2025 Accomplishments
Plant Biology and Conservation Travel and Conference Award
- Ian Roberts
- Rory Schiafo
- Jackie Fitzgerald
- Kyla Knauf
- Teagan LeVar
- Sarah Hollis
- Maddie Sadler
- Max Jones
- Libby Schafer
- Fernando Rocha Vento
- Marne Quigg
- Hannah Ryu
- Emma Fetterly
- Elsa Godtfredsen
Plant Biology and Conservation MS Research Award
- Cael Dant
- Emma Fetterly
- Isaac Ferber
- Ceci Rigby
- Maddie Sadler
- Coral Brock
- Marne Quigg
- Radiya Ali
- Tayah Carlisle
Plant Biology and Conservation PhD Research Award
- Kyla Knauf
- Project: "From Flowers to Seeds: Understanding the Effects of Climate Change on Rocky Mountain Wildflower Phenology and Reproduction"
Brian Lovejoy
- The Garden Club of America Fellowship in Ecological Restoration - $8,000
- Project: "The Hydrological Impact of Lawn Alternatives in Urban Residential Neighborhoods"
Max Jones
- DAAD RISE professional scholarship - $5,000
- Project: "A novel vertical assessment of mammals in fragmented landscape"
- "Bambi" public talk - Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute - March 2025
- Poster presentation - Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation Conference - July 2025
Radiya Ali
- The Garden Club of America Desert Studies Grant - $4,000
- Project: "Evaluating Climate Mediated CAM-C3 Photosynthetic Plasticity in Wild, Pre-Columbian Domesticated, and Cultivated Agave species"
Rory Schiafo
Dawson-Glass, E, Schiafo, R., Miller, C. N., Kuebbing, S. E., & Stuble, K. L. Toward a comprehensive understanding of the phenological responses of non-native plants to climate warming: A review. Annals of Botany. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaf008
Dawson-Glass, E., Schiafo, R., Kuebbing, S. E., & Stuble, K. L. (2025). Warming-induced changes in seasonal priority effects drive shifts in community composition. Ecology, 106(1), e4504. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4504
Rina Talaba
- Public Policy Award: A trip Washington, D.C. to talk to Congressional Representatives
Jackie Fitzgerald
- Paper published in a special issue of Journal of Animal Ecology: Intraspecific body size variation across distributional moments reveals trait filtering processes
- Presented at the Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting and won 1st place Student Competition for the President's Prize, Graduate SysEB: Morphology and Phylogenetics: "Trait scaling and foraging in bumble bees"
Maddie Sadler
- The Garden Club of America Montine M. Freeman Scholarship in Native Plant Studies - $3,000
- Project: "How prescribed fire management affects species abundance and diversity of plants in the Asteraceae in prairie remnants and restorations"
Kyla Knauf
-
American Society of Naturalists Student Research Award - $2,000
-
Project: "From Flowers to Fruits: Understanding the Effects of Climate Change on Rocky Mountain Wildflower Phenology and Reproduction"
-
-
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory Graduate Fellowship - $1,500
-
Project: "Wildflower Reproductive Phenology and Seed Traits Under Early Snowmelt"
-
-
The Institute for Applied Ecology's National Native Seed Conference Scholarship - $375
-
Northwestern University support for workshop attendance at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's (AAAS) Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering (CASE) workshop - $1,000
- Presented "Are Colorado wildflowers going wild under climate change?" at the Chicago Botanic Garden (CBG) Summer Series.
- Getting Started in Research Panel - discussion with undergraduate STEM students
- Presented "The importance of seed phenology in conjunction with flowering phenology to assess climate change effects on Rocky Mountain wildflowers" at Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) Graduate Student Seminar Series
- Presented "Climate Change-Induced Early Snowmelt and Phenological Change" at Chicago Botanic Garden Seminar Series
- Botanical Society of America (BSA)
Vic Martinez Mercado
- Botanical Society of America (BSA) Bill Dahl Graduate Student Research Award - $1,500
- Project: "Developing an integrative pollen preservation pipeline using pawpaw as a model for plant conservation"
- Francis Kwong Award - $1,000
- Project: "Developing an integrative pollen preservation pipeline using pawpaw as a model for plant conservation"
Coral Brock
- Honorable mention from the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP)
- Project: "C3-C4 Intermediate Photosynthesis: how Amaranthaceae species adapt to a changing climate"
Tayah Carlisle
- The Illinois Association of Environmental Professionals (IAEP) - $2,500
- Project: "Urban Roots: Phytoremediation Potential in a Chicago Savanna"
Cael Dant
- Botanical Society of America (BSA) Bill Dahl Graduate Student Research Award - $1,500
- Project: "Understanding the impact of prey type and the pitcher microbiome on physiological success of the carnivorous plant Sarracenia purpurea"
Luciana Piniely
- The American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) - $1,200
- Project: "Genomics and DNA Barcoding of Tanzanian Encephalartos"
- Presented at the Walder Foundation Biota Awards Celebration at the Morton Arboretum in September 2025
- Paper published in the European Journal of Taxonomy, Sansevieria bangalalana sp. nov. (Asparagales, Asparagaceae), close to extinction in the wild, and five other narrowly endemic and threatened species of Sansevieria from Tanzania, previously unknown to science https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2025.1026.3113
Andrew Davies
- Fullbright Scholarship to conduct research in Ecuador
- Project: "Advancing the Reforestation of Endangered Eduadorian Magnolia Trees"
Sarah Wetterer
- American Orchid Society - $11,349
- Project: "Identification and specificity of the mycorrhizal associations of Calopogon species"