Corey Welch
(just recieved Ph.D. from University of Washington, May 2008)
| I am working on questions
related to the Phylogeography of Australian Songbirds. I am particularly
interested in the Treecreepers (Climacteridae), an endemic Australian-New
Guinea family, that is a basal songbird lineage. I am addressing these
questions by sequencing mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from samples
we have previously collected. Additionally, I plan to examined several
different pairs of AU songbird species (sister species) and determine
aspects of their shared evolutionary history (age of divergence, ancestral
population sizes, rates of migration) around the Carpentarian Barrier.
One or two additional trips to Australia will be needed to address
additional AU songbird species. I am also interested in speciation,
hybridization and the role of male parental care in vertebrates, and
life history evolution.
I am originally from Billings, Montana and a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. I attended Lewis & Clark College and University of Kansas (BS and MA, respectively). I taught at Haskell Indian Nations University for 5 years prior to starting at UW. I plan to remain active in Native American issues at the college level—science education and development in particular. My outside interests include lurking in shadows, drinking cheap booze, and eating processed foods...when not lurking in shadows, smelling of cheap beer and luncheon meats, I also enjoy the following activities...playing basketball, volleyball, softball, reading the books of Sherman Alexie, David Sedaris, Sara Vowell, Nick Hornsby, and many others, and running with my mutt, Katy. Education: Lewis & Clark College, B.S. Biology 1992 University of Kansas, M.A. Systematics & Ecology 1998 |
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| Photo from R. Schodde & S. C. Tidemann, Reader's Digest
Complete
Book of Australian Birds. 2nd ed. Readers's Digest, Sydney. |