes: Cachil DeHe Band of Wintun Indians of the Colusa Indian Community, Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation, and Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.

The Patwin people have remained committed to the stewardship of this land over many centuries. It has been cherished and protected, as elders have instructed the young through generations. We are honored and grateful to be here today on their traditional lands.

External links

Ecology 180

Principles of Community

#ucdavisupstander

Entomology Graduate Group

Population Biology Graduate Group

Graduate Group in Ecology

Animal Behavior Graduate Group

Final words

“Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from poor judgment.” Anonymous

“I don’t think we know enough for this to not be interesting.” Deva Holliman

“We are all going to have to learn to live here with one another.” Ezra Klein

“If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.” John von Neumann

“Have you tried the simplest thing that might possibly work?” Kent Beck

“Statistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write.” Samuel S. Wilks paraphrasing H. G. Wells

“If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.” Banksy

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” F. Scott Fitzgerald

“As you proceed in research, don’t be afraid to expose the soft underbelly of your ideas and interpretations early and often.” Mau Stanton

“A leader. . . is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.” Nelson Mandela

“Being unencumbered by the thought process allows you to identify and hear and see defining moments in your life, things that will change your life. Unencumbered by the thought process. You say it over and over again. And as everything slows down and begins to stop – we call these, by the way, moments of inertia.” Thomas Louis Magliozzi

“The best decisions aren’t made with your mind, but with your instinct.” Lionel Messi

“Hit it and go get it!” Richard B. Root

“If you don’t ask the right questions, every answer seems wrong.” Ani DiFranco

“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” Thomas Mann

“Don’t panic.” Douglas Adams

“I’m not trying to turn you into me. I’m trying to turn you into you.“ Master Shifu

“It is easy to forget how wonderous humans are, how strange and lovely.” John Green

“…nerds and geeks are really cool people.” Shaquille O’Neal

“…any solution to problems of the scope that are presented requires good deeds and good acts by people in all sorts of places that you may not see or know or register. It’s a collective thing, and that putting good out into the world without knowing the results is sort of incumbent on all of us if we want things to improve.” Naren Shankar

“I try, and I made it.” William Kamkwamba

“Said the river: imagine everything you can imagine… then keep going.” Mary Oliver

“Skill is the child of patience.” Obi-Wan Kenobi

“The greatest teacher, failure is.” Yoda

“Many men go fishing all of their lives without realizing that it is not fish they are after.” Henry David Thoreau

“Sometimes, all you get for your efforts is water well-fished.” Will Johnson

“Never give up!” Michael Iaconelli

“…I can see no way out but through…” Robert Frost

“I am going to make it though this year if it kills me.” John Darnielle

“Just remember that sometimes, the way you think about a person isn’t the way they actually are.” John Green

“Remember this in the darkest moments, when the work doesn’t seem worth it, and change seems just out of reach: out of our willingness to push through comes a tremendous power… Use it.” Stacey Abrams

“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” Maya Angelou

“This is the goodest day ever! So many fun things.” Toco Yang, age 4

“Daddy, I want to do something. Can I have a hammer?” Karoo Yang, age 6

“Collaborations work best this way; when there’s a mutual desire to see what the other side adds. You know that what you’re making on your own has value but the sum is more than the parts and every part knows it.” Ahmir Questlove Thompson

“You have to let people see what you wrote. It will never be perfect, but perfect is overrated. Perfect is boring.” Tina Fey

“I love the people here. They’re the best. They’re creative and collaborative and kind.” John Stewart

“If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research.” Albert Einstein

“All models are wrong, but some are useful.” George E.P. Box

“Ninguém educa ninguém, ninguém educa a si mesmo, os homens se educam entre si, mediatizados pelo mundo.” Paulo Freire

“1. Find a subject you care about. 2. Do not ramble, though. 3. Keep it simple. 4. Have the guts to cut. 5. Sound like yourself. 6. Say what you mean to say. 7. Pity the readers.” Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

“To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to do.” Kahlil Gibran

“Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.” Ray Bradbury

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Imagination is the Discovering Faculty, pre-eminently. It is that which penetrates into the unseen worlds around us, the worlds of Science.” Ada Lovelace

“I love fools’ experiments. I am always making them.” Charles Darwin

“Dare to be naïve.” Buckminster Fuller

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few.” Shunryu Suzuki

“I have a commonplace book for facts, and another for poetry, but I find it difficult to preserve the vague distinction which I had in mind, for the most interesting and beautiful facts are so much more poetry and that is their success. They are translated from earth to heaven. I see that if my facts were sufficiently vital and significant – perhaps transmuted into the the substance of the human mind – I should need but one book of poetry to contain them all.” Henry David Thoreau

“Independence is happiness.” Susan B. Anthony

“A person can always find a career in a calling, but it is far more difficult later in life to find a calling in a career.” David W. Orr

“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge.” Daniel J. Boorstin

“When you are young, you do a lot of stupid things.” Pele

“The young are not afraid of telling the truth.” Anne Frank

“Theories have four stages of acceptance: i) this is worthless nonsense; ii) this is an interesting, but perverse, point of view, iii) this is true, but quite unimportant; iv) I always said so.” J.B.S. Haldane

“It don’t mean a thing (if it ain’t got that swing).” Duke Ellington

“A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world.” John le Carré

“If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.” Barack Obama

“Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters.” St. Benard of Clairvaux

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” John Muir

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