Grace’s Nomination
| Grace is currently a senior at George Mason University (GMU), earning a degree in Environmental Science. She is one of the best undergraduates I have ever had in my research lab, which includes ~20 other undergrads over the past six years. I have known Grace since May 2019, and she has been an OSCAR research student in my lab each summer since 2019. She is such an exceptional student that I have continued to mentor her and encouraged her to write a proposal for a GMU undergraduate research scholarship for last summer, which was accepted, and funded her to do research at the Shoals Marine Laboratory on an island off the coast of Maine. We have two papers in revision at peer-reviewed journals (Aquatic Invasions and Freshwater Biology), and she has already presented her research five times. She is additionally presenting her work from this past summer at the International Benthic Ecology Meeting in Portsmouth, NH in March 2022. Grace applied as a freshman to be part of a team undergraduate summer research project at GMU in 2019. She immediately struck me as a determined student, and I later learned she was in the top 1% of students in the freshman class and was awarded a University Scholarship (full ride). Over the course of the summer, Grace came into the Potomac Science Center (a satellite campus for GMU) every day to crack snails with hammers and examine their tissues under a microscope, looking for parasites. Grace was interested in knowing if native species of snails had higher parasite loads than invasive snails. To do this required many hours of staring under a microscope, measuring and cracking hundreds of snails, and identifying trematode parasites. Grace did all of this, and more, with a smile on her face and determination to see the project through. The majority of my summer was spent in the field, away from the lab, but Grace worked independently and completed all of her samples with little supervision from me. Grace was the most frequently encountered student in my lab during the summer, coming in every day, and her exceptional data set is a testament to her hard work. After an initial project design period that we agreed on together, Grace led the majority of this project, including field and data collection and writing. We currently have two manuscripts in revision, with Grace as the second author, from this work. After that first summer, Grace was again chosen for a team undergraduate summer research project that was slated to be in-person but pivoted to online due to the pandemic. The students worked together to download water quality and microplastics datasets from freshwater systems to uncover if there were any water quality metrics that were correlated with microplastic distribution and abundance. Given the complexities of working in a group on a summer project during the pandemic, the entire student group did very well. Our mentor team met with the students every Mon, Wed, and Fri to track process or offer a personal or professional development class. At the end of the summer, they presented a combined poster that showcased their work. Throughout our collaboration, I have been impressed with Grace’s organization and writing skills as well as her willingness to learn new and relevant skills. For this particular project, she learned the basics of the free coding program R. Most recently, Grace had her own summer OSCAR research project funded that covered her travel to and from the Shoals Marine Laboratory to study a very interesting host-parasite relationship. Shoals is located on an island off the coast of Maine; the only thing to do is science – there are no TVs, no vehicles, no shops or stores, and the very basic of living conditions for up to 100 students, scientists, and staff. And Grace loved every minute of it. Because I had worked with her so closely and knew that she was goal-oriented and dependable, I had no qualms about leaving her on the island to complete research without me. Because of the pandemic, she was unable to stay on the island continuously, so made two separate trips, each lasting about three weeks. While on island, she and another undergraduate researcher from Emory University worked together to examine some basic biological questions about the host-parasite relationship in question. While she was back at GMU, she spent every day examining the number of parasite clones released from the host under different temperature regimes to determine if increasing temperatures could lead to higher parasite transmission rates. We are currently working through those data sets, and preparing two manuscripts for submission. Grace will also give an oral presentation on her summer work at an international meeting next month. In addition to leading her own major research project, Grace is an effective and experienced communicator. In the past three years, she has presented her research at five different conferences (GMU Undergraduate Research Colloquium, Virginia Undergraduate Research Conference, Shoals Marine Laboratory Colloquium, and GMU Honors College Research Colloquium), and she will be presenting her work from last summer at the International Benthic Ecology Meeting in Portsmouth, NH next month. Grace is very strong student, and is on track to graduate this semester summa cum laude. I have only had Grace in two of my classes, both this academic year. Last semester, she took Freshwater Ecology with me and was the third highest grade in the course out of 16 students (A+ at 98.6%). Grace is currently in my Marine Ecology class, and is excelling. Having been both in the field and lab with Grace, I would not hesitate to have her join me in any aspect of science again or recommend her to my closest colleagues. She is intellectually curious about all things and is extremely mature and self aware. Her humility, work ethic, honesty, drive, and earnestness is beyond reproach. She is generous with her time and often helps other students in the lab complete tasks that have nothing to do with her project. She is such a nice person, respectful of others and sets a wonderful example in terms of enthusiasm and work ethic. I cannot think of a time when her presence was not positive. While most of my connections to Grace have been through my research laboratory, she is an active member in championing environmental causes both on and off the GMU campus. For spring break 2019, Grace participated in a week-long field experience along Florida’s coastal, marine salt marsh systems. Her team worked on eradicating invasive plants and also placed substrate to help naturally recruit oysters into the area. Due to her enthusiasm and drive, Grace was planning on returning to the project spring break 2020 as a trip co-leader. She has taken on the responsibility of developing and coordinating the week-long experience, adding several new projects, and following up with participants during the weeks after the project. Unfortunately, the program was canceled due to the pandemic. During winter break 2019-2020, Grace traveled to the Amazon rainforest during a study abroad program. One large aspect of the trip was to understand the intersection between preserving the culture of the native people and the biodiversity of the region. Working with all stakeholders (i.e., faculty, students, native peoples), they sought to cultivate sustainable development projects. Along this same vein, Grace worked last year as an Assistant Researcher under a collaborative effort at GMU. Grace completed a literature search under the tutelage of several professors from different GMU colleges to collect historical United States indigenous knowledge about sustainable water usage and how indigenous peoples viewed western settlement. Overall, I would rate Grace among the top 1% of undergraduate students in lecture/labs/research, taking into account intellect, abilities, and dedication. I have never had an undergraduate student in my lab that was as goal-oriented or self-motivated as Grace. In fact, I have a hard time comparing her to any of the other undergraduates that I know in my department. I think a better comparison is to Masters students. Because of Grace’s work ethic, ability to juggle multiple commitments, desire to volunteer her time to community efforts, commitment and experience leading her own project, performing various field and laboratory methodologies, developing and answering research questions, and demonstrating the ability to learn new techniques, Grace is truly the epitome of an excellent student. All of these characteristics will be valuable as she continues to work towards a career addressing environmental issues at different scales. Grace would eventually like to become a college professor, after obtaining her PhD and more experience as a postdoc. I fully recommend her for an OSCAR Student Excellence Award without any reservation. Please do not hesitate to contact me about this recommendation. I would be happy to talk to anyone on the review committee. |