NSF Graduate Fellowships - Updated (again)

Five Six current or incoming EEB students were awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships or honorable mentions:

Awards:

• Rachel Fovargue (Armsworth lab)
• Lauren Breza (Classen lab)
• Angela Chuang (incoming Riechert lab)

Honorable mentions:

• Brian Looney (Matheny)
• Katie Massana (Schilling & O'Meara)
• Quentin Read (Sanders)

Update: Also note that Kelly Rooker, a graduate student in math who is in EEB faculty member Sergey Gavrilets' lab, was also awarded an NSF fellowship.

Update 2: Angela Chuang has decided to enter EEB in the fall; numbers have been updated to reflect this.

In the areas of ecology and systematics, EEB tied for 12th 9th place out of all universities in awards and honorable mentions (note that UTK EEB is the only department broken out; all other numbers were summed across all departments in other universities). In these areas EEB had more students honored than Harvard, Duke, Stanford, Yale, and many other universities with strong equivalent departments. Below is a table of EEB and all other institutions with any awards or honorable mentions ecology or systematics. Across all areas and departments, UTK got 12 awards and honorable mentions in total.

Institution	Awards + Honorable Mentions
University of California-Davis	16
University of Washington	13
University of California-Berkeley	9
University of California-Santa Cruz	9
Cornell University	8
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities	8
Princeton University	7
Texas A & M University Main Campus	7
University of Tennessee Knoxville, all departments	7
University of Tennessee Knoxville, EEB only	6
Colorado State University	6
Michigan State University	6
University of Florida	6
University of Arizona	5
University of Colorado at Boulder	5
University of Georgia	5
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	5
Utah State University	5
Indiana University	4
Oregon State University	4
University of California-Santa Barbara	4
University of Chicago	4
University of Michigan Ann Arbor	4
University of Wisconsin-Madison	4
Pennsylvania State Univ University Park	3
Stanford University	3
University of California-Los Angeles	3
University of California-San Diego	3
University of Montana	3
University of South Florida	3
Yale University	3
Arizona State University	2
Harvard University	2
Montana State University	2
Oklahoma State University	2
Purdue University	2
SUNY at Stony Brook	2
University of California-Irvine	2
University of Hawaii	2
University of Idaho	2
University of Illinois at Chicago	2
University of Kansas Main Campus	2
University of Missouri-Columbia	2
University of Notre Dame	2
University of Pittsburgh	2
University of Texas at Austin	2
University of Utah	2
University of Vermont &amp State Agricultural College	2
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University	2
American Museum Natural History	1
Boise State University	1
Boston University	1
Central Michigan University	1
College of William and Mary	1
Dartmouth College	1
Emory University	1
Florida Gulf Coast University	1
Florida International University	1
Florida State University	1
Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology - University of Hawaii Manoa	1
Humboldt State University	1
Humboldt State University Foundation	1
Kent State University	1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	1
Miami University	1
Missouri State University	1
North Carolina State University	1
North Dakota State University Fargo	1
Old Dominion University	1
Portland State University	1
Rutgers University New Brunswick	1
Salisbury University	1
San Francisco State University	1
San Jose State University	1
Syracuse University	1
Texas State University - San Marcos	1
Trustees of Boston University	1
Tufts University	1
University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus	1
University of California-Riverside	1
University of Central Florida	1
University of Connecticut	1
University of Maine	1
University of Massachusetts Amherst	1
University of Nevada Reno	1
University of New Hampshire	1
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	1
University of North Carolina at Charlotte	1
University of Oklahoma Norman Campus	1
University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras	1
University of Virginia Main Campus	1
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution	1

Institutions with no awards or honorable mentions not listed.

Note that for this table, ecology and systematics correspond to NSF categories "Life Sciences - Ecology", "Life Sciences - Systematic Biology".

EEB Newsletter

The most recent version of the EEB Newsletter has appeared. You can download a PDF, submit items to the editor, or get an email subscription here.

Sanders awarded grant for effect of climate change on ants

EEB Associate Professor Nate Sanders was recently awarded a $171,286 grant from NSF for studying "The climate cascade: functional and evolutionary consequences of climatic change on species, trait, and genetic diversity in a temperate ant community ". For more information about the grant, go here.

Ecology Observatory in Oak Ridge

The Knoxville News-Sentinel newspaper recently covered the establishment of a UT/ORNL site as one of 20 ecological observatories funded as part of a new $434M national program. See the article here. Members of EEB will be heavily involved in this research.

Excellence in progress towards degree

The awards for excellence in progress towards a degree went to Romina Dimarco [not pictured], Mark Genung, and Katie Stuble.

Outstanding EEB undergraduate

The award for outstanding EEB undergraduate went to Lauren Breza. Lauren started research at UTK just after high school, and worked in the Boake, Sanders, and, most recently, Classen labs.

Gary McCracken took pains to note that competition for this award was intense this year, with several other excellent nominees, especially Sarah Wood, Matt Letre, and Heather Tran, all graduating this spring.

Mariano Rodriguez-Cabal awarded NSF DDIG fellowship for work on invasion ecology in Patagonia

EEB grad student Mariano Rodriguez-Cabal was just awarded an NSF DDIG fellowship for his PhD work on invasion ecology in Patagonia:

DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Direct and indirect effects of invasive species on plant-seed disperser mutualisms.

Many plants rely on fruit-eating animals to disperse their seeds. This interaction benefits both the plant and the animal and is therefore termed a mutualism. Because seed dispersal can determine the abundance and range of the plant, seed dispersal mutualisms can benefit other species that use the plant for food or shelter and thus affect patterns of biodiversity across the landscape. The introduction by humans of new species into a habitat can disrupt seed dispersal mutualisms, but we know little about such disruptions may affect other, interrelated species. This project will test the larger ecological effects of disruption of an important seed dispersal mutualism in the northern temperate forests of Patagonia in Argentina. The mistletoe Tristerix corymbosus is the sole winter nectar source for the hummingbird Sephanoides sephaniodes, which remains in the region year-round and is in turn responsible for the pollination of nearly 20% of the endemic woody flora in the region. The seeds of the mistletoe are dispersed exclusively by the marsupial Dromiciops gliroides. After passing through the gut of the marsupial, most of the defecated seeds stick to branches of maqui, Aristotelia chilensis, the most abundant understory shrub in the forest and the most common host for the mistletoe. Because of these close ecological relationships, exotic species that reduce the density of maqui could also reduce the abundances of the mistletoe, the hummingbird, and the marsupial, changing the forest as a whole. This project will test the effects of the exotic wasp Vespula germanica and of exotic ungulates on maqui populations and on the linked species in the forest.

Conservation of biological diversity is important to human society, and one of the major threats to biodiversity are the accidental and intentional introductions of new species around the world by humans. This research will further our understanding of how introduced species can affect biodiversity and help guide management to conserve diversity. The research will also strengthen international scientific collaboration and training.