Student mentoring and support 2024

Group of young people at tallgrass field research site

Learning and leading

Dori Summers (second from left), KU doctoral student, leads a Haskell Indian Nations University environmental science lab class harvest at a field research site she set up as part of her National Science Foundation fellowship.

We conduct daily research activity in the lab and the field, and students are involved in virtually every grant funded. Our scientists and staff engage students through:

  • classes taught on campus by our scientists who hold faculty positions;
  • field courses and field work led by scientists or graduate students at the KU Field Station or other sites;
  • opportunities to assist with faculty research in our labs or at the KU Field Station through fellowships or grant funding;
  • mentorship of students doing their own research;
  • assistance to students in obtaining grants for research;
  • assistance to students in developing posters and presentations for conferences;
  • paid employment in our offices and at the KU Field Station.

In 2024, our researchers chaired 30 master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation committees and served as committee members for other students. In addition, they mentored 52 undergraduate or postbaccalaureate students, most working in our labs. One student defended a dissertation this year; three defended master’s theses.

Our research center also provides annual awards for student research. In 2024, we provided assistance for seven students. Recipients include both graduate and undergraduate students, and each awardee presents their work at one of our Friday Ecology Seminars. The awards are funded through KU Endowment and announced in a KU news story. 

Students mentored by our scientists received other honors and awards this year:

  • Dori Summers, doctoral student in the Baer Lab, was awarded the highly competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which provides three years of financial support plus opportunities for professional development.
     
  • Kaitlyn Savoy, a junior in biology in the Sikes Microbial Lab, was named a Goldwater Scholar. Kaitlyn also was a finalist for the Courtwright Award for Undergraduate Research Excellence in spring 2024 through KU’s Center for Undergraduate Research for the project “Electric dispersal potential of fungal spores.”
     
  • Reb Bryant, doctoral student in ecology and evolutionary biology in the Bever/Schultz Lab, was awarded a $119,800, two-year USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture Predoctoral Fellowship for the project "Restoring soil health with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi: Improving biodiversity and soil structure, nutrients, and microbes in restored lands."

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