University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB graduate student Iman Sylvain received the Dorothy Fletcher Green Award from the Rackham Graduate School. 

The Green Award was established to honor her life and assist future generations who are pursuing degrees in science and math. Green was born in the early 1900s and despite limited opportunities for people of color, she managed to have a successful nursing career and raise a family. She strongly believed that pursuing higher education is critically important and instilled this belief in her family. The award is $1000.

Sylvain studies plant ecology and agriculture with her advisor, Professor Tim James. Her research project working with coffee aims to answer two important questions: Does the global movement of food influence fungal population structure through long distance dispersal? And does the manner of food production and processing influence the community of fungi causing spoilage? “The importance of these questions to human health and wealth is not only due to loss of food through spoilage but also through the cancerous mycotoxins that result from fungal-fungal competition,” according James.

Sylvain presents her master's thesis, “A multi-regional perspective on the effect of coffee agriculture on fungal community structure in green coffee beans,” May 29, 2012. She will spend the rest of the summer working in the James Lab and preparing her papers for journal submission. In August, Sylvain begins the doctoral program in plant and microbial biology at the University of California, Berkeley.