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Welcome to the site for the 12th Annual EvoDay Symposium at Cornell University!

EvoDay 2025 will be held on Thursday, May 8, 2025 at the Lab of Ornithology.

EvoDay is a one-day symposium hosted by EvoGroup—a graduate-student led organization at Cornell—that brings together students, postdocs, staff, and faculty from across the region who share an interest in evolutionary biology.

This year’s theme is ‘Evolutionary Physiology’, featuring a diverse lineup of talks that highlight a range of research questions, study systems, and technical approaches. The program includes ten 20-minute presentations from researchers at Cornell and nearby institutions, as well as two keynote Harrison Lectures by Dr. Ray Huey and Dr. Shane Campbell-Staton.

Join us for a day of science, discussion, and community—complimentary coffee, snacks, and lunch included.

Program

8:30 Check-in & Refreshments

9:00 Opening Remarks

9:10 When, why, and how did ice get nice? Eastern North America as a laboratory for the evolution of insect freeze tolerance

Speaker: Brent Sinclair (Department of Entomology, Cornell University)

9:30 The evolution of development and physiology along elevational gradients in Arabidopsis

Speaker: Jesse Lasky (Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University)

9:50 Coping with climate change: The role of developmental plasticity in a temperate breeding songbird

Speaker: Maren Vitousek (Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University)

10:10 Racism’s influence on urban wildlife adaptations

Speaker: Sylvana Ross (Department of Entomology, Cornell University)

10:30 Coffee Break

11:00 Harrison Lecture: Why mountains are still higher in the tropics: variations on a theme by Dan Janzen

Keynote Speaker: Ray Huey (Department of Biology, University of Washington)

12:00 Lunch

1:20 Greater dissolved oxygen increases dive duration in a semi-aquatic Anolis lizard and suggests physical gill use

Speaker: Allie Martin (Department of Biological Sciences, Binghamton University)

1:40 Exploring the multiple physiological roles of the V-type proton pump in marine photosymbionts

Speaker: Eric Armstrong (Department of Microbiology & CIHMID, Cornell University)

2:00 The genetic basis for avian physiological flexibility in response to temperature

Speaker: Maria Stager (Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

2:20 Evolution of thermal tolerance in yeast

Speaker: Justin Fay (Department of Biology, University of Rochester)

2:40 Coffee Break

3:10 Immunology through the comparative lens

Speaker: Cynthia Downs (Department of Environmental Biology, SUNY-ESF)

3:30 Landscapes of infection: the role of the environment in shaping the transmission of malaria

Speaker: Courtney Murdock (Department of Entomology, Cornell University)

4:00 Harrison Lecture: Evolution in the Age of Us: Rapid adaptations to human activity in the wild

Keynote Speaker: Shane Campbell-Staton (Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University)

5:00 Social gathering at Personal Best

Location

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

159 Sapsucker Woods Rd

Ithaca, NY 14850

Auditorium (Room 101)

Parking & Transportation

Parking:

If you drive, please park in one of the staff parking lots (see parking map). The main visitor parking lot has accessible parking spaces.

Cornell Campus Shuttle:

Cornell staff and students can take the free Lab shuttle to-and-from the main campus and the Lab of Ornithology. Please see here for times and locations.

TCAT Bus:

The TCAT Route 31 bus serves the main campus and the Lab of Ornithology (Mon-Fri). Please see here for more information.