Biology graduate students have been very successful this spring in winning awards and attracting external grants to support their research. These highly accomplished early-career scientists have competed nationally for these awards and their successes illustrate the strength of our Biology graduate program.
Alexandra Hernandez, a PhD candidate in Dr. Joe Ryan’s lab, is a 2021 inductee into the national Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society. The Bouchet Society seeks to develop a network of preeminent scholars who exemplify academic and personal excellence, foster environments of support, and serve as examples of scholarship, leadership, character, service, and advocacy for students who have been traditionally underrepresented in the academy.
Alexandra was awarded this recognition because of her contributions towards inclusion and diversity, including serving for several years as the founding President of the UF Chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). Alexandra and UF SACNAS board members (Lisa David, Natya Hans, Emilie-Kate Tavernier, Shamindri Tennakoon, Greg Jongsma, Ruben Garcia Vazquez, and Sarah Kurtis) organized the first Southeast SACNAS Regional Meeting in 2020 to increase support for students from underrepresented backgrounds in science in the southeast. You can learn more about Alexandra’s story by listening to this podcast hosted by UF’s then-Chief Diversity Officer, Antonio Farias.
Juan Piloto, a new MS student in Dr. Keith Choe’s Lab, won the presentation award from the 2021 annual meeting of the Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). ABRCMS encourages minority, first-generation, veteran and disabled students to pursue higher education in STEM. It is the largest conference for minority students in STEM attended by over 3,000. Juan’s research is on how sexual dimorphism affects stress responses.
Steve Cassidy, a PhD student with Dr. Nick Keiser, won a Student Research Grant from the Animal Behavior Society for his study on species interactions and how those interactions can change depending on behavior and diseases. Below, Steve shows the size of a social spider colony in Namibia.
Brittany Cummings, a PhD student in Dr. Gustav Paulay’s Lab, received support from the Lewis and Clark Fund for Exploration and Research of the American Philosophical Society, a Western North American Naturalist Grant, and a Friday Harbor Laboratory Student Research Fellowship. These grants will support her research on color patterns in a subtidal amphipod, pictured below.
Alexandra Gulick, a PhD student with Dr. Karen Bjorndal, won a “Scientists in the Parks Award” from the Ecological Society of America. She is studying green sea turtle grazing dynamics and foraging behavior and the effect of grazing on a Caribbean seagrass ecosystem.
Jeanette Pirlo, a Ph.D. student with Dr. Bruce McFadden, won a grant from the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Fund of the American Museum of Natural History. She is studying a recently discovered population of 5-to-6-million year-old relatives of elephants called gomphotheres. Below, Jeanette is excavating the humerus bone of a gomphothere at the Montbrook Dig Site located near Williston, Florida. The bone will be used to estimate body mass, which will help with the paleoecological reconstruction of the site.
