Division of Biological Sciences

Spotlight

2009 Graduate Retreat- A great success

Every Fall, the division’s faculty and staff organize a retreat giving faculty, students and postdocs a chance to share their research, socialize, welcome the incoming graduate class, and kick off the new academic year. This year’s retreat took place Sept 20-22 at the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa.

Activities included three faculty sessions organized by overlapping scientific interests, a brand new session of postdoctoral fellows from each section and the Salk Institute, a graduate student session and a poster session.

Friday, November 13th, 2009
UCSD Faculty Club Atkinson Pavilion

Study Finds Bees Can Learn Differences in Food’s Temperature

Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered that honeybees can discriminate between food at different temperatures, an ability that may assist bees in locating the warm, sugar-rich nectar or high-protein pollen produced by many flowers.

While other researchers had previously found hints that bees might have the ability to do this, the UCSD biologists provide the first detailed experimental evidence in a paper that will be published in the December 1 issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology.
Expert on Genetics of Algae Joins UC San Diego

A renowned expert on the genetics of algae who heads a regional consortium seeking to develop new biofuels from algae has joined the faculty of the University of California, San Diego.

Stephen Mayfield, who since 1987 had been a professor of cell biology and associate dean of graduate studies at The Scripps Research Institute, or TSRI, is now a professor of biology in UC San Diego’s Division of Biological Sciences. He also holds the John Dove Isaacs Chair of Natural Philosophy at UCSD.