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Ecologist addresses role for public

Jan. 28, 2007

KALAMAZOO--Cornell University's Dr. Janis Dickinson will address "Citizen Science: What the Public Can Bring to Real Science in Residential Landscapes," in free, public presentation Thursday, Feb. 1, at 7:30 p.m. in Room 1001 of Wood Hall at Western Michigan University.

Dickinson is a behavioral ecologist who has used western bluebirds as a model system for testing key hypotheses regarding the evolution of mating systems, sex ratio, dispersal behavior, cooperative breeding, migration, and life history traits. Trained as an entomologist, she also has studied insect mating systems.

As Director of Citizen Science at Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Dickinson is developing research models that involve a blend of citizen research participation over a broad spatial scale with more focused studies at a selection of sites to address impacts of anthropogenic changes on biodiversity within a rich social and scientific context.

Dickinson's lecture is presented by the Department of Biological Sciences and funded by the Theodosia Hamilton Hadley Endowment. For more information, contact Lori McKnight at lori.mcknight@wmich.edu or (269) 387-5602.

Media contact: Thom Myers, (269) 387-8400, thom.myers@wmich.edu

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