Congratulations, Mairenn and Luke

Nov 26, 2020

African cuckoo

Mairenn Attwood successfully passed her MPhil viva at the University of Cambridge, defending her thesis entitled “Angry birds: does it pay a cuckoo to parasitise a highly aggressive host?”, and Luke McClean successfully passed his PhD at the University of Cape Town entitled “Coevolution between brood-parasitic honeyguides and their hosts”. Congratulations Mairenn, congratulations Dr McClean! Thank you to all five thesis examiners for their insights, and to the field team that enabled both research projects. Mairenn will return to Cambridge and Zambia in 2021 to start her PhD on further fascinating aspects of fork-tailed drongos’ defences against their enemies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

News

Jess Lund awarded an R. C. Lewontin Grant from the Society for the Study of Evolution

The Society for the Study of Evolution has awarded Jess Lund an R. C. Lewontin Graduate Research Excellence Grant, which will enable her to expand her investigations into the fascinating lives of honeyguides. This grant is awarded to students early in their PhD programmes to assist them in enhancing the scope of their research. Thank you to the SSE for their generous support of our work!

read more

New paper on eggshell surface properties

Stephanie McClelland’s paper entitled “Eggshell composition and surface properties of avian brood-parasitic species compared with non-parasitic species” has been published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. This study measured structural properties of the eggshells of brood parasites and their hosts around the world. The study found that…

read more