2023 - Midwest Regional SICB
2022 - Evan Johnson-Ransom joins Ross and Sereno Labs
The Ross Lab is excited to have Evan as a colleague and team member. Evan received his Bachelor’s from DePaul University (2018) and his Master’s from Oklahoma State University (2021). He was a summer graduate fellow at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (2022). He works on dinosaur skulls! Welcome, Evan!
2022 - Alec Wilken in Neuroscience Training Program!
Alec Wilken has been admitted into the Neural, Computational, and Neuromechanical Approaches to Motor Control Training Program, funded by a T32 training grant at University of Chicago. Congratulations to Alec!
2022 - Great Lakes Student Paleoconference
Ross Lab student Peishu Li joined Isaac Magallanes, Caroline Abbott, Laura Hunter, Broc Kokesh and Rachel Laker in organizing The Great Lakes Student Paleoconference, a student-lead effort to connect and share research in paleontology around the Great Lakes region. GLSP is a great place for students to gain confidence in promoting their work in a low stress setting, network among their peers, and experience world-class collections and facilities at neighboring institutions. This year, the 4th iteration of this conference took place both on the UChicago campus and at the Field Museum on Oct 21-23, 2022. Graduate students, undergraduates, and postdocs attended and presented. The meeting was a great success.
2022 - South Side Science Fair
The science festival was a great success! Peishu, Isaac Magallanes from the Luo Lab, and Alec created displays to show off inner ear and jaw evolution and presented 3-D models of teeth. The jaw display included models of fossils loaded with rubber band "muscles" that festival attendees could use to close the jaw after pulling it down.
They also brought force gages so attendees could measure the "bite force" of the jaw. They then used videos of their XROMM, FEA, and CT work to show how 21st century paleontologists tackle problems. They inspired many little therians to consider pursuing a passion in paleontology and got an invite to present these outreach tools for an event at Rush in the spring!
