Curriculum Vitae - Kathy Hill

 

Citizenship: Dual New Zealand, USA

Address: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 75 N. Eagleville Rd U-3043, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA

Email: cicada900  @  yahoo.com.au

Phone (lab): 1-860-486-3947

 

Relevant work experience and future goals

After completing a MSc on the phylogeography of a New Zealand cicada species, I have continued to be employed as a field and molecular laboratory research technician for ongoing cicada phylogeny, phylogeography and behaviour studies. In Northern Hemisphere summers (May-August 2002-present) I have conducted field research on Magicicada spp, and collected information on annual North American cicada species. In the Southern Hemisphere summers (November-March 2001-present) I have been working in the field collecting cicadas for several grants to the Simon Lab, including in New Zealand for phylogeography studies, and in Australia, Fiji, South Africa, China, Argentina and the Philippines for phylogenetic studies. In addition to collecting specimens in the field I also study cicada behaviour and record cicada songs. Along with my colleages I manage databases in the lab, and am resposible for databasing specimens collected and sent to the lab, and for creating a cicada taxonomic database. I am currently authoring or co-authoring papers to describe cicada species and/or genera in New Zealand, Australia, North America, Pakistan and the Philippines. During molecular laboratory work at the University of Connecticut I have trained undergrad students in lab techniques and curation techniques and have worked with visiting researchers. In the future I hope to continue to study all aspects of Cicadidae biology and systematics.

 

 

Employment

2004-present – Research Technician, C. Simon lab, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA

2001 – Victoria University of Wellington, School of Biological Sciences lab demonstrator: Year 1 general biology.

Sept-Dec 2000 – U.S. Geological Survey, Palila Project, Hawaii. Collecting, monitoring and rearing insects related to the lifestyle of an endangered Hawaiian bird, the Palila.

Oct-Feb 1997-1999 – Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research CRI, New Zealand, Biological Control of Weeds group: Rearing introduced insects for release in NZ to eat noxious introduced plants. Testing Integrated Pest Management (IPM) schemes for the combined use of chemical and insect control agents

1999 – Lincoln University Insect Museum, curating insect collections Lincoln University Statistics and Economics departments: Lab demonstrator for Year 2 Statistics and Year 3 Economics computer labs.

1998-2000  – Lincoln University Library Student Assistant. 1999 Head Student Assistant. Circulation desk, opening and closing of library, training new student library assistants. Lincoln University computing department. Student Computing Helpdesk, fixing computer and printer problems, training new students on the university computer system. Y2K upgrade technician.

 

 

Education

2001 - 2004  Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.  MSc (Ecology), April 2005

1997 - 2000  Lincoln University, New Zealand. BSc (Entomology), May 2001

 

 

Publications

 

Lee YJ, Hill KBR. 2010. Systematic revision of the genus Psithyristria Stål (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) with seven new species and a molecular phylogeny of the genus and higher taxa. Systematic Entomology 35: 277-305.

Hill KBR, Marshall DC.  2009.  Confirmation of the cicada Tibicen pronotalis stat. nov. (= T. walkeri, Hemiptera: Cicadidae) in Florida: finding singing insects through their songs.  Zootaxa 2125:63-66

Cooley JR, Kritsky G, Zyla JD, Edwards MJ, Marshall DC, Hill KBR, Krauss R, Simon C.  2009.  The distribution of Periodical Cicada Brood X in 2004.  American Entomologist 55: 106-112

Marshall DC, Hill KBR.  2009.  Versitile aggressive mimicry of cicadas by an Australian predatory katydid. PLoS One 4: e4185. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004185.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0004185#pone.0004185.s004

Hill KBR, Simon C, Marshall DC, Chambers GK.  2009.  Surviving glacial ages within the Biotic Gap: phylogeography of the New Zealand cicada Maoricicada campbelli.  Journal of Biogeography 36:675-692.

Marshall DC, Hill KBR, Fontaine KM, Buckley TR, Simon C. 2009. Glacial refugia in a maritime temperate climate: Cicada (Kikihia subalpina) mtDNA phylogeography in New Zealand. Molecular Ecology 18: 1995-2009.

Marshall DC, Slon K, Cooley JR, Hill KBR, Simon C.  2008.  Steady Plio-Pleistocene diversification and a 2-million year sympatry threshold in a New Zealand cicada radiation.  Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 48: 1054-1066.

Hill KBR, Marshall DC.  2008.  Cicadas (Box spread). In: The Natural History Of Canterbury, M. Winterbourne, G. Knox, C. Burrows and I. Marsden eds. Canterbury University Press, 921pp.

Cooley JR, Marshall  DC, Hill KBR, Simon C.  2006.  Reconstructing asymmetrical reproductive character displacement in a periodical cicada contact zone.  Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19: 855-868.

Hill KBR, Marshall DC, Cooley JR.  2005.  Crossing Cook Strait: Possible human transportation and establishment of two New Zealand cicadas from North Island to South Island (Kikihia scutellaris and K. ochrina, Hemiptera: Cicadidae).  New Zealand Entomologist 28: 71-80.

Hill KBR.  2005.  Phylogeography of Maoricicada campbelli (Hemiptera: Cicadidae): mtDNA evidence interpreted using phylogenetics and nested clade analysis.  MSc Thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.

 

Recent presentations at scientific meetings

 

2010. An overview of Cicadidae. Oral presentation: Arthropod Research Workshop, July 6, Central Mindanao University, Musuan, Mindanao, Philippines.

2010. Collecting, labelling and storing insects. Oral presentation: Arthropod Research Workshop, July 6, Central Mindanao University, Musuan, Mindanao, Philippines.

2010. Preliminary data on the phylogeny of the Family Cicadidae. Oral presentaion: 3rd NSF-PEET Auchenorrhyncha workshop, Apr 10-11, New York State Museum, Albany, New York, USA.

2009. Molecular phylogenetics and diversity of the Cicadidae with special reference to the tribe Cryptotympanini. Oral presentation: Seminar organised by Dr Zhongren Lei, Institute of Plant Protection, Beijing, China

2008. Tibicen phylogeny and systematics. Oral presentation: 2nd NSF-PEET Auchenorrhyncha workshop, Nov 1-2, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA.

2008. Finding and defeating numts (NUclear copies of MiTochondrial DNA). Oral presentation: 2nd NSF-PEET Auchenorrhyncha workshop, Nov 1-2, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA. Slideshow available at http://hydrodictyon.eeb.uconn.edu/projects/cicada/simon_lab/peet_pages/08_Hill_NUMT.pdf

2005. Phylogeography of a widespread New Zealand subalpine cicada, Maoricicada campbelli (Hemiptera, Cicadidae). Oral presentation: Systematics Symposium . 12th International Auchenorrhyncha Congress,  Berkeley, CA, USA, August 8-12, 2005. Abstract available at http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/hoppercongress/Symposiums%209-05.pdf

2004    The evolution of female signalling in cicadas - a preliminary report. Oral presentation: Phylogeny and Evolution of Sternorrhyncha and Auchenorrhyncha: The First Charles P. Alexander Symposium on Insect Systematics. Amherst, MA, U.S.A.

2003. Using Nested Clade Analysis to understand the population structure of a New Zealand cicada, Maoricicada campbelli. Oral presentations: 52nd Annual Conference, Entomological Society of New Zealand, Victoria University of Wellington, 13-16 April 2003 Wellington, New Zealand; School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand 14 March 2003; Kaikoura 03: a meeting of Mathematicians and Phylogeneticists, Kaikoura, New Zealand; Poster presentation: Evolution meetings: Society for the study of evolution and Society of Systematic Biologists. Chico, California, U.S.A.

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