Student mentoring and support 2023

Four students listen as another gestures over plants in a greenhouse.

Future mentors

Doctoral candidate Haley Burrill (left) explains research methods used in a specific study to students visiting through the National Science Foundation’s REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) program.

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

  • classes taught on campus by our scientists holding faculty positions;
  • field courses and field work led by scientists or graduate students at the Field Station or other sites;
  • opportunities to assist with faculty research in Survey 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 Survey offices and at the KU Field Station.

In 2023, our researchers chaired 31 master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation committees and served as committee members for other students. In addition, they mentored 51 undergraduate or postbaccalaureate students, most working in our labs.

Our research center also provides annual awards for student research. In 2023, we provided assistance for six 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.

Two students received named awards:

  • Director’s Award (for research conducted by a graduate student), $1,500: Ceyda Kural, Houston doctoral student in ecology & evolutionary biology, “Tripsacum dactyloides: a native plant model to study microbial contributions to local adaptation and drought tolerance.” (advisor Maggie Wagner)
  • Kenneth B. Armitage Award (for research conducted by an undergraduate or graduate student at the KU Field Station) $1,000: Brooke Bernhardt, graduate student in ecology & evolutionary biology, “The role of species identity and species richness on physiological responses to precipitation.” (advisor Jim Bever)

Four students received Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research Awards (for either undergraduate or graduate students), $1,000:

  • Naomi Betson, doctoral student in ecology & evolutionary biology, “Effects of forb seeding density on community structure and development over the first eight years of a prairie restoration.” (advisor Bryan Foster)
  • Reb Bryant, doctoral student in ecology & evolutionary biology, “Native arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and prairie restoration success at Nachusa Grasslands." (advisor Jim Bever)
  • Annalise Guthrie, Kansas City, Mo., doctoral student in ecology & evolutionary biology, “Evidence for rapid and wide-spread root-induced soil structural changes in deep soils.” (advisor Sharon Billings)
  • Yufan Zhou, doctoral student in ecology & evolutionary biology, “Comparing plant-soil feedback between perennial and annual species.” (advisors Jim Bever and Maggie Wagner)

Students mentored by our scientists also received other honors and awards this year, including the following:

  • Micah Unruh, doctoral candidate in the Billings Lab, was awarded a $41,000 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Award to travel to Chile to research soil carbon storage.
  • Marcela Paiva Veliz, graduate student in indigenous studies in the Kindscher Lab, was awarded KU’s Sherman and Irene Dreiseszun Scholarship, which provides $5,000 in support, by the Office of Graduate Studies and the Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Foundation.
  • Ashley Wojciechowski, doctoral candidate in the Baer Ecology Lab, received the Kenneth B. Armitage Graduate Teaching Award for her work in KU's Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. The award carries a $1,000 prize.

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