Outstanding Graduate Student Award
The ENRI Outstanding Graduate Student Award recognizes the academic achievement, professional potential, and disciplinary contribution of graduate students within the College of Agricultural Sciences whose scholarship focuses on issues in the domain of the environment and natural resources.
Award description, eligibility, and nomination criteria.
Nominations Due: March 5, 2010
2009 Award Winner
Michael J. Castellano
Although he is in the middle of his Ph.D. program, Mr. Castellano is already an accomplished scientist. He has published nine peer reviewed manuscripts (three as first author). In addition, he has engaged a group of Penn State students, postdocs, and faculty, in a reading group that has resulted in a peer reviewed publication that identifies a global pattern in the spatial variability of soil solution nitrogen. His research is forging innovative connections between biogeochemistry and hydrology. He moves fluidly between ideas, the literature, field research, and publications. His co-advisors, Jason Kaye and Henry Lin, have found him to be a catalyst for productivity in their labs. His ability to forge collaborations and bridge disciplines has contributed greatly to the academic environment at Penn State. He is also a highly successful grant writer. He was awarded a prestigious, nationally competitive graduate fellowship from the NOAA, National Estuarine Research Reserve System, and a NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant. Mr. Castellano is also actively engaged in outreach programs at the NOAA preserve at Otter Point on the Chesapeake Bay where he is conducting field research.
2008 Award Winner
Andy Wilson
Mr. Wilson is a PhD candidate in the Ecology Intercollege Graduate Degree Program. His research focus is on landscape ecology and population ecology, addressing bird conservation issues. Recent research has focused on grassland birds.
2007 Award Winner
Nga Nguyen
Ms. Nguyen is a PhD candidate in Agricultural, Regional and Environmental Economics, in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology. Her research focuses on the design of markets for water pollution trading and utilizes innovations in agent-based economic models.
