International Graduate Student Fellowship Program

INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE STUDENT FELLOWS

The Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) created the International Graduate Student Fellowship Program in 1994 to train scientists from areas of the world where biodiversity is richest and most threatened. Initially the CBC Program was conceived as an extension of the Museum's Graduate Student Fellowship Program, which sponsors Ph.D. candidates in systematics, as well as in other disciplines practiced at the Museum. Since then, the CBC program has evolved to focus on training in conservation biology at the Master's Degree level, specifically in tandem with the Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners and other ongoing CBC programs. The program aims to equip students with the practical and theoretical training in conservation biology they will need to address environmental problems in their home countries. All Graduate Student Fellows are advised by a Museum scientist, attend classes at the AMNH in addition to those at their chosen university, conduct research, and participate in CBC projects. Currently, four students are enrolled, among them citizens of countries in which the CBC has ongoing research projects. Most have presented their research at international conferences, as well as published in leading scientific journals. Since the program’s inception, seven Ph.D. students and three Masters students have completed their studies.

Please note that as of 2005, applications for the CBC International Graduate Student Fellow position are considered by invitation only. However, the AMNH continues to accept applications for the Graduate Student Fellowship Program, which is open to U.S. and non-U.S. citizens. More information can be obtained by visiting the Grants & Fellowships Office website or contacting them at grants@amnh.org.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Jean Claude Razafimahaimodison, from Madagascar, completed his Master's degree in Evolutionary Biology in 1998 at CUNY. His studies examined subspecies variation and breeding patterns among birds endemic to Madagascar. In 2000, he was awarded a grant to study the impact of tourism and development on a native Malagasy bird species. Mr. Razafimahaimodison will receive his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Massachusetts in May 2004.

After completing his doctorate at CUNY in December 1999, Abebe Getahun returned to Ethiopia, where he is an assistant professor of biology at Addis Ababa University. His studies of the freshwater fish genus, Garra, provide important information for understanding and conserving freshwater biodiversity in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa.

Jean Claude Razafimahaimodison, from Madagascar, completed his Master's degree in Evolutionary Biology in 1998 at CUNY. His studies examined subspecies variation and breeding patterns among birds endemic to Madagascar. In 2000, he was awarded a grant to study the impact of tourism and development on a native Malagasy bird species. Mr. Razafimahaimodison will receive his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from the University of Massachusetts in May 2004.

Peruvian Diana Silva defended her doctoral thesis on “Species richness and phylogenetic diversity of ctenid spiders (Araneae: Ctenidae)” in November 2000 at Cornell University. She is now a post-doctoral fellow at the California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco. Dr. Silva will also coordinate the CBC's Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners (NCEP) when it is piloted at Peruvian universities.

Bolivian Nuria Bernal graduated from the Master's program at the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) at Columbia University in 2001. For her Master's thesis, Ms. Bernal completed a genetic and morphological analysis of the endemic leaf-eared mouse, Phyllotis wolffsohni, and its relatives in the Bolivian interandean dry valleys. Ms. Bernal played an integral role in coordinating and running the successful first NCEP workshops in Bolivia, in August 2001 and July 2002.

Indonesian Djunijanti Peggie received her doctorate at Cornell University in September 2001. Her research, on the systematics of the Indo-Australian butterfly sub-family Heliconiina, is important for recognizing the impact of changes to the endangered island habitats in which these butterflies live. She recently contributed to a handbook on the butterflies and moths of Malaysia.

In April 2003, Peruvian Victor Pacheco defended his thesis at CUNY reexamining the systematics of forest-dwelling Thomasomyine mice, whose sensitivity to changes in environmental conditions makes them excellent indicator species for forest monitoring. Mr. Pacheco has been working at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos since 1999, where he is associate professor and curator of mammals.

Ana Luz Porzecanski, from Uruguay, completed her doctoral studies in May 2003 at Columbia University, where she studied the intergeneric relationships of Tinamidae, a family of primitive, flightless birds restricted to the forests and grasslands of Latin America. The results of her study underpin a predictive framework for setting conservation priorities in this region. In July 2003, Ms. Porzecanski joined CBC Staff as the NCEP coordinator in Latin America.

Brazilian Valeria Tavares is pursuing her doctorate at CUNY, where she has been enrolled since 1999. Her research focuses on the phylogeny and biogeography of Neotropical bat families, a group known as “short-faced bats.” Her research interests also include the community ecology, functional morphology, and natural history of Brazilian bats.

Colombian Liliana Dávalos will graduate from the Ph.D. program at Columbia University in May 2004. Her research has uncovered a systematic underestimation of species diversity in the Caribbean. Her work emphasizes the need for more accurate and exhaustive species surveys over wide geographical areas. This past academic year, Ms. Dávalos received an award for best student presentation in systematics and zoogeography from the North American Symposium on Bat Research.

Brazilian doctoral candidate Marcelo Weksler is in the last stages of his research for the Ph.D. degree at CUNY, planning to graduate early in the fall of 2004. His research has examined the phylogeny of the species-rich tribe of Oryzomyini rodents, within the family Muridae, and he is also conducting collaborative work on the taxonomy, ecology, biogeography, and paleontology of other small Neotropical mammals, including caviomorph rodents and marsupials.

Minh Duc Le, from Vietnam, is now in his third year of the doctoral program at Columbia's Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology. His research centers on the systematics, biogeography, and conservation status of the turtle family Bataguridae in Southeast Minh has been working with Drs. Eleanor Sterling and Martha Hurley on a book on the Natural History of Vietnam to be published by Yale University Press. This book is currently in review.

Vanessa Rasoamampianina, from Madagascar, will complete the Master's program in Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology at Columbia University in May 2004. Ms. Rasoamampianina's thesis centers on the efficacy of ecotourism teaching materials in conveying the importance of biodiversity to whalewatchers in Madagascar. Upon graduation, Ms. Rasoamampianina will work as the NCEP coordinator in Madagascar.

Carlos Iván Zambrana Flores, from Bolivia, completes his first year of the Masters program at Columbia University in May 2004. Iván's research will focus on the generation of predictive models of species distribution applied to amphibians. By combining museum data with environmental data, the models will enable him to generate frog distribution maps through artificial intelligence algorithms. Such maps will also be very useful for the CBC research program in Bolivia in planning baseline biodiversity surveys.