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Angie Hodgson and Jen White were selected as Doctoral Dissertation Fellows for 2004-05. This fellowship is awarded by the Graduate School in a University-wide competition to Ph.D. students in their final year. Angie is advised by Dr. John Pastor (UMD); Jen is advised by Dr. David Andow (Entomology).
Simon Hsu, Entomology graduate students and Center for Community Genetics participant was chosen as the 2004-05 CCG Fellow. The fellowship carries a 12-month stipend. She is advised by Dr. George Heimpel, Entomology and member of the EEB graduate faculty.
Dan Hernandez, EEB graduate student, is this year's Elmer C. Birney Fellowship recipient. This fellowship provides support for one EEB graduate student during the summer. The fund was established in honor of Professor Elmer C. Birney who was a Professor in Ecology, Evolution and Behavior and Curator of Mammals for the Bell Museum from 1970 - 2000, and Director of Graduate Studies in EEB. Dan is advised by Dr. Sarah Hobbie.
EEB graduate students Angie Hodgson and Jacob Egge were awarded Doctoral Dissertation Research Grants from the Graduate School. These grants provide support for their research. Angie is advised by John Pastor, and Jacob
is advised by Andrew Simons.
Dr. Elizabeth Lonsdorf, a recent EEB graduate, is the first author on a Nature paper with Drs. Lynn E. Eberly (Biostatistics) and Anne Pusey (EEB) on "Sex differences in learning in chimpanzees." This work is part of Elizabeth's Ph.D. thesis under the direction of Dr. Anne Pusey. The paper appeared as a brief communication on April 15, 2004, in Nature Vol. 428, p. 715.
Jen White, EEB graduate student, was awarded a Torske Klubben Fellowship for 2004-05. The Torske Klubben was
founded in 1933 and awards fellowships to Minnesota resident graduate students who are interested in connections with
Norway and its culture. The fellowship carries a stipend. Jen is advised by Dr. David Andow, professor of entomology.
Colleen McLinn, EEB Graduate student, received an Animal Behavior Society Student Research Grant of $1000,
and the Charles and Dorothy Andrew Bird Award from the University of Minnesota Chapter of Sigma Xi, which includes a
$1000 prize and one year of membership in the society. Colleen is advised by Dr. David Stephens, EEB.
Drs. Robert Sterner and Jacques Finlay received a $ 375,931 NSF award to study
"The Nitrifying of Lake Superior and Its Intersections with the P and Fe Cycles."
Dr. James Cotner was awarded a two-year, $75,640 U.S. Department of Commerce grant to study "Salinity, Nutrients, and Food Webs in Florida Bay."
Dr. Joe McFadden received a three-year NASA faculty Early-Career Competition award for $356,707 for a project to study carbon and water cycles in urban/suburban ecosystems.
Dr. Craig Packer received a National Science Foundation award of $90,000 for the project "LTREB: Long Term Studies of African Lions."
Dr. Jeannine Cavender-Bares was selected as one of two nominees from the University of Minnesota for the
2004 David and Lucile Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering competition.
Dr. Claudia Neuhauser has been chosen to receive one of this year's Horace T. Morse--University of Minnesota Alumni Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education.
Dr. Robert Sterner received a $337,076 grant from the National Science Foundation to conduct a study on
"Element Linkage and Growth-Competition Tradeoffs in Freshwater Zooplankton."
EEB graduate student Karyl Whitman is first author on the Nature paper "Sustainable trophy hunting
of African lions" with EEB faculty Craig Packer and Tony Starfield, and University of Minnesota Physics
alumnus Dr. Henley Quadling. The paper presents data based upon some of Karyl's dissertation research that
addresses the effects of sport hunting on the African lion using both simulation models and field work.
EEB graduate students Peyton West, Meggan Craft, and Bernard Kissui, among others also assisted them in the
field in this collaborative effort.
EEB graduate student Kathleen Lacasse received a Carolyn M. Crosby Fellowship. This is an endowed Graduate
School Fellowship that will support her research on buckthorn invasion in North America.
Congratulations to Angie Hodgson and Ted Stets, graduate students in the EEB graduate program, for being awarded Alexander P. and Lydia Anderson Fellowships. These grants are endowed fellowships awarded by the
Graduate School in a University-wide competition for basic research in the plant or animal sciences. Ted is
advised by Dr. Jim Cotner, EEB, and Angie by Dr. John Pastor, UM-Duluth.
Dr. Steve Polasky, Fesler-Lampert Professor of Ecological and Environmental Economics, received a 5-year grant from the National Science Foundation on "Disparate Scales of Process and Nearshore Fishery Management."
Dan MacNulty, an EEB graduate student advised by Dr. Craig Packer, received a grant from the Yellowstone Park Foundation to study "The Behavioral Ecology of Wolf Predation: Building a Biological Rationale for Models of Wolf Kill Rates ."
Drs. Diane Larson and Ruth Shaw received
funding from the USDI U.S. Geological Survey to conduct research on "Is
the exotic, invasive legume yellow sweetclover (Melilotus officinalis)
changing ecosystem properties and facilitating invasion through
nitrogen enrichment of a low nitrogen system?"
Dr. Sarah Hobbie received an NSF Faculty Early Career
Development (CAREER) award. This five-year award is the National
Science Foundation's most prestigious awards for junior faculty
members. It recognizes and supports the early career-development
activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the
academic leaders of the 21st century.
Dr. Jacques Finlay received an NSF grant
on "Collaborative Research: Food-Chain Length in Streams: Testing
the Role of Ecosystem Size, Resource Availability and Disturbance."
Congratulations to Ed Hall and Anna Mosser,
graduate students in the EEB graduate program, for being awarded
Doctoral Dissertation Research Grants. These grants are awarded by the
Graduate School in a University-wide competition.
Dr. Packer’s research was featured in the Sunday
Express, a British newspaper, on November 2, 2003. The article “Disney
fights to help the lions of Tanzania survive” focuses on the Project
Simba, funded by Walt Disney Home Entertainment, which studies the
impact of elephant populations on lion populations in Tarangire
National Park (Tanzania). The increase of the park’s elephant
population makes encounters between lions and elephants more likely, to
the detriment of the lions whose mating habits may be disturbed or
whose cubs may be trampled to death.
The research of Dr. Pusey and her colleagues Dr.
Michael Wilson, a postdoctoral associate with Dr. Pusey, and Dr.
Julie Constable, a former graduate student with Dr. Pusey, was
featured in the New York Times Science Section on November 25, 2003.
The article “A Course in Evolution, Taught by Chimps” describes how
after forty years of observational studies at several sites in Africa,
our understanding of chimpanzee societies has changed from chimpanzees
living in a single, peaceful community to a community system akin to
hunter-gather societies in which related males defend their territories
against other chimpanzee communities.
Drs. Sarah Hobbie and Jennifer King are both
co-principal investigators on a two-year NSF Biocomplexity in the
Environment, Coupled Biogeochemical Cycles award ($355,317): “Coupled
biogeochemical cycles in urban and agricultural ecosystems: role of
hydrology, stoichiometry, spatial linkages, and human behavior.” The
principal investigator on this grant is Dr. Pat Brezonik from Civil and
Mineral Engineering.
Drs. Sarah Hobbie and Dave Tilman are both
co-principal investigators on a four-year NSF Biocomplexity in the
Environment, Coupled Biogeochemical Cycles award ($1,800,000):
“Interacting responses of C and N cycles to altered biodiversity,
elevated CO2, and N enrichment.” The principal investigator on this
grant is Dr. Peter Reich (Forest Resources).
Dr. Craig Packer received a $1.7 million grant from the
National Science Foundation for “Biocomplexity of the Greater
Serengeti: Humans in a Biologically Diverse Ecosystem.” He will
use four different models to study the impact of humans on the
Serengeti.
Eli Bridge, EEB graduate student, received the Best
Student Paper award for a presentation on the biomechanics of
underwater diving by murres and puffins at the 27th annual meeting of
the Waterbird Society in Cuiabá, Brazil, that was held 24-27
September, 2003 . Eli is advised by Dr. Bill Schmid.
Dr. Claudia Neuhauser received a supplementary $80,000
grant from the National Science Foundation for support of "Research
Experiences for Undergraduates."
The September 26 issue of Science reports in News of
the Week on the National Research Council committee, chaired by Dr.
David Tilman, that reviewed NEON (National Ecological Observatory
Network). This is a network of infrastructure proposed by the National
Science Foundation. For the complete report go to http://www.nap.edu/books/0309090784.html
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