University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

EEB Ph.D. students Lucy Tran, Qixin He and Na Wei have each received a Rackham International Research Award (RIRA). Tran and Qixin also received an Edwin C. Hinsdale Scholarship.

Tran studies the spatiotemporal impacts of habitat change on the forest-dependent black-and-white monkeys (Colobus guereza) in southwestern Uganda. She will assess impacts using coupled phylogeographic, demographic, and spatially-explicit analyses. Project findings will contribute to understanding of how historical and contemporary processes have affected this once widespread primate and allow for an informed evaluation of the species' long-term viability that takes into account regional patterns of genetic variability and connectivity. Tran received $3,500.

Qixin will use the research funds to help fund her field study to Cameroon in the fall where she will continue her research that explores the rapid adaptive evolution of a mosquito, also known as the malaria vector, Anopheles gambiae. Qixin received $3,000.

Wei travels to Barro Colorado Island, Panama, for five weeks of summer field work. She will investigate whether proximity is a proxy of maternity in animal-dispersed tropical tree species. The widely accepted norm in plant ecology has been challenged by the long-distance dispersal introduced by the diverse generalist avian and terrestrial dispersers in tropical trees. Wei received $2,000.

The Rackham Graduate School presents the RIRAs to students with strong academic records who demonstrate outstanding scholarly and professional promise, steady progress toward their degrees and have feasible plans for conducting international research.

The Hinsdale Awards of $5,000 are granted by the U-M Museum of Zoology to students admitted to candidacy who show research potential, demonstrate high achievement and whose dissertation chair or co-chair is a UMMZ curator.