Student & Foreign Scholar Awards | Increasing Participation and Engagement by the Next Generation of Landscape Ecologists and Fostering International Exchange at the IALE–North America Annual Meetings
Looking for information on travel awards or the Student Presentation Awards Program related to the Annual Meeting? Use these links to get there!
Best Student Presentation
The award for Best Student Presentation is given for the best oral and the best poster presentation delivered by a student at the Annual Meeting, based on presentation criteria scored by non-student participants at the meeting.
2025 Best Student Presentation Awardees
2025 Award Winners will be posted soon. Please check back for updates.
Foreign Scholar Travel Awards
IALE–North America supports attendance of landscape ecologists from foreign countries and fosters international exchange about advances in landscape ecology at each annual meeting. IALE–North America especially seeks to support more participants from non-G7 countries while also increasing connections and representation from other IALE–North America countries (Mexico, Central America, and The Caribbean). Awards are available to foreign scholars to offset costs associated with attending the IALE–North America meeting.
2025 Foreign Scholar Travel Awardees:
2024 Foreign Scholar Travel Award Recipients:
2025 Foreign Scholar Travel Awardees:
- Fernando Mayani-Parás, Instituto de Biología, UNAM, Mexico
- Divyashree Rana, National Centre for Biological Sciences, India
2024 Foreign Scholar Travel Award Recipients:
- Sharath Hulihalli Manjunatha (India), Bangalore University
- Manu Mohan (India), Wildlife Institute of India
- Delphine Mpayimana (Rwanda), University of Rwanda
- Giulia de Paula Silveira (Brazil), University of Lisbon
Student Travel Awards
In recognition that students are valuable current and future members of IALE–North America, the Student Travel Awards support student travel to the Annual Meetings. Each award recipient received a waiver of the conference registration fee and $500 to help cover travel expenses to attend the 2024 Annual Meeting in Oklahoma City, OK.
2025 Student Travel Award Recipients:
2024 Student Travel Award Recipients:
2025 Student Travel Award Recipients:
- Serena Felix, Northern Arizona University
- Nan Jia, Michigan State University
- Adeyinka Olusanya, Oklahoma State University
- Binaya Adhikari, University of Kentucky
- Xin Wang, Arizona State University
- Kathryn Davis, University of Wyoming
- Sydney Waloven, Michigan State University
- Aiyin Zhang, Clark University
- Jasmin Green, University of California, Davis
- Noah Weidig, University of Florida
2024 Student Travel Award Recipients:
- Hammed Akande, Concordia University, Montreal, Québec, Canada
- Rebeca Becdach, California Polytechnic State University–Humboldt
- Veronica Frans, Michigan State University
- Josh Gilman, Arizona State University
- Jianxing Guan, University of Michigan
- Venkatesh Kolluru, University of South Dakota
- Brit Laginhas, North Carolina State University
- Margaret Lawrimore, North Carolina State University
- Aiden Schore, University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign
- Harrison Smith, University of Arkansas
Past Award Recipients
Best Student Presentation
The Award for Best Student Presentation is given for the best oral and/or poster presentation given by a student at the previous Annual Meeting. Since 2022, two awards have been made and effective 2024 these are now intentionally given for the Best Poster and Best Oral Presentation made by a student. The award consists of a $300 cash award, a certificate commemorating the award, and a waiver of one future meeting registration fee. Waiver of registration may be applied to one of the next two subsequent IALE–North America annual meetings.
The Award for Best Student Presentation is given for the best oral and/or poster presentation given by a student at the previous Annual Meeting. Since 2022, two awards have been made and effective 2024 these are now intentionally given for the Best Poster and Best Oral Presentation made by a student. The award consists of a $300 cash award, a certificate commemorating the award, and a waiver of one future meeting registration fee. Waiver of registration may be applied to one of the next two subsequent IALE–North America annual meetings.
- 2024. Sean Sutor (Texas Tech University) Examining Landscape-Scale Connectivity and Habitat Use for the Sonoran Desert Tortoise (oral)
- 2024. Chenchen Zhang (University of Oklahoma) Mapping Paddy Rice with an Enhanced Knowledge-based Algorithm and Time Series Optical (Sentinel-2 and Landsat), Microwave (Sentinel-1), and Thermal (MODIS) Imagery (poster)
- 2023. Clara Woodie (University of California—Riverside) Spatial Heterogeneity in Resources Increases Long-Term Persistence of Intraguild Predation System (poster)
- 2023. Mahalia B. Clark (University of Vermont) Flocking to Fire: Where are Americans Moving Relative to Climate and Natural Hazards? (oral)
- 2022. Katherine Hayes (University of Colorado—Denver) Short-Interval Reburning Changes Fuel Structure and Fire Behavior of Boreal Forests
- 2022. Thomas Smith (University of Florida) Biodiversity Across Scales in a Fragmented World: Experimental Tests of How Habitat Loss, Fragmentation, Patch Size and Matrix Quality Impact Communities
- 2021. Tin Hang Hung (University of Oxford) GenDivRange: A Novel Database of Population Genetic Diversity and Dispersal Distance across a Wide Range of Taxa to Test the Evolutionary Determinants of Species Range Limits
- 2020. Dalal Hanna (McGill University) Assessing the Relationship Between Water Quality and Watershed Protection
- 2019. Courtney Larson (Colorado State University) Recreation and Wildlife Conservation in a Fragmented Urban Landscape
- 2018. Timothy Swartz (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Integrating Historical, Ecological, and Social Data to Understand Patterns of Amphibian Occupancy and Habitat Availability in an Agroecosystem (oral)
- 2017. Mark Herse (Kansas State University) Habitat Fragment Shape and Landscape Matrix Composition Mediate Abundance of a Declining Grassland Songbird (oral)
- 2016. Erika Newman (University of California—Berkeley) Macroecology Meets Disturbance Ecology: Connecting Species Diversity Patterns to Disturbance Ecology through Information Entropy Statistics (oral)
- 2015. Theraesa Coyle (McGill University) Conserving God’s Own Country: Biodiversity in Agroforestry Landscapes of Kerala, India (oral)
- 2014. Amy Mui (University of Toronto) Seasonal Changes in Core Wetland Connectivity for a Threatened Freshwater Turtle in Southern Ontario (oral)
- 2013. Micah Hahn (University of Wisconsin--Madison) Roosting Behavior and Habitat Selection of Pteropus giganteus Reveals Potential Links to Nipah Virus Epidemiology (oral)
- 2012. Jenica Allen (University of Connecticut) Socio-Economics Drive Invasive Plants in New England Through Forest Fragmentation (oral)
- 2011. Mao-Ning Tuanmu (Michigan State University) Can the Giant Panda Survive Climate Change? (oral)
- 2010. Kathleen Vigness-Raposa (University of Rhode Island) Habitat of Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the North Atlantic Ocean (oral)
- 2009. Alisa Wade (Colorado State University) Urban Encroachment on the US Protected Area Network (oral)
- 2008. Bronwyn Rayfield (University of Toronto) Identifying Potential Movement Pathways in Fragmented Landscapes: Incorporating Uncertainty in Landscape Resistance (oral)
- 2008. Sarah Olson (University of Wisconsin—Madison) Malaria Patterns and Hydrology in the Amazon - Will Land Use and Cover Changes Alter Risk? (poster)
- 2007. Cathy Collins (University of Kansas) Patch Size Affects Plant Extinction Rates in an Experimentally Fragmented Grassland (oral)
- 2007. Benjamin Zuckerberg (State University of New York) Implications of the Abundance-Occupancy Rule: Can Atlas Data Be Used to Monitor Avian Population Change? (oral)
- 2006. Patrick James (University of Toronto) Simulating the Effects of Shifting Harvest Policies on Long Term Spatial Patterns of Forest Age Structure (oral)
- 2005. Yolanda Wiersma (University of Guelph) Beta-Diversity and Reserve Design in Canada (oral)
- 2004. Brad McRae (Northern Arizona University) Integrating Landscape Ecology and Population Genetics: New Tools from Circuit Theory (oral)
- 2003. Jennifer Miller (West Virginia University) A Comparison of Methods for Incorporating Spatial Dependence in Predictive Vegetation Models (oral)
- 2002. Tenley Conway (Rutgers University) The Impact of Future Development on the Water and Terrestrial Resources in the Barnegat Bay Watershed NJ (oral)
- 2001. Matthew Baker (University of Michigan) Predicting Spatial Variation in Riparian Hydrology and Forest Composition Across Lower Michigan (oral)
- 2000. Edward Laurent (Purdue University) Modeling Habitat Context for the Endangered Copperbelly Water Snake (oral)
- 1998. Patrick Zollner (Indiana State University) Search strategies for Landscape-Level Inter-Patch Movements (oral)
- 1997. Jing Huang (Oregon State University) Characterizing Forest Spatial Pattern Using Digitized Aerial Photographs (oral)
- 1996. Nancy McIntyre (Colorado State University) Effects of Internal and External Motivational Factors on Animal Movements in Experimental Landscapes (oral)
- 1995. Timothy Keitt (University of New Mexico) Detecting Critical Scales in Fragmented Landscapes (oral)
- 1994. George Hess (North Carolina State University) Could Increased Connectivity Be More Than We Bargained For? (poster)
- 1991. Joseph Miller (Penn State University) Landscape Patterns and Biotic Communities Characteristics in Central Pennsylvania (poster)
Best Student Presentation—Honorable Mention (discontinued after 2021)
Honorable Mention for the Best Student Presentation Award was previously presented for an oral or poster presentation given by a student at the previous Annual Meeting. The award consisted of a $150 cash award, a certificate commemorating the award, and a waiver of the meeting registration fee at one of the next two Annual Meetings. Honorable Mention for Best Student Presentation was discontinued following the 2021 Annual Meeting in favor of presenting two awards to students giving the top-ranked presentations at the previous year's meeting.
Honorable Mention for the Best Student Presentation Award was previously presented for an oral or poster presentation given by a student at the previous Annual Meeting. The award consisted of a $150 cash award, a certificate commemorating the award, and a waiver of the meeting registration fee at one of the next two Annual Meetings. Honorable Mention for Best Student Presentation was discontinued following the 2021 Annual Meeting in favor of presenting two awards to students giving the top-ranked presentations at the previous year's meeting.
- 2021. April Martinig (University of Alberta) Temporal Clustering of Prey in Wildlife Passages Provides No Evidence of a Prey-Trap, Instead Vegetated Highway Medians Sct as Foraging Habitat
- 2020. Caitlin Cunningham (Dalhousie University) Developing a Method to Examine Changes in Effective Mesh Size Across a Landscape: A Case Study of Nova Scotia, Canada
- 2019. Michele Buonanduci (University of Washington) Individual Tree and Local Tree Neighborhood Factors Affecting Mountain Pine Beetle-Induced Lodgepole Pine Mortality
- 2018. Brooke Cassell (Portland State University) Under Extreme Weather Conditions, Dry Mixed-conifer Forests in the Western U.S. Benefit from Spatial Optimization of Fuel Treatments (oral)
- 2017. Samantha Hauser (University of Louisiana—Lafayette) Understanding Landscape Variables that Influence Gene Flow in a Highly Vagile Species, the Black-Capped Vireo (Vireo atricapilla) (oral)
- 2017. Carly Ziter (University of Wisconsin—Madison) Ecosystem Service Provision by Urban Greenspaces: Effects of Land Cover, Land-Use History, and Within-Land Cover Variability on Soil-Based Services (oral)
- 2016. Elsa Anderson (University of Illinois—Chicago) Evaluating Historic, Local, Social, and Landscape Drivers of Species Diversity in Vacant Lots in Chicago, IL, USA (oral)
- 2015. Jesse Miller (University of Wisconsin—Madison) Encroachment of Woody Vegetation Drives Rapid State Change in Insular Grasslands (oral)
- 2015. Kathy Zeller (University of Massachusetts—Amherst) Evaluating Resistance Surfaces for Wildlife (oral)
- 2014. Binbin Li (Duke University) Impacts and Solutions of Livestock Grazing in Protected Areas for the Giant Panda (oral)
- 2013. Camille Beasley (University of Georgia) Suspended Development: Disentangling Effects of Habitat Alteration and Human Habitation on Birds (oral)
- 2013. Katherine Renwick (Colorado State University) Interactive Effects of Climate and Disturbance on Landscape-scale Range Dynamics of Rocky Mountain Tree Species (oral)
- 2012. Steven Collins (Texas Tech University) Developing Species Distribution Models for Riverine Dragonflies with Multiscale Environmental Parameters (oral)
- 2011. Kristin Marshall (Colorado State University) Wolves, Elk, and Willows: Landscape Configurations on Yellowstone's Northern Range (oral)
- 2009. Niko Balkenhol (University of Idaho) Hierarchical Multi-Scale Analysis of Landscape-Genetic Relationships in Idaho Cougars (oral)
- 2009. Jennifer Litteral (Arizona State University) Effects of Urbanization on Avian Species Diversity in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area: Patterns in Vegetation Fragments (oral)
- 2005. Alicia Ellis (Dartmouth College) Linking Individual Movement to Population Level Processes in Tree Hole Mosquito Systems (oral)
- 2004. Don Falk (University of Arizona) Event-Area Relationships: Scaling Rules for Fire Regimes (oral)
- 2003. Monika Moskal (University of Kansas) Harmonic Analysis of Natural and Man Made Disturbances in the Yellowstone Region (oral)
- 2002. Kenneth Pierce (Duke University) Detecting Scale-Specific Interactions Between Seed Dispersal and Environment (oral)
- 2001. Geoffrey Hay (University of Montreal) Scale-Space for Landscape Ecologists: A Novel Approach for Defining Multi-Scale Landscape Structure in High-Resolution Imagery (oral)
- 2000. Jennifer Fraterrigo (Colorado State University) Low Density Human Settlement in the Rocky Mountain West: Does it Matter to Bird Communities? (poster)
- 2000. Veronique St.Louis (University of Montreal) Does Vegetation Heterogeneity Have Any Effect on Territory Delimitation of Black-Throated Blue Warblers (Dendroica caerulescens) and Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla)? (oral)
- 1998. Penny Flick (Duke University) A Multiple-Scale Approach to Reserve Site Selection (poster)
- 1997. Deborah Bishop (Baylor University) Topographic Effects on Avian Richness, Abundance, and Probability of Site Use During Spring Migration (poster)
- 1996. Sandra Luque (Rutgers University) The Impact of Management Practices on the Landscape of a Natural Reserve: The New Jersey Pine Barrens, A Case Study