Past Senior Graduation Awards

2024

• Hana Adil: Roger Locandro Award for Outstanding Student in Natural Resources
• Aidan Dannenfelser: Smouse Award for an Outstanding Student in Evolution
• Catherine Flynn: James Applegate Award for Outstanding Student in Wildlife Conservation
• Lisa Heithmar: E.B. Moore Forestry Award
• Alyssa Vanderhoof: M. Buell Award for Outstanding Student in Ecology
• Matthew Heinle: Teuvo Airola Memorial Award in Environmental Geomatics
• Julia Cancro: Ning Moeller Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Scholarship

2023

• Nina Fedoryka: R. Locandro Award for Outstanding Student in Natural Resources
• Fitzwilliam Dettmer: M. Buell Award for Outstanding Study in Ecology
• Gabrielle G. Huntington: T. Airola Memorial Award for Outstanding Student
• Jacquelyn M. Johnston: E.B. Moore Forestry Award for Outstanding Student
• Kamren Gorman: P.S. Smouse Award for Outstanding Student in Evolution
• Lucy Yang: T. Airola Memorial Award for Outstanding Student
• Mariel Vandegrift: J. Applegate Award for Outstanding Student in Wildlife Conservation

2022

• Scarlett Simpson: J. Applegate Award for Outstanding Student in Wildlife Conservation
• Ryan Schmidt: M. Buell Award for Outstanding Study in Ecology
• Maite Whitley: T. Airola Memorial Award for Outstanding Student
• Julia Brennan: E.B. Moore Forestry Award for Outstanding Student
• Glen Diamond: P.S. Smouse Award for Outstanding Student in Evolution
• Emily Hughes: R. Locandro Award for Outstanding Student in Natural Resources
• Christopher Eddy: P.S. Smouse Award for Outstanding Student in Evolution
   

2021

• Thomas Giles: Peter S. Smouse Award for Outstanding Student in Evolution
• Swati Modhwadia: Teuvo Airola Memorial Award in Environmental Geomatics
• Mary Charlotte Kennedy Gitlin: James Applegate Award for Outstanding Student in Wildlife Conservation
• Eva Popp: Roger Locandro Award for Outstanding Student in Natural Resources
• Connor Anderson: M. Buell Scholarship for Outstanding Ecology Student
• Brianna Mitrione: Elwood B. Moore Forestry Award, New Jersey Chapter of American Foresters - for Overall Achievement in the Field of Forestry

2020

• Robert Porch: Roger Locandro Award for Outstanding Student in Natural Resources
• Kiera Malone: James Applegate Award for Outstanding Student in Wildlife Conservation
• Anna Bashkirova: Teuvo Airola Memorial Award for Outstanding Student in Environmental Geomatics
• Ameen Lofti: E.B. Moore Forestry Award
• Adam Yawdoszyn: Murray Buell Award for Outstanding Student in Ecology

2019

• Mary Powley: Murray Buell Award for Outstanding Student in Ecology
• Darrell Jones: James Applegate Award for Outstanding Student in Wildlife Conservation
• Casey Hamilton: Peter Smouse Award for Outstanding Student in Evolution
• Emily Conway: E.B. Moore Forestry Award
• Tanner Yuhas: Roger Locandro Award for Outstanding Student in Natural Resources
• Robert Helsel: Teuvio Airola Memorial Award in Environmental Geomatics

2018

• Deidre Supple: M. Buell Award for Outstanding Student in Ecology
• Anna Korn: Peter S. Smouse Award for Outstanding Student in Evolution
• Brian Schumm: James Applegate Award for Outstanding Student in Wildlife Conservation
• Michelle Arias: James Applegate Award for Outstanding Student in Wildlife Conservation
• Caroline Beardsley: Roger Locandro Award for Outstanding Students in Natural Resources

2017

• Christopher Brianik: Roger Locandro Award for Outstanding Student in Natural Resources
• Leila Al-Daqa: Peter S. Smouse Award for Outstanding Student in Evolution
• Dylan Hardy: Elwood B. Moore Forestry Award
• Rosemary Tucker: Murray Buell Award for Outstanding Student in Ecology
• Jessica Ray: James Applegate Award for Outstanding Student in Wildlife Conservation

2016

• Jill Azzolini: Murray Buell Award in Ecology
• Carmela Buono: Murray Buell Award in Ecology
• Amanda Bevan: James Applegate Award in Wildlife Conservation
• Tiffany Bennett: E. B. Moore Forestry Award
• Gemma Milly: E. B. Moore Forestry Award
• Joseph Zientek Roger Locandro Award in Natural Resources
• Kiersten Formoso: Peter Smouse Award in Evolution
• Kurtis Himmler: Peter Smouse Award in Evolution

2014

• Joshua Greenberg: Murray Buell award for Outstanding Student in Ecology
• Elizabeth Ostrowski: James Applegate award for Outstanding Student in Wildlife Conservation
• Emily Fishbach: Peter Smouse Award for Outstanding Student in Evolution
• Tyler Hardy: Peter Smouse Award for Outstanding Student in Evolution
• Hoan Kichen: Roger Locandro Award for Outstanding Student in Natural Resources

2011

• Laura R. Chen: M. Buell Award for the Outstanding Student in Ecology
• Jeffrey T. Kane: Ellwood B. Moore Forestry Award
• Carly Aulicky: James E. Applegate Award for the Outstanding Student in Wildlife Conservation
• Daniel M. Merchant: Roger Locandro Award for the Outstanding Student in Natural Resources
• Laura H. Wiley: Peter E. Smouse Award for the Outstanding Student in Evolution

2010

• Ryan Tallmadge: M. Buell Award for the Outstanding Student in Ecology
• Nathan Rausch: Ellwood B. Moore Forestry Award
• Daniel G. Clark: James E. Applegate Award for the Outstanding Student in Wildlife Conservation
• Allison Shiffner: Roger Locandro Award for the Outstanding Student in Natural Resources
• Amanda Giesler: Peter E. Smouse Award for the Outstanding Student in Evolution

Murray Buell

Murray Buell was born in New Haven and graduated in 1930 from Cornell. In 1935 he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Buell came to Rutgers in 1946 and stayed there until 1971. His wife, Helen Foote Buell, with whom he worked, earned her Ph.D. in phycology at the University of Minnesota. Rutgers scientists, especially Buell, trained in the Chicago school, did a great deal to help establish botanical ecology for the NYC vicinity during the 1960's. During his 25 years at Rutgers he had thirty-nine graduate students earn their Ph. D. under his mentoring. Along with his wife and Rutgers colleague Dr. John Alvin Small, Buell set up the Buell-Small Succession Study of the Hutcheson Memorial Forest in 1958. The fields are still used for research. Dr. Buell became the first director of the Hutcheson Memorial Forest and co-founded the Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution.

Elwood B. Moore

Ellwood B. Moore was instrumental in the modernization of management of eastern forests, although as a graduate student in Wisconsin he worked on the Riley Game Cooperative organized by Aldo Leopold and local Farmer R. J. Paulson. Leopold and Moore co-wrote at least one article. While at the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station in Pennsylvania and later in New Jersey, Moore wrote extensively about the effect of fire in New Jersey Forests and the use of fire as a forest management tool. In 1939, Moore penned Forest Management in New Jersey, a text that continues to be referenced by forest researchers.

James E. Applegate

James E. Applegate came to Rutgers in 1971, joining the faculty of what was then the Rutgers College of Agriculture and Environmental Science. In 1997 he spearheaded the development of a college wide course called Perspectives on Agriculture and the Environment, and coordinated 30 faculty members in teaching more than 700 first-year Cook College students. He has served as curriculum coordinator in the Natural Resources Department and throughout his career has been repeatedly cited for his excellence in the class room, often times teaching six courses a year. Applegate has received numerous awards for his distinguished career in natural resource education, his commitment to education at the college and in the community, and his consistent excellence in teaching. He continues to teach in the Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution and is also active on the Endangered and Nongame Species Advisory Committee of the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife.

Roger R. Locandro

Roger R. Locandro is inseparable from the history of Cook College, now the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Locandro holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Agriculture at Rutgers University as well as a Master of Science and Post Doctoral degrees in Botany and Ecology from the Graduate School-New Brunswick at Rutgers University. Born in New Brunswick, Dr. Locandro began his teaching career in 1956 as an instructor of vocational agriculture at Palmyra High School in Palmyra, New Jersey. While at Cook College and the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Locandro served as a county agricultural and resource management agent, associate extension specialist, assistant dean, associate dean, dean of students, and professor and extension specialist in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources. Locandro currently is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources.

Peter E. Smouse

Peter Smouse is a Professor of Evolution and Ecology in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources at Rutgers. Although originally trained in forestry, over his prolific career Dr. Smouse has worked in far-reaching fields, from anthropology and human genetics, demography and mathematical ecology, bacterial ecology, statistical epidemiology and immunology, to psychometrics. He has worked on quantitative analysis of humans and higher primates, propagule flow in forest trees, taxonomic diversity in forbs and agronomic grasses, clinal variation in insects, ecological niche partitioning in bacteria, and forensic genetics of marine and freshwater fish. His research group is primarily oriented toward mathematical modeling and statistical analysis of theoretical population biology problems, both those in evolution and ecology. Much of their work is theoretical, but computer simulation and data analysis play a role in their program as well. The group’s concentration on the mathematical aspects does not preclude field work, and they have conducted taxonomic studies of southern pines, genetic anthropology studies of rain forest tribes in Brazil and New Guinea, participated in studies of hydrothermal vents in the Gulf of California, and pollen flow studies in Costa Rica.