Author Archive

The Hopkins Lab will have 2 graduate research assistantship positions available in 2017

The Wildlife Ecotoxicology and Physiological Ecology Lab at Virginia Tech seeks to fill a Ph.D. and/or M.S. position focused on the reproductive ecology and conservation physiology of an imperiled salamander in Appalachian streams. The student’s research will focus on how habitat quality relates to parental behavior, reproductive physiology, and reproductive success of the eastern hellbender under field conditions.  The research will build upon our ongoing pilot work seeking to determine ...

The Hopkins lab was pleased to host Schuyler van Montfrans, a high school biology teacher at William Fleming High School, to participate in the the RET (Research Experience for Teachers) program this summer. This program, funded by the National Science Foundation, gives local teachers the opportunity to be immersed in original research, as well as a way to bring it back to the classroom. After participating in this program last year, we are happy to announce that this year ...

Dr. Bill Hopkins recently co-led an undergraduate Study Abroad Course in Ecuador. Many of the trip highlights were consolidated from social media and chronicled here in STORIFY.  

When the group returned to the States, the following story appeared in VT News:

From VT News

Students team with Ecuadorean tribes to learn most-effective plants for treating infection

It was a place where many lessons were learned.

Ten Virginia Tech undergraduate students held onto their hats this summer as they plunged down Amazonian river systems ...

From VT News

Ten Virginia Tech undergraduate students better hold onto their hats this summer as they plunge down Amazonian river systems into the heart of Ecuador.  At the helm of their canoes will be Global Change Center researchers Ignacio Moore and Bill Hopkins.

As part of a university-wide effort to promote study abroad, experiential learning, and undergraduate research, the students will witness the politics, history, culture, biology, and conservation issues in the South American country from May 16 to June ...

May 13, 2016

Cathy Jachowski successfully defended her dissertation on May 9th in Fralin Auditorium. Her public seminar was titled, “Effects of Land Use and Parasitism on Hellbender Salamanders: A Multilevel Perspective”.  Cathy, a member of the Hopkins Lab, is the first Interfaces of Global Change graduate student to complete a doctoral program at Virginia Tech!

Cathy will soon join the faculty in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation at Clemson University.

Congratulations, Cathy!

From VT News

An international birder who has been trying to get some migratory bird legislation passed, Congressman Morgan Griffith on Wednesday visited Virginia Tech’s new aviary on the Blacksburg campus to learn about its research.

Regarding his interest in avian legislation, Griffith (R-VA)  joined Congressman Mike Quigley (D-IL) in introducing the Federal Bird-Safe Buildings Act (H.R. 2280) on May 12, 2015. Applying strictly to federal government buildings, the legislation requires new buildings to include bird-safe building materials and design features ...

Congratulations to graduate student, Sydney Hope, who received the Best Student Poster award at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting in the Division of Animal Behavior. The conference was held January 3-7, 2016 in Portland, Oregon. Sydney presented a poster entitled, “The effect of incubation temperature on Wood Duck duckling behavior”, which described the results from her most recent project. She found that ducklings incubated at an intermediate incubation temperature tend to exhibit shier behaviors than those ...

Dr. Ignacio Moore (BIOL) and Dr. William Hopkins (FWC) are offering “Tropical Ecology & Conservation BIOL 3954/FIW 3954 (6 credits)” in Spring and Summer I 2016. The course is open to all majors. The Spring course will be taught on campus.

During Summer I, the class will travel to Ecuador where students will traverse multiple ecosystems, from the Amazonian lowland rainforest to the high altitude Andes. Students will visit one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, and visit with ...

From VT News

BLACKSBURG, Va., Oct. 5, 2015 – Once a baby wood duckling hatches, it follows its mother’s repetitive whistle-like call to jump out of the nest and join its siblings in a family group.

But whether a duckling successfully follows depends on the nest environment, said fish and wildlife conservation graduate student Sydney Hope of Howell, New Jersey.

Using Virginia Tech’s new Research Aviary, Hope investigates how the wood duck’s nesting environment affects its ability to perform certain behaviors important for ...