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Kuebbing (PhD 2014) Receives Award from SCB

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Alumna Sara Kuebbing (PhD 2014) has been awarded a Smith Fellowship from the Society of Conservation Biology.  The prestigious David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship Program seeks to develop future world leaders and entrepreneurs who are successful at linking conservation science and application.  Congratulations, Sara!

From the press release:

The Smith Fellowship, the nation’s premier postdoctoral program in conservation science, seeks to find solutions to the most pressing conservation challenges in the United States. Each Fellow’s research is conducted in partnership with a major academic institution and an “on the ground” conservation organization to help bridge the gap between theory and application.

Emerging from an impressive pool of Ph.D. applicants from around the world who competed for the Fellowship are five outstanding scientists who will comprise the David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship class of 2016:

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Sara Kuebbing will complete a project titled, “Invasion Treadmills: mechanisms that promote reinvasion of sites after removal of nonnative species” under the academic mentorship of Dr. Mark Bradford at Yale University and working in partnership with Drs. John Randall and Kris Serbesoff-King of The Nature Conservancy.

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While the Fellows’ research projects focus on urgent conservation issues, they also learn firsthand the challenges and rewards of conservation applications. The program’s focus is to enlarge their professional opportunities and ensure future success by helping them build relationships in the conservation and research communities and by providing opportunities for professional development through targeted workshops and training events.

The fellowship is named after the late Dr. David H. Smith, founder of the Cedar Tree Foundation, and pediatrician, inventor and conservationist.

The Smith Fellowship seeks to identify and support early-career scientists who will shape the growth of applied conservation biology. It’s also an opportunity for scientists to develop solutions to critical environmental challenges, said Dr. Michael P. Dombeck, executive director of the Smith Fellows program and former chief of the United States Forest Service.

“The Smith Fellowship enables young scientists to improve and expand their research skills and direct their research efforts toward problems of pressing conservation concern, to bridge the gap between research and application,” Dombeck said.

Wildflower Pilgrimage April 19-23

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The 66th Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage will take place8_Trillium_0996thumb April 19-23 2016.  For more information, please select one of the following links:

Thanks to Ken McFarland for organizing this spectacular event!

Photo credit: Trillium undulatum 0996, The Botanical Photography of Alan S. Heilman, copyright Alan S. Heilman, copyright The University of Tennessee Libraries, 2011.

 

 

Kim Bush (BS 1973), Distinguished Alumnus

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Kim Bush (BS 1973, Zoology) was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus at the Alumni Board Awards dinner on Friday, October 2.  Bush has devoted his life and career to the advancement of global health. After completing a highly successful thirty- three-year career at Baxter International Healthcare Corporation, he was recruited in 2011 to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where he is the foundation’s director of Life Science Partnerships and serves on the Global Health Leadership Team, working to solve some of the world’s toughest healthcare issues.

The Distinguished Alumnus/Alumna Award is the single highest alumni award given and is reserved for alumni who have excelled at the national or international level. The purpose of this award is to recognize an alumnus of The University of Tennessee who has attained extraordinary distinction and success in his or her field of endeavor, whose achievements have brought credit to The University of Tennessee and benefit to his or her fellow citizens.

 

Shute (MS 1984) and Rakes (MS 1989) in National Geographic

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On pages 6-7 in the March 2015 issue of National Geographic, there is a shout-out to J.R. Shute (MS 1984, Zoology) and Pat Rakes (MS 1989, Zoology), two of Dave Etnier’s former Zoology graduate students.  They founded Conservation Fisheries, Inc., based in Knoxville, which is devoted to the captive rearing and, where possible, the release and re-establishment of  threatened and endangered freshwater fishes.  They are noted for their ability to develop artificial habitats and other aspects of husbandry which will encourage their finicky charges to spawn and for the young to survive to become breeding stock for future generations.  This is not easy, since many of the fishes with which they work inhabit cool, fast-flowing, highly-oxygenated streams and are picky about the substrate over which they will mate and in which to lay their eggs.  They have both spent many hours in wet suits making the observations that are often a major part of their success.