Research
Interests:

Brun, R. & Balmer, O. (in press): New developments in human African trypanosomiasis. Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases.

Balmer, O. & Palma, C., MacLeod, A., Caccone, A. (2006): Characterization of di-, tri-, and tetranucleotide microsatellite markers with perfect repeats for Trypanosoma brucei and related species. Molecular Ecology Notes 6(2): 508-510.

Balmer, O. & Tostado, C. (2006): New fluorescence markers to distinguish co-infecting Trypanosoma brucei strains in experimental multiple infections. Acta  Tropica 97: 94-101.

Balmer, O. (2002): Species Lists in Ecology and Conservation: Abundances Matter. Conservation Biology 16: 1160-1161.

Balmer, O. & Erhardt, A. (2000): Consequences of Succession on Extensively Grazed Grasslands for Central European Butterfly Communities: Rethinking Conservation Practices. Conservation Biology 14: 746-757.

Balmer, O. (1999): Die Schmetterlingsfauna an mageren Standorten des Jura in verschiedenen Stadien der Verbrachung. Mitteilungen der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft 72: 303-314.

Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research 2005
Swiss Benevolent Society Pellegrini Scholarship 2004-2006
Swiss Benevolent Society Zimmermann Scholarship 2004-2005
DDIG - NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant 2004-2006
YIBS Field Ecology Award 2003
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Short-Term Fellowship 2002-2003
Yale Center for International and Area Studies, Lindsay Fellowship 2003

Research
Interests:

Evolutionary ecology of emerging diseases (especially RNA viruses); Tradeoff between generalist and specialist lifestyles;Phage biology.

Siobain Duffy, Paul E. Turner and Christina L. Burch.  2006. Pleiotropic costs of niche expansion in an RNA virus.  Genetics.  172(2):1-7.

Siobain Duffy and Donald W. Schaffner. 2002. Modeling the Environmental Contamination of Apples with Escherichia coli O157:H7. International Journal of Food Microbiology. 78:245-255.

Siobain Duffy and Donald W. Schaffner. “Modeling the survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7 using probability distribution functions in apple cider for quantitative risk assessment.” Journal of Food Protection, 64(5), 599-605.

Research
Interests:

Evolution of complex life cycles in insects; Plant-insect interactions; forest entomology.

How many choices can your test animal compare effectively? Evaluating a critical assumption of behavioral preference tests. K.F. Raffa, N.P. Havill & E.V. Nordheim. Oecologia. Published online: 5 September 2002.

Effects of genotypic variation and rearing method on gypsy moth suitability to its parasitoid Cotesia melanoscela. N.P. Havill & K.F. Raffa. Entomological News 113: 197-202.
Effects of eliciting treatment and genotypic variation on induced resistance in Populus: Impacts on gypsy moth development and feeding behavior. N.P. Havill & K.F. Raffa. Oecologia 120: 295-303.

Effects of eliciting treatment and genotypic variation on induced resistance in Populus: Impacts on gypsy moth development and feeding behavior. N.P. Havill & K.F. Raffa. Oecologia 120: 295-303.

Opposing effects of induced plant responses on insect herbivores and parasitoids: Implications for tritrophic interactions and biological control. N.P. Havill & K.F. Raffa. Ecological Entomology 25: 171-1179.

Comparison of numerical responses predation effects of two coccinellid species on hemlock woolly adelgid (Homoptera: Adelgidae). B. Butin, J. Elkinton, N. Havill & M. Montgomery. J ECON ENTOMOL 96 (3): 763-767

Sang-Tae Kim and Michael J. Donoghue 2005 "Molecular phylogeny and the role of hybridization in the diversification of Polygonum section Persicaria (Polygonaceae)" XVII IBC 2005, Vienna, Austria 

Sang-Tae Kim and Michael J. Donoghue 2004 "Leafy intron phylogeny and hybrid speciation in Polygonum section Persicaria (Polygonaceae) of eastern North America" BSA Salt Lake city UT USA 

Sang-Tae Kim, Sonia E. Sultan, and Michael J. Donoghue 2003 "Phylogeny and evolution of Polygonum sect. Persicaria (Polygonaceae) in eastern North America" BSA Mobile AL USA

Kim, Sang-Tae, M.-H. Kim and C.-W. Park 2000 A systematic study on Fallopia section Fallopia (Polygonaceae) Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy 30:1 1-20 (Abstract in English)

Awards:

YIBS Graduate Fellow

Research
Interests:

Parasite response to host aging; Evolution and population biology of bacteriophages.

Kysela, D.T., C. Palacios and M.L. Sogin. 2005. Serial analysis of V6 ribosomal sequence tags (SARST-V6): a method for efficient, high-throughput analysis of microbial community composition. Env Microbiol 7: 356-364.

Teske, A., K.-U. Hinrichs, V.P. Edgcomb, D.T. Kysela, A.V. Gomez & M.L. Sogin. 2002. Microbial diversity of hydrothermal sediments in the Guaymas Basin: Evidence for anaerobic methanotrophic communities. Appl Environ Microbiol 68: 1994-2007.

Edgcomb, V.P., D.T. Kysela, A.V.G. Gomez, A. Teske & M.L. Sogin. 2002. Benthic eukaryotic diversity in the Guaymas Basin hydrothermal vent environment. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99: 7658-7662.

Edgcomb, V.P., A. Roger, A.G.B. Simpson, D.T. Kysela & M. Sogin. 2001. Evolutionary relationships among jakobid flagellates as indicated by alpha- and beta-tubulin phylogenies. Mol Biol Evol 18:514-522.

Research
Interests:

Ecology and evolution of marine invertebrates, particularly cnidarians; Allorecognition.

Nicotra, M.L. & Buss, L.B. 2005. A test for larval kin aggregations. Biological Bulletin, 208: 157­158.

Cadavid, L.F., Powell, A.E., Nicotra, M.L., Moreno, M., and Buss, L.W. An invertebrate histocompatibility complex. Genetics 167(1): 357-365 (2004).

Research
Interests:

GAANN Fellow
Interplay between ecological interactions and evolutionary dynamics; life history evolution; application of molecular markers to ecology, biogeography and conservation.

Palkovacs, E.P., A.J. Oppenheimer, E. Gladyshev, J.E. Toepfer, G. Amato, T. Chase & A. Caccone. 2004. Genetic evaluation of a proposed introduction: the case of the greater prairie chicken and the extinct heath hen. Molecular Ecology 13: 1759-1769.

Palkovacs, E. P. 2003. Explaining adaptive shifts in body size on islands: A life history approach. Oikos 103: 37-44.

Palkovacs, E. P. , M. Marschner, C. Ciofi, J. Gerlach & A. Caccone. 2003. Are the native giant tortoises from the Seychelles really extinct? A genetic perspective based on mtDNA and microsatellite data. Molecular Ecology 12: 1403-1413.

Palkovacs, E. P. , J. Gerlach & A. Caccone. 2002. The evolutionary origin of Indian Ocean tortoises (Dipsochelys). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 24: 216-227.

2004 EPA STAR Fellowship
2004 Quebec-Labrador Foundation Sounds Conservancy Grant
2003 Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies Field Ecology Grant
2001-2003 GAAN Fellowship, Yale University
2002 Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid of Research
2002 Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Chairman’s Award, Yale University
1999-2001 Doris Duke Environment and Natural Resource Fellowship

Research
Interests:

The Life Cycle, Phylogeography, and Comparative Mitochondrial Genomics of Members of the Phylum Placozoa [Grell, 1971]

Yang, H. P., A. Y. Tanikawa, and A. S. Kondrashov. Molecular nature of 11 spontaneous de novo mutations in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 2001 157: 1285-1292.
 
Yang, H. P., A. Y. Tanikawa, W. A. Van Voorhies, J. C. Silva, and A. S. Kondrashov. Whole-genome effects of ethyl methanesulfonate-induced mutation on nine quantitative traits in outbred Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 2001 157: 1257-1265.
 
Signorovitch, A. Y., S. L. Dellaporta, and L. W. Buss. Molecular signatures for sex in the Placozoa, PNAS 2005 102: 15518-15522.
 
Signorovitch, A. Y., S. L. Dellaporta, and L. W. Buss. Caribbean placozoan phylogeography. The Biological Bulletin (in press)
 
Signorovitch, A. Y., S. L. Dellaporta, and L. W. Buss. Comparative genomics of large mitochondria in placozoans. (submitted)