2021 Outstanding Achievement Awards

Each year, the College of Natural Sciences honors its faculty, staff, and student leaders who have made important contributions to their discipline, department, college, and university by presenting them with the Outstanding Achievement Awards.     Recipients are nominated by colleagues within the college and chosen by committees chaired by designees appointed by Dean Tricia Serio, who may include past awardees. Of this year’s recipients, Dean Serio remarked, “These leaders continue to enrich our college community with their exceptional work. I am tremendously grateful for their efforts to demonstrate academic excellence, enhance the student experience, and create a more inclusive and accessible learning environment.”  Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Awards Karine Fénelon, Assistant Professor, Biology "I am deeply humbled and honored to receive this award. I also truly appreciate the continued support of UMass and CNS in creating a space for diversity and social justice. But most important, I hope that my efforts have contributed to the University's mission and willingness to engage in conversations and self-reflections toward concrete tangible changes...
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Bethany Bradley wins Prestigious Mercer Award

Bethany Bradley wins Prestigious Mercer Award

George Mercer Award: Bethany A. Bradley, Brit B. Laginhas, Raj Whitlock, Jenica M. Allen, Amanda E. Bates, Genevieve Bernatchez, Jeff Diez, Regan Early, Jonathan Lenoir, Montserrat Vilà, Cascade J. B. Sorte The Mercer Award recognizes an outstanding, recently published, ecological research paper by young scientists. This year’s Mercer Award goes to the authors of “Disentangling the abundance–impact relationship for invasive species.” This paper is the first meta-analysis to win the Mercer Award. Meta-analyses have become an important ecological research tool since their introduction into ecology in the early 1990s, and the work by Bethany A. Bradley and colleagues identified a novel general pattern that likely could not have been discovered or confirmed except via meta-analysis. Their comprehensive global meta-analysis of 1258 studies addresses how the impacts of invasive species scale with their abundances. The analysis revealed striking general pattern across trophic levels: invasive species’ impacts on lower trophic levels increase steeply but nonlinearly with their abundances, so that per-capita impact declines with increasing...
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Environmental Conservation Graduate Students Organized Successful 2021 EcoGSS Symposium

Environmental Conservation Graduate Students Organized Successful 2021 EcoGSS Symposium

Environmental Conservation Graduate Student Symposium 2021 offered a full day of talks and a panel discussion focused on diverse fields of study within the Department of Environmental Conservation. The symposium was held on March 19th, 2021 and brought together 140 registered participants. Sessions included traditional talks, lightning talks, and one panel discussion. The invited keynote speaker, J. Casey Clapp, who received his Masters of Arboriculture and Urban Forestry at UMass Amherst and is the Forester for the city of Portland, Oregon, addressed “The Urban Tree and Me”. The symposium co-organizers included UMass Amherst faculty advisor Timothy Randhir and graduate students, Patricia Levasseur, Alexia Perides, Amanda Suzzi, Ayodele O’uhuru, Samantha Myers, and Grace Casselberry. The panel discussion was co-organized by three UMass Amherst Ph.D. students, Mahsa Farid Mohajer, Hossam Mahmoud, Suncica Milosevic, focusing on the importance of energy efficiency considerations, built environment, and climate change. Farid Mohajer moderated the session, and the panelists were, Ajla Aksamija (Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture...
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Awards Abound for NAHB Student Chapter in this Year’s Residential Construction Competition

Awards Abound for NAHB Student Chapter in this Year’s Residential Construction Competition

Our UMass NAHB student chapter just capped off the most successful year in its history. In this year's NAHB Student Competition, in which teams have to create a proposal for a housing development, the UMass team came in 8th place. This was the highest the chapter has ever placed. In the proposal, the UMass team had to create a site plan, construction schedules and estimates, a sales and marketing strategy along with a detailed financial analysis of the project. Additionally, the UMass chapter was awarded 2nd place for the Outstanding Student Chapter Award. The NAHB Outstanding Student Chapter Award recognizes NAHB student chapters at schools that go the extra mile to engage with their local HBA, the community, and student body of their schools. The strong relationship between HBRAWM and the UMass chapter was a major factor for this award. The members of this year’s team included Hunter Apteker, George Boccelli, Hayden Cantoni, David Ibrahim, Robson Stewart, and Winnie Wang (see also image...
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Ryan Fawcett’s work on citizen forestry featured on WGGB

Ryan Fawcett’s work on citizen forestry featured on WGGB

With all of the recent high wind events leading to tree damage and power lines, have you ever wondered how to prune trees in your yard in order to avoid downed limbs all together? Ryan Fawcett is a graduate student at UMass Amherst. His research focuses on teaching volunteers how to prune trees. It’s part of a recent movement and push for citizen science, which includes citizen forestry and it could actually save money in the long run. “When these trees are young, we can have volunteers prune trees as opposed to having to pay for experienced arborists,” Fawcett said. Read full article... Link: Citizen forestry on the rise as volunteers work to prevent future tree damage ...
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