The Biodiversity Collections Network (BCoN) is pleased to announce the winners of travel awards to enable early career biodiversity scientists, collection managers, educators, and other biodiversity-collection professionals to participate in the AIBS Communications Boot Camp for Scientists in Washington, DC this fall. The Boot Camp is an intensive, two-day, hands-on professional development program.
Ms. Sarah Noble Brown, Dr. Katherine O’Brien, Dr. Breanna Powers, and Dr. Ieva Roznere received the award. Ms. Brown is a first-year master’s student at James Madison University studying pollination biology and the networks formed between plants and pollinators in an ecosystem. Sarah previously worked at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) in public engagement. Dr. O’Brien is a postdoctoral fellow at the Museum of Biological Diversity at the Ohio State University, where her work focuses on evolutionary biology and outreach. Dr. Powers is a postdoctoral fellow at Boise State University, studying the impacts of climate change on the phenology of migratory birds. Dr. Roznere is a research associate in evolution, ecology, and organismal biology at the Ohio State University, where her research focuses on freshwater mussel health.
Award winners will travel to Washington, DC in October to participate in AIBS’ acclaimed communications training program. AIBS is the national organization dedicated to promoting informed decision-making that advances the biological sciences for the benefit of science and society.
These travel awards were offered by BCoN to advance the recommendations in its 2016 workshop report, Building a More Networked System for Communicating about Natural History Collections. The report called for a renewed community focus on communications – both within the biodiversity sciences community and with outside stakeholder groups, such as policymakers, news media, civic organization leaders, and university administrators. The report recognized a need for new professional development training opportunities related to communications.