123rd Distinguished Research Lecture: Rebecca Safran
Barn Swallows and Humans: The Rise and Fall of Coexistence in a Changing World
Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 4–5 p.m. (Q&A and reception to follow)
Chancellor's Hall and Auditorium, Center for Academic Success and Engagement (CASE)
University of Colorado Boulder
When humans began constructing permanent settlements some 10,000 years ago, they established ecological opportunities for animals and plants whose distributions expanded alongside their own. The barn swallow is one species whose expansion tracks with human settlement and is now one of our planet’s most widespread birds. Yet, this longstanding history of humans and barn swallows living side by side is changing. Throughout much of their range, barn swallows are declining.
Safran will highlight her lab’s long-term comparative studies of barn swallows in Colorado and throughout their range, while celebrating the contributions of students and collaborators she has been honored to work with. The investigations integrate data from wild populations using tools from behavior, ecology, endocrinology, evolutionary biology and genomics to discover how and why populations of barn swallows are rapidly diverging from one another.
While prior to the COVID-19 pandemic the lab’s research focused on the origin of new species, the team is now examining the precipitous decline of barn swallows and what this means for the relationship humans have formed with this bird.
Rebecca Safran is a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies.
Safran received her bachelor’s degree in Ecology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, her master’s degree in wildlife ecology from Humboldt State University and her doctorate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University. She was a Council on Science and Technology postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University prior to her assistant professorship at ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú´«Ã½ÎÄ»¯×÷Æ· in 2008.
Safran is interested in the formation of new species with a special focus on one of the most widespread birds on Earth: the barn swallow. Funded by the National Science Foundation through several grants including the CAREER award, her research has appeared in over 100 peer reviewed journals, including Science, Current Biology, Trends in Ecology and Evolution and many other publications related to evolutionary ecology and genetics.
Safran is co-director of for creative climate communication, where her focus includes an exploration of in the natural world. She also teaches a science communication class where students translate climate change science into creative films.
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