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.

Dhananjaya (DJ) Katju, an ABS-IGERT Trainee, has been named one of the grantees for the Center on Conflict and Development’s Student Media Grants Program (SMGP) 2014. The SMGP 2014 is an annual photojournalism grant awarded to students interested in using innovative methods to research and chronicle issues facing fragile and conflict-affected nations. His proposal, Ethnic Conflict as Mediator of Protected Area Governance: Bodo Separatism and the Administration of the Manas Tiger and Biosphere Reserve, was selected from among 20 applications by a panel of judges comprised of faculty from four colleges at Texas A&M University.  Congratulations DJ!

 

 

Dear ABSers,

The purpose of the ABS Perspectives Series is to share our experiences as ABSers, inform likeminded conservationists and practitioners of our research, and promote the mission of the ABS Program. In this regard the 4^th Perspectives Series has paid dividends. I was recently contacted by BioDiverse Perspectives (BioDV), a group of graduate students from around the globe dedicated to fostering communication among graduate students, and between students and the broader scientific community, on biodiversity science. Below is an introduction from the BioDV group and an invitation to visit their website and contribute.

Cheers,

Kenny Wallen

 

A Letter from the BioDV Group…

Dear Students of Texas A&M’s Applied Biodiversity Science Program,

In the beginning, the internet lacked a space for graduate students to discuss biodiversity. They toiled in labs and fields. They read endless papers. But there was nowhere for them to share their knowledge. Then, a group of graduate students came together. They worked tirelessly through literature reviews and primary research. Three years ago, BioDiverse Perspectives was born of that effort – bringing together graduate students from across the globe to discuss biodiversity research and graduate school experiences broadly. Now the project is growing again. BioDiverse Perspectives is looking for new contributors, someone new to take on the challenge of communicating biodiversity research to the world, and we think you just might be that person. Much like Texas A&M’s ABS program, we at BioDiverse Perspectives believe that science is a global initiative and requires communication across disciplines to be effective. Thus, we’d like to invite students in the ABS program to share some of their experiences and views on biodiversity research with our readers.

BioDiverse Perspectives is the brainchild of an NSF-funded distributed graduate seminar and was launched to deeply examine the frontiers and foundations of biodiversity research. Since its inception, BioDV has grown beyond anything that the original members could have expected, and now includes a steering committee from the University of Washington, Texas A&M, Northeastern, North Carolina, Virginia institute of Marine Sciences, UFRGS in Brazil, and Imperial College London. As early career researchers, we disseminate relevant issues regarding biodiversity and conservation to a diverse readership through concise and intriguing blog posts. We encourage contributions from graduate students in a variety of scientific fields, so please feel free to submit a post through the “contribute” link on our homepage if you’ve got something to say. We look forward to hearing from you!

Look out for ABS’s introductory guest post on BioDiverse Perspectives in the coming weeks, and feel free to contact us here if you have any questions about contributing.

Best of luck in your future work,

The BioDV Team

 

Kenny Wallen was recently awarded a Graduate Student Pursuit from the National Science Foundation’s Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC). SESYNC focuses on funding relevant, transdisciplinary, and far-reaching collaborative research by bringing together different disciplines and stakeholders to increase knowledge on the complex interactions between human and ecological systems.  Congratulations Kenny!

Dr. Janice Monk, President of the Society of Women Geographers, has ​announced that Swetha Peteru will receive the Pruitt Fellowship ($12,000), a nationally competitive award for promising women scholars in geography.

Swetha’s dissertation examines how agroforestry practices alter biodiversity by providing a novel quasi-experimental design that links people with genetic diversity through methods in landscape genetics. Her study requires interviews, mapping as well as next generation sequencing technology of plants to analyze the relationship between agroforestry practices and biodiversity outcomes. This award supports her ongoing field work in Central Peru, where she will be headed this fall.

Congratulations Swetha!