2026 Accomplishments: Program in Plant Biology and Conservation

2026 Accomplishments

Andrew Davies
- Project: "Advancing the Reforestation of Endangered Ecuadorian Magnolia"
Leila Rquibi
- Project: "Evaluating legacy effects of alternative agricultural practices"

Rew Kim
- Project: "Shifting dispersal vectors and their genetic consequences in an ecologically anachronistic tree"
Caroline Smith
- Project: "Which Plants are Best? The effectiveness of pollinator garden plants for attracting targeted pollinators"
Adelaide Adunbi
- Project: "Horti in Urbe: Chicago's Urban Gardens and the Risk of Eco-Gentrification"
Joanna Dahlan
- Project: "Belowground Allies: Mycorrhizal Fungal Community Diversity as an Indicator of Crop Health in Chicago Community Farms"
Mikayla Mika
- Project: "Agaves in Sonoran Desert: Mapping Climate Change with Ecological and Physiological Models"

The Garden Club of America's Fellowship in Ecological Restoration
- Project: "Bees on the Block: a Collective Planting Project for Urban Restoration"
Francis Y. Kwong Award

The Graduate School's Conference Travel Grant - $600
- To attend the Fifth International Pawpaw Conference in Frankfort, KY
The American Society of Plant Taxonomists' (ASPT) Rogers McVaugh Award - $1,500
- Project: "Genome-Scale Assessment of Population Structure in Asinmina tetramera: Implications for Plant Systematics"
The Botanical Society of America (BSA) Graduate Student Research Award

The Botanical Society of America (BSA) Bill Dahl Graduate Research Award
Colorado Mountain Club Foundation Fellowship
American Society of Naturalists
American Philosophical Society Lewis & Clark Field Grant
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory's (RMBL) Graduate Fellowship Enderlein Fund

The Garden Club of America's Corliss Knapp Engle Scholarship in Horticulture
- Project: "Transcriptiomic Insights into Fiber Synthesis and Thigmomorphogenesis in Sanservieria (dracaena)"

Zeldin, J., T.Dethlefs, S.Caeiro, D.Puga, and A.Kramer. 2025. “Intraspecific Functional Trait Variation and Coordination in Schizachyrium scoparium.” Ecology and Evolution15, no. 7: e71635. https://doi-org.turing.library.northwestern.edu/10.1002/ece3.71635.