LTER Graduate Writing Fellows
Each year, the LTER Network Office supports several Graduate Writing Fellows, who write stories about the wide range of LTER science. These includes updates on current research and deep dives into the people, daily life, and long-term vision of LTER sites.
The fellowship allows students to learn and practice science communication in a formal setting, with ample support from trained communication professionals at the Network Office. Fellows are paid for their work and build a strong online portfolio of writing samples that add credibility to the fellowship.
Applications for new fellows open in the late summer or fall each year. For questions, contact the Network Office.
Current Fellows
Abigail Borgmeier
Abigail Borgmeier is a graduate student student at Brigham Young University studying Antarctic nematode phylogeography. She works with Byron Adams at the McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER site.
Dante Capone
Dante Capone is a PhD Student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography studying biological oceanography and a member of the California Current Ecosystem LTER site. His research in the Décima Lab examines environmental patterns of zooplankton diversity and the effects of wildfires on marine ecosystems.
- A lotta gelata in the California Current Ecosystem! [SSALTER Blog]
Mary Linabury
Mary Linabury is a PhD candidate in Melinda Smith’s grassland ecology lab at Colorado State University. She studies the effect of long-term resource alteration in grassland ecosystems. In particular, she wants to understand how plant community dynamics interact with changing resource availability to shape the future of great plains grasslands, and works at the Konza Prairie LTER.
- At the helm of ChANGE: Driving forward a new experiment [SSALTER Blog]
Nick Link
Nick Link is a second year PhD student at Northern Arizona University. Nick’s work with Michelle Mack and Xanthe Walker out of the Bonanza Creek LTER is broadly focused on disturbance and ecosystem ecology in the Boreal forest.
- Burning Down the House Party [SSALTER Blog]
- A meditation on mosquitos [SSALTER Blog]
Meredith Willmott
Meredith Willmott an urban ecologist focused on entomology and science communication. Based at Rutgers University, she works with Amy Savage and the Sevilleta LTER site.
Past Fellows
2022
Abigail Jackson
Abigail Jackson is a second year Master’s student studying ecology and phylogeography of the nematode Scottnema lindsayae at Brigham Young University. She works at the McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER.
- Winter is Not Coming (a SSALTER Blog post)
Adriane McDonald
Adriane McDonald is a second year PhD student in the Hofmann Lab in the EEMB Department, and works closely with the Santa Barbara Coastal LTER. Her research interests include evaluating the responses of marine invertebrate species approved for California aquaculture to multiple environmental stressors.
Emily Ortega
Emily Ortega is a PhD student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she studies chemical oceanography at the Northern Gulf of Alaska LTER. Emily has pursued every opportunity to practice science communication, including journalism classes and now this fellowship.
Isabela Lima Borges
Isabela Lima Borges is a PhD student at Michigan State University, where her research focuses on fragmented populations and is based at the Kellogg Biological Station LTER. Her communication drive stems from her experience in outreach, where she learned the power of stories in science education.
Jenna Zuckswert
Jenna Zuckswert is a PhD student at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. She studies the effects of nutrients on the forest at the Hubbard Brook LTER. Her love for science communication stems from Rachel Carson’s work and a desire to engage diverse audiences with science.
Katie Sperry
Katie Sperry is a PhD student at Northeastern University. She studies ecosystem diversity at the Plum Island LTER site. When Katie realized she could remember more from a single magazine article than any of the papers she had read as a student, she decided to make science communication a central part of her research career.
- Spare a Thought For the Roots
- The Tall and Short of It (a SSALTER Blog Post)
Molly Reichenborn
Molly Reichenborn is a PhD student at New Mexico State University who researches plant community response to herbicides at the Jornada Basin LTER. Her research focuses on supporting effective land stewardship, and the need to connect with landowners spurred a strong interest in communication and effective writing.
Tommy Shannon
Tommy Shannon is a graduate student at Florida International University, where he studies the effects of environmental change on salt marshes at the Florida Coastal Everglades LTER. Tommy found that art and writing were incredibly effective tools for engaging audiences in science, and he has continued to search for creative ways to present his own science to others.
2021
Ezra Kottler
- Utilizing LTER Experiments for Eco-Evolutionary Insights
- Designing a Long-Term Experiment to Withstand the Rising Tides
- Public Engagement at LTER Sites: Social Scientists Highlight Role of Communication Specialists
- Expanding the “Bio” in Biogeochemical Modeling: Including Voles in Arctic Climate Models
Catalina Mejia
Megan O’Hara
- Pika Enthusiasts Unite under a Common Theme
- Women in Oceanography: Highly Accomplished but Still Underrepresented
Tim Ohlert
- The Desert in Sync: In the Chihuahuan Desert, Plants and Pollinators Coordinate to Survive
- Urban Ponds Help Amphibians Thrive in Cities
- In Search of Commonality: Plant Communities Exhibit a Wide Variety of Responses to Global Change
Mareli Sanchez-Julia
- A Not So Solid Season: Alpine Lake Ice Cover Responds to a Changing Climate
- Pooling Insights on Organic Matter Dynamics: Five Emergent Themes from a Network Wide Synthesis
- Taking it to the Park: Mapping Sawgrass Vulnerability to Peat Collapse in the Florida Everglades
Alina Spera
- Thawing Out Coastal Arctic Food Webs With Long-Term Biochemical Data
- Stream Dissolved Nitrogen Cycling Responds to Human Activity Across the Landscape
Angela Theodosopoulos
- Pika Enthusiasts Unite under a Common Theme
- History Mediates Microbial Resilience and Response Following Drought Conditions
- Alpine stream chemistries are changing, but rock glaciers might not have as much influence as previously thought
2020
In 2020, the LTER supported three communications interns from UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management.
- Erin Winslow
- Haley Dunleavy
- Tasha Griffin