Congratulations to Dhananjaya (DJ) Katju and Swetha Peteru, who have both been awarded Texas A&M University Dissertation Fellowships. They are 2 of only 6 awardees for the Spring of 2016. Selection criteria for the fellowship includes academic performance and productivity while at Texas A&M, potential impact of student’s research and scholarly work on society, and financial need. This fellowship is intended to support doctoral students in the final analysis of the research topic and the final writing of the dissertation.
DJ’s research is conducted in the Manas Tiger and Biosphere Reserve (or Manas) in the state of Assam (India). His study focuses on explaining how encroaching households within protected areas are active agents of political, social, economic and ecological change, rather than merely passive victims of policies, economies and socio-cultural processes.
Swetha’s research of a coffee agroforestry program run by an NGO in Junin, Peru examines changes in biodiversity through an integrated study of participation, biogeography, and landscape genetics (a field combining molecular techniques with landscape ecology).
More information can be found at the Texas A&M University Office of Graduate and Professional Studies website.
