Learn more about the recipients of Arboretum Research Fellowships.
2026 Research Fellows
Arboretum Leopold Fellowship (two years)
Wyatt Cummings
Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, UW–Madison
Advisors: Drs. Benjamin Zuckerberg and Zuzana Buřivalová
Project: Understory restoration and forest phenology: exploring the effects of invasive shrub removal on bird communities and soundscapes
Research Fellowships (one year)
Shaneya Miriyagalla
Department of Botany, UW–Madison
Advisor: Dr. Anne Pringle
Project: Comparing historical records and modern data to assess fifty years of change in Wisconsin soil microfungal communities (emphasis on Aspergillus and Penicillium)
Jillian Neece
Department of Integrative Biology, UW–Madison
Advisor: Dr. Monica Turner
Project: Past and future seeds: Long-term trends in restored and remnant prairies and milkweed reproductive demography
Jasmine Groves
Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, UW–Madison
Advisor: Dr. Jasmine Childress
Project: The health of freshwater ecosystems using parasites as a model
Hannah Ashe
Department of Integrative Biology, UW–Madison
Advisor: Dr. John Orrock
The shadow of disease risk: examining spatial variation in the behavior and abundance of the hosts and vectors of Lyme disease following invasive shrub removal
Past Fellows
2024 and 2025 Arboretum Leopold Fellowship (two years)
Aishwarya Veerabahu, Department of Botany (advisors: Anne Pringle and Michelle Jusino)
The Midas mushroom: Ecological and social dimensions of the invasive golden oyster mushroom
2025 Research Fellowships (one year)
Linden Taylor, Department of Botany (advisor: Ken Keefover-Ring)
The role of environmental heterogeneity in maintaining chemical diversity in prairie populations of wild bergamot
Aundrea Taylor, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology (advisor: Nicholas Balster)
Plant-soil feedback loops: Does foraging by deer homogenize the above- and belowground environments of hardwood stands at the UW–Madison Arboretum’s Lost City Forest?
Mengmeng Luo, Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences (advisor: Thea Whitman)
Vertical distribution dynamics of pyrogenic carbon one-year post-fire
2024 Research Fellowships (one year)
Francisco Campos Arguedas, Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences (advisor: Al Kovaleski)
Supercool winter physiology: At what temperature do trees chill?
Mia Keady, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies (advisors: Randy Jackson and Thea Whitman)
Are prairies our only hope for accumulating soil carbon in the upper Midwest?
M Hamilton, Department of Art History (advisor: Daniel Spaulding)
Mapping walnut tree relations at the Arboretum border
2022 and 2023 Arboretum Leopold Fellowship (two years)
Mia Keady, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies (advisors: Randy Jackson and Thea Whitman)
Roots, litter, deep soil, and microbes – investigating the paradigm shift of soil organic matter persistence
2023 Research Fellowships (one year)
Sam Anderson, Department of Biology (advisor: Kate McCulloh)
A physiological perspective: Utilizing stress-tolerance traits of Wisconsin woody species to reassess historical analyses and inform future land management
Mark Fuka, Department of Integrative Biology (advisor: John Orrock)
Examining the efficacy of a natural taste deterrent on Quercus rubra acorns and saplings to reduce granivory and herbivory to promote oak recruitment in the presence and absence of invasive shrubs
Michelle Homann, Department of Integrative Biology (advisor: Ellen Damschen)
The role of climate and priority effects in tallgrass prairie community assembly
Aishwarya Veerabahu, Department of Botany (advisors: Anne Pringle and Michelle Jusino)
A golden opportunity to study the impacts of an invasive wood decay fungus
2022 Research Fellowships (one year)
Benjamin Douglas, Department of Psychology (advisor: Markus Brauer)
Behavioral Tests of Social Norms Messaging in Environmental Education
Adrianna Gorsky, Department of Integrative Biology, Center for Limnology (advisors: Emily Stanley and Hilary Dugan)
Overlooked and understudied: Urban and eutrophic ponds as greenhouse gas hotspots
Michelle Homann, Department of Integrative Biology (advisor: Ellen Damschen)
The role of climate and priority effects in tallgrass prairie community assembly
2021 Research Fellowships (one year)
Roberto Carrera-Martínez, Department of Integrative Biology (advisor: Sean Schoville)
Exploring the distribution of invasive earthworms and exotic plants and indirect interactions: Indications of invasional meltdown or disturbance-mediated establishment?
Mary-Claire Glasenhardt, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies (advisor: Paul Zedler)
Community dynamics of an 86-year-old tallgrass prairie restoration: Curtis Prairie’s current conditions, temporal change, and land management
Dana Johnson, Department of Soil Science (advisor: Thea Whitman)
Impact of non-native Amynthas spp. on soil structure, fungal biomass, and fungal diversity in forest soils
2019 and 2020 Arboretum Leopold Fellowship (two years)
Katherine Charton, Department of Integrative Biology (advisor: Ellen Damschen)
Effects of management and precipitation on woody encroachment in tallgrass prairie
2020 Research Fellowships (one year)
Erin Crone, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology (advisor: Daniel Preston)
Ecology of urban herpetofauna in Madison, Wisconsin
Anna Skye Harnsberger, Department of Entomology (advisors: Karen Oberhauser and Claudio Gratton)
Effects of local and landscape characteristics on native prairie butterfly communities
Nick Hoffman, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies (advisor: Sara Hotchkiss)
Stormwater history: A fifty-year reconstruction of the runoff-mediated disturbance load to Curtis Pond and Curtis Prairie
Carson Keller, Department of Zoology (advisor: John Orrock)
Do invasive species modify small mammal trophic interactions and generate predictable behavioral changes?
2019 Research Fellowships (one year)
Jared Beck, Department of Botany (advisor: Don Waller)
Contagious trees? Characterizing spatial patterns and ecological factors influencing the local distribution of trees in southern Wisconsin
Erin Crone, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology (advisor: Daniel Preston)
Interactions between non-native earthworms and native amphibians in the UW–Madison Arboretum
Rachel Jordan, Department of Botany (advisor: Kate McCulloh)
How will Wisconsin’s native conifers respond to winter warming?
Theresa Vander Woude, Department of Life Sciences Communication and Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies (advisor: Bret Shaw)
Opinion leaders: Activating the Arboretum’s “Neighborshed”
Science Communications Fellowship (one year)
Liz Anna Kozik, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies (advisor: Caroline Gottschalk-Druschke)
Public Engagement Focused on Restoration Ecology