This past June Olivia Blake attended the Invertebrate Sound and Vibration (ISV) conference, held jointly with the Biotremology Society, at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, using the Biology Undergradute Resarch Travel Award. This award provides funds for an undergraduate student to attend a regional or national conference. Olivia presented her current research using the smetana gene (encoding a dynein arm assembly factor) as a tool to distinguish the role of dynein arms in two different subsets of mechanosensory neurons (for hearing and for wind/gravity detection) in the fly antenna. 

See Gallery for photos of Olivia during her presentation!