Ornithologist Dr. Robert Zink will leave the University of Minnesota at the end of the year for a position at the University of Nebraska. Dr. Zink holds the Breckenridge Chair of Ornithology at the Bell Museum of Natural History. He teaches ecology, evolution, and behavior in the College of Biological Sciences. He will begin in Nebraska on Jan. 1. He will be professor in the School of Natural Resources, and curator of the Nebraska State Museum.

Dr. Zink will join his wife in Nebraska. She begins her new position Oct. 1. At Minnesota, she taught in the Department of Entomology, and served as director of the Bell Museum of Natural History.

"It is a great opportunity for my wife, and although it is hard for me to leave the Breckenridge Chair and a world-class department, life goes on," he said in an email Sunday evening.

Dr. Zink is author of the book "The Three-minute Outdoorsman," a collection of entertaining and informative columns originally written for the newspaper "Minnesota Outdoor News." (I love this book. I think he has plans for a second book on similar subjects, in similar tone. I hope so.)