Jim Patton Wildlife Management Scholarship

Jim Patton served as Undersecretary at Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries from 1998-2004. Both of Jim's parents and his maternal grandfather attended Montana State College. The scholarship honors Jim’s Montana heritage, recognizing the importance of the quality education provided by Montana State University. The scholarship supports a Master’s student with wildlife ecology as their area of study. The 2024 award is $1,000.

Recipient:  Kelson Hickman

Kelson Hickman is a master's student in Chris Guy's lab and is evaluating the effects of snag and release angling on American paddlefish survival and reproduction on the Missouri River above Fort Peck Reservoir. Paddlefish are a native sport fish and this study incorporates mortality and changes to reproduction for snag and released individuals into population models and management decisions.

Don C. Quimby Graduate Wildlife Research Scholarship

This scholarship honors Dr. Don C. Quimby, a biology teacher, student advisor and founder of the Wildlife Program with Montana State University’s Biology Department in 1948.  Dr. Quimby served as the head of that program until his retirement in 1975. This scholarship supports a student with a field research project focused on a free-ranging wildlife species within the state of Montana and a commitment to a career in wildlife management. The 2024 award is $2,000.

Recipient:  Cara Brewer

Cara Brewer is a PhD student in Andrea Litt's lab and is researching information on summer habitat selection and fall migratory movements for the northern long-eared bat in Montana. She will also guide management decisions for identifying and protecting summer roosts, hibernation sites, and migratory corridors critical to the persistence of this federally endangered species in the West.

Dr. Lynn Irby Fish & Wildlife Biology Graduate Scholarship

This scholarship was established by Jeff Carpenter in honor of Dr. Lynn Irby, who was his advisor while at MSU. Dr. Irby’s studies improved management of wild ungulates and carnivores throughout the Northern Rockies and Great Plains and he chaired 43 graduate committees during his 26-year career at MSU. The recipients of this award will be graduate students pursuing an advanced degree in the Ecology Department.  There are two awards in 2024, each for $2,400.

Recipient #1:  Oscar Dalling

Oscar Dalling is a master's student in Andrea Litt's lab and is studying an iconic and threatened species of the American West: the grizzly bear. Because this species occurs at low densities, is highly mobile, has large home ranges, and lacks individually recognizable markers, Oscar is working with several models to estimate their population size to better quantify their population status and inform listing under the endangered species act.

Recipient #2:  Itai Namir

Itai Namir is a PhD student in Justine Becker's lab and studies black-tailed prairie dogs to understand how plague mitigation strategies affect prairie dog populations and thus their ecological role, from acting as ecosystem engineers to creating habitats for black-footed ferrets.

Matthew F. Clow Memorial Award

Matthew Clow was an MSU graduate student who died in 1998 while conducting research on whirling disease and wild trout.  The award was established by his parents in his honor to recognize graduate students who share Matt’s love and commitment to wild trout and native fishes. There are two awards in 2024, each for $2,000.

Recipient #1:  Lukas Draugelis

Lukas Draugelis is a master's student in Tim Cline's lab who studies how invasive rainbow trout disperse, with the goal of using improved understanding of their movement patterns to inform the potential for hybridization with native fishes and possible techniques for suppression of rainbow trout.

Recipient #2:  Ben Weber

Ben Weber is a master's student in Tim Cline's lab and is studying Bull trout, a federally listed species. His project investigates the outcomes of one of the first bull trout translocations in Glacier National Park by evaluating survival, reproduction, and interactions with new habitats of translocated fish.

Sara Amasa Madsen Conservation Biology Scholarship

Mary and Jerry Madsen established this fund in loving memory of their daughter, Sara Amasa Madsen, who graduated from the University in 2019. This scholarship supports students that share Sara’s heart and enthusiasm for the wilderness, particularly wildland firefighting and water resources. There are two awards in 2024, each for $2,200.

Recipient #1: Lydia Bushey

Lydia Bushey is a master's student in Lindsey Albertson's lab who  is working closely with MT FWP to inform management strategies for non-native crayfish in Montana’s waterways by investigating crayfish burrowing and bioturbation, specifically ecosystem level impacts of their sediment movement, and the effect of warming waters on this burrowing behavior

Recipient #2:  Daan Smit

Daan Smit is a master's student in Scott Creel's lab who is examining the ways that environmental variables such as rainfall affect the distribution and abundance of wildebeest and their predators spotted hyenas. He works in Zambia, where flooding in the Zambezi River, the fourth-largest river in Africa, is a driver of wildebeest migration, shaping when and where prey are available to predators.

Daniel Goodman Conservation Biology Scholarship

This scholarship honors Dr. Daniel Goodman, a quantitative ecologist and conservation biologist, who was a professor in MSU’s Ecology Department from 1981 until his death in 2012. This scholarship supports an MSU Ecology Department graduate student whose research is both quantitative and within the broad field of conservation biology, with potential to improve the management of at-risk species or ecosystems. The 2024 award is $2,500.

Recipient: Nate Heili

Nate Heili is a PhD student in Wyatt Cross' lab and studies interactions between warming and drought to understand the impacts on food web structure and energy flow. He uses quantitative food web approaches that integrate metabolic theory with food web structure to build community-level bioenergetic models, as well as BACI design and Bayesian statistical approaches to experimentally evaluate synergistic effects of warming and drought in stream ecosystems under threat from global change.

 

Sacajawea Audubon Society Bob Moore Scholarship

The Board of Trustees of the Sacajawea Audubon Society established this scholarship in honor of Dr. Bob Moore, Professor Emeritus of Biology at MSU, who taught vertebrate ecology, evolutionary biology, and field ornithology. The recipient of this award will be a graduate student pursuing a degree from the Department of Ecology, with research focusing on ecology and conservation of avian communities and their habitats, including research and/or education in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem or Montana. In 2024 there is one award, for $1,500.

Recipient:  Arcata Leavitt

Arcata Leavitt is a master's student in Justine Becker's lab and studies nesting habitat associations and bioacoustic methods for detecting nesting pairs of Great Gray Owls.  Her research evaluates best practices for management agencies to find nesting Great Gray Owl pairs to improve conservation efforts for this species in Montana.

Jim Belsey Graduate Student Scholarship

Jim Belsey was an avid trout angler and conservationist.  Jim established this award to support graduate students pursuing a degree with research emphasizing coldwater fisheries. In the last few years, the trout populations in the Big Hole, Ruby and Beaverhead Rivers have declined precipitously. The cause (or causes) of these declines is not clear and research is urgently needed. For the 2024 award cycle, the Belsey scholarships will be directed to graduate students who are doing research on these three rivers.  There are three awards in 2024, each for $2,200.

Recipient #1:  Nicholas Hudson

Nicholas Hudson is a Ph.D. student under advisor Tim Cline and studies the complex dynamics of trout life history, production, recruitment, and physiology, with a specific focus on juvenile trout, using research approaches such as otolith sampling to reconstruct native origins, juvenile fish surveys, and redd counts.

Recipient #2: Max Rubino

Max is a Ph.D. student under advisors Chris Guy and Al Zale and is investigating components of adult mortality of trout using fish tagging, tag return, and recapture estimates to inform models, and the research integrates both social science and fisheries science.

Recipient #3: Michael Lant

Michael is a Ph.D. student in Al Zale's lab and studies recreational angling pressure and catch across time and space to determine if catch and release induces post-release mortality, increased susceptibility to disease, or exacerbates stress induced by high water temperatures or low flows, and his research relies heavily on social science surveys of angling activity.

John H. Rumely Award

This award supports the instructional, research and scholarly activities of the curricula traditionally known as Botany, and supports graduate students conducting field studies of native Montana plants. There is one award in 2024 for $2,500.

Recipient:  Carly Segal

Carly Segal is a PhD student in Israel Borokini's lab and studies taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity of alpine plant communities along latitudinal gradients in Montana and beyond using large databases as well as field work including plant identification in high elevation sites.

Jim Posewitz Memorial Scholarship Award

Jim Posewitz was one of Montana’s most respected conservation leaders who pioneered protections for fish and wildlife during his 32-year, distinguished career with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The family and friends of Jim Posewitz wanted to honor his conservation legacy through establishment of the Jim Posewitz Memorial Scholarship. Jim was a fisheries biologist and administrator who worked to protect in-stream flows for fish and wildlife. The 2024 award is $1,000.

Recipient:  Anna Kusler

Anna Kusler is a Ph.D.student in Scott Creel's lab and is  studying the survival, reproduction, population growth rates, and movement of cheetahs in relation to human activities and competitors such as lions in Zambia. She also serves in several leadership roles, including as the President of the Ecology Graduate Student Association.

William Gould Memorial Scholarship

William Gould IV established this memorial scholarship in honor of his late father, William Gould III. As a fisheries biologist, William worked with Montana Fish and Game, the Fish Technology Center and several other state and federal organizations on projects ranging from fish distributions to physiology to human impacts on fish populations. While at the University, he taught classes and directed undergraduate and graduate students. After retirement, he authored the Key to Fishes of Montana in 1996 and coauthored Fish of the Rockies in 2009.  The recipient will be pursuing an advanced degree in Fish and Wildlife Management and demonstrate passion for and research relating to fish ecology and fisheries in freshwater ecosystems. The 2024 award is $1,000.

Recipient:  Benny Bevil

Benny Bevil is a master's student in Tim Cline's lab, and studies how stream primary productivity supports growth and production of native trout species, with a focus on headwater streams that provide cold water refugia where managers allocate substantial time and funding toward restoration and conservation.

Kenneth D. Lorang Memorial Scholarship

Ken Lorang graduated with a MS degree in fish and wildlife  management from MSU and was killed shortly thereafter in 1979 while conducting a waterfowl survey along the Marias River. The award was established in his honor. The recipient may be an accepted or current graduate student seeking an advanced degree in the Ecology Department with aspirations to become a wildlife manager. 

Recipient:  Gabby Cantrell

Gabby Cantrell is a master's student in Andrea Litt's lab and is studying bats, and trying to understand effectiveness of bat boxes, which sometimes result in fatal overheating events, warranting research on materials, box size, and location placement to improve their use for conservation.