Andrea Holmes - awesome person - just finished her MA!

Andrea Holmes just completed the masters program in anthropology at Northern Illinois University.

In her words:
"My thesis is entitled "Prey Item Handling by Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)" and my advisor was Dr. Leila Porter. I'm currently preparing a manuscript of my study for publication--the specific journal has yet to be decided. In the fall, I'll be attending Purdue University and working with Dr. Melissa Remis on regurgitation/reingestion in captive gorillas."

Congratulations Andrea on successfully completing your masters degree and pursuing your doctorate in biological anthropology. Best of luck on your journey!

Shiny and new Dr. Laurie Kauffman is awesome!

It is a great pleasure to announce that Laurie Kauffman has successfully defended her dissertation and now joins the ranks of new biological anthropology PhDs. A student of Sue Boinski at the University of Floriday, the title of Dr. Kauffman's dissertation is "Primate response to tourist presence at Raleighvallen, Central Suriname Nature Reserve"

In her own words:
"I presented portions of my dissertation research at AAA in New Orleans, and at AAPA in Minneapolis. In August I'll be starting a tenure-track job as Assistant Professor of Biology at Oklahoma City University. I am looking forward to working on research projects with undergraduates at OCU, likely in Costa Rica and also in local zoos. I'll also be teaching Human Anatomy and Physiology, Zoology, and Primate Behavior. And I am looking forward to the Oklahoma State Fair and its many fried food on a stick offerings!"

New PhD Elizabeth Rowe is awesome!

Congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Rowe, a newly minted PhD in anthropology from Temple University. Her dissertation advisor is Dr. Christie Rockwell.

In Elizabeth's own words:
"My thesis title was "The impact of variation in the progesterone receptor gene, life history and lifestyle on endometrial function and the menstrual cycle". I'm putting together a talk on it for the upcoming AAPA (or HBA) meetings in 2012, so look for my abstract! I just accepted a non-tenure track position teaching biology at Georgia Southern University."

Her work sounds fantastic - I am truly looking forward to seeing her presentation at the meetings. Also happy to hear about employment! Hurray!

New grads on BANDIT?

During this celebratory graduation season, I want to highlight recent bioanthropology MA or PhD grads or recently defended ABDs. Send your info or that of someone you know who should get a BANDIT shout-out to ruther4d@uic.edu and I will compose a personalized post! Tell me your name, university, degree, thesis title, any links to pubs or websites, and future plans: teaching/research gig, postdoc, field work, what-have-you...you guys are special!