Two faculty and 13 current or recent graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the Division of Biology will fly out to Washington, D.C. this week to participate in one the largest meetings of ornithologists to ever occur, the North American Ornithological Conference 2016.
Every four years, the ornithological societies of the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean meet. This year, an estimated 2,000 “bird nerds” will attend the event from Aug. 16-20 
at the Washington Hilton Hotel. K-State ornithologists from the Boyle, Haukos and Sandercock labs are making major contributions to this event, presenting seven invited symposium talks and 18 additional contributed oral or poster presentations.
Graduate student Kirsten Grond has organized and is leading a symposium on “Shorebirds in a Changing World: Connecting Research and Conservation.” In addition to scientific presentations, K-State representatives are contributing to a wide variety of associated activities. Brett Sandercock is teaching a workshop on “Demographic Analyses with Program Mark: An Introductory Course” the day prior to the conference. Recent master’s degree graduate Emily Williams has been organizing activities for the student affairs committee.
Faculty members and postdoctoral researchers also are contributing to judging, student-professional mentoring, and helping to organize and perform in the “Bird Band Jam,” a major musical social event on the penultimate evening of the conference.
Follow tweets from Alice Boyle, @birdfiddler; Beth Ross, @betheross; and others at the conference using the conference hashtag #NAOC2016.