The College of the Environment is pleased to announce Meryl Mims and Charlie Waters—both of the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences—as the first recipients of the Hall Conservation Genetics Research Award, which is made possible by a generous gift from the Benjamin and Margaret Hall Charitable Lead Trust.
Meryl is doctoral candidate working on a project entitled “Conservation genetics of a Distinct Population Segment of the cryptic dryland amphibian Hyla wrightorum (the Arizona treefrog)” along with her faculty advisor Julian Olden. Charlie is a master’s student working on “Reducing Genetic Risks to Wild Populations: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Managed Gene Flow to Reduce Adaptation in Captivity in Supportive Breeding Programs” along with his faculty advisor Kerry Naish.
The Hall Conservation Genetics Research Award was established specifically for College of the Environment students working in the field of conservation genetics. Students and faculty advisors are asked to demonstrate how the requested funding will be used to develop a new student-directed project, or support a student-directed extension of a project in which the student is already engaged. The project must be entirely accomplished within the funding year, and a scholarly research product (e.g., manuscript submitted to peer-reviewed journal, presentation at a national or international scientific society conference) must result from the work.
Proposals are limited to a maximum of $6,000. The proposals were reviewed by faculty scientists who are experts in conservation genetics, and by faculty who are not experts in the field but who are natural scientists. Reviewers scored each proposal on:
- Impact, innovation and significance to the field
- Impact on the thesis or dissertation work of the student
- Likelihood of successful completion
About the Funders
During his 38 years in genetics, UW Professor Emeritus of Genome Sciences and Biology Benjamin (“Ben”) Hall made many key discoveries, including the patented invention “Expression of Polypeptides in Yeast” which the UW-licensed for the production of vaccines against Hepatitis B Virus and Human Pappiloma Virus, as well as Human Insulin and other recombinant proteins. Hall’s more recent research has focused on understanding the speciation and evolution in the genus Rhododendron. Margaret Hall received her Ph.D in History from the UW, doing important thesis work on women in academia, and subsequently devoting herself to teaching.
