Old and New Activities within Animal Flight Lab

First of all, a happy new year to AFL members and followers. At the transition between years one usually contemplates what has happened during the past year, and what will happen in the year to come, in the present case 2012. Last year, 2011, was a really productive year in the AFL, with Florian Muijres dissertation in April being a local peak. For the occasion Tom Daniel visited as opponent and we all had a great time. Now Florian and family has already arrived in Seattle, where Florian will make a postdoc with Michael Dickinson. We wish them the best of luck and look forward to get regular progress reports. During the autumn, postdoc Sophia Engel, Germany, left after a 2-year period here. Master student Gide Koekkoek, The Netherlands, finished his project on the bat flapper before the summer, and just after Christmas the corrected proofs of a paper was sent back to the journal. Another master student was Naid Mubalegh, France, who did a project on zebra finch flight during the spring. Here in Lund, we welcome Jonas Håkansson as a new PhD student. Last year we received an infrastructure grant that we are currently trying to spend, and hopefully the new equipment will serve us well in the wind tunnel. Finally, a reading tip in the form of a JEB paper about immune function decrease immediately after endurance flights in starlings. The picture is from our pre-christmas lab celebrations, with the hope we get reasons to celebrate many more times during 2012!