Partnership with Sylvan Heights Bird Park
Sylvan Heights Bird Park is located right down the road in Scotland Neck, North Carolina and is home to one of the largest collections of live birds in the world. The Balakrishnan Lab has been working closely with Sylvan Heights on a number of educational and research projects. Two years ago, with funding from East Carolina University, the Society for the Study of Evolution and the Raleigh Durham Caged bird society, we created an exhibit to highlight the amazing biology of African brood parasitic finches and their hosts. Photographs from that exhibit are displayed above and all over this site. Now with funding from the National Science Foundation we have just opened a new exhibit, "Wings of the Tropics". Dustin Foote, a Ph.D. student in the lab has been working at Sylvan Heights for several years and now also serves as their research coordinator. His Ph.D. project will examine genetic diversity and disease susceptibility in endangered waterfowl.
Nerd Nite
As a graduate student (circa 2003!) I started Nerd Nite as a unique forum in which to communicate science (and other forms of nerdery) to the public. Since that time, Nerd Nite has spread to cities around the US and the World. Now, due to the efforts of graduate students at ECU, Nerd Nite is also up and running here in the Greenville, NC. For more information about Nerd Nite, please click here, and for more information on events in Greenville, please join our Facebook group.
Sylvan Heights Bird Park is located right down the road in Scotland Neck, North Carolina and is home to one of the largest collections of live birds in the world. The Balakrishnan Lab has been working closely with Sylvan Heights on a number of educational and research projects. Two years ago, with funding from East Carolina University, the Society for the Study of Evolution and the Raleigh Durham Caged bird society, we created an exhibit to highlight the amazing biology of African brood parasitic finches and their hosts. Photographs from that exhibit are displayed above and all over this site. Now with funding from the National Science Foundation we have just opened a new exhibit, "Wings of the Tropics". Dustin Foote, a Ph.D. student in the lab has been working at Sylvan Heights for several years and now also serves as their research coordinator. His Ph.D. project will examine genetic diversity and disease susceptibility in endangered waterfowl.
Nerd Nite
As a graduate student (circa 2003!) I started Nerd Nite as a unique forum in which to communicate science (and other forms of nerdery) to the public. Since that time, Nerd Nite has spread to cities around the US and the World. Now, due to the efforts of graduate students at ECU, Nerd Nite is also up and running here in the Greenville, NC. For more information about Nerd Nite, please click here, and for more information on events in Greenville, please join our Facebook group.