32nd Annual William C. Vaughan Memorial Lecture

The Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences (BSNS) will hold its 32nd Annual William C. Vaughan Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, November 6 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Buffalo Museum of Science. This year’s guest speaker, Cornell University’s Dr. Jessie L. Williamson, NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biology & Rose Fellow, will present “Avian Migration, Physiology, and Speciation at Elevational Extremes.”

Dr. Williamson will discuss her research on birds that make extreme seasonal shifts in elevation during migration, and will talk about how these movements affect ecology, evolution, and physiology. Her lecture will focus on her recent work with giant hummingbirds (Patagona spp.) in Peru and Chile, in which she’s combined migration tracking, genomics, and field physiology to uncover a spectacular long-distance migratory journey with an extreme elevational ascent & and a cryptic speciation event, resulting in description of the world’s largest hummingbird species.

Entry to the lecture is free with preregistration at the museum’s website or by calling (716) 896-5200. All ages are welcome.

The Vaughan Lecture series was inaugurated in 1991 in memory of well known Buffalo ornithologist and former BSNS Board Member William C. Vaughan. This year’s lecture is sponsored by the Buffalo Ornithological Society.