Kerry Shaw, Cornell professor of neurobiology and behavior, has received a prestigious fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Guggenheim fellowship award decisions are based on the recommendations of hundreds of expert advisers and the approval of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation's board of trustees. Winners are selected "on the basis of achievement and exceptional promise."

Shaw is one of 180 artists, scholars and scientists from the United States and Canada selected from more than 3,000 applicants for this year's 86th annual competition.

Shaw, who joined the Cornell faculty in 2007, researches the nature and origin of species, focusing on genetic and phylogenetic (branching diagrams showing evolutionary relationships among biological species) behavioral changes that diverge early in speciation. Her laboratory focuses on studies of reproductive behavior and the evolution of mate recognition among closely related species.

Shaw will use the fellowship to research the role that sexual selection plays in the origin of species. "This research will take me to field sites in Hawaii where I am studying the processes influencing the evolution of courtship signals and preferences in the endemic cricket fauna of Hawaii," said Shaw.