Long time since we have taken a picture of our Tropical Ecology Lab group (aka “White House” group).  We are missing a few students from my lab in this picture – Vanessa Luna was in Peru (co-advised by Karen Kainer) and Akshay Anand (advised by Rob Guralnick, co-advised by Bette) was in class.  Everyone is back on campus this spring and Vanessa, Rick and Marlyn will be busy as teaching assistants for SNRE and WEC.  Rick is also preparing for qualifying exams, and Rick and Marlyn are working on developing dissertation research proposals and likely external grant proposals.  Robin is writing his dissertation and hopes to graduate in May 2023, while Vanessa is just returning from a main field season in Peru – she also successfully passed her qualifying exams late last fall semester.  Bette just got back from a fabulous field trip to her study site in Ecuador – Tiputini Biodiversity Station where she re-sighted manakins in her long-term study (20+ years); due to COVID, there was a gap in the manakin census in 2021 and 2022 field seasons.  Stay tuned for more news from that trip soon.