The Becky Colvin Memorial Award provides juniors in the Certificate Program in Environmental Studies or concentrating in ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB) with support for travel, research supplies and other expenses associated with field research for their senior thesis. Awardees are selected by the director of HMEI and the chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in consultation with the Colvin family.
The award was established in memory of Becky Colvin ’95, an EEB major who was strongly committed to ecology and environmental studies. More than 30 Princeton undergraduates have received the award since 1999.
Applying for the Award
The Becky Colvin Memorial Award application for 2024 opens Monday, Jan. 9, 2024. Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. Friday, March 22 (tentative).
As you prepare materials for your application in the future, please keep in mind you will need to organize the following items:
- A project description with a separate paragraph addressing the environmental relevance of your proposed topic (word doc);
- An itemized budget detailing the costs associated with your research and travel;
- A list of all other funding sources you have received and any you have applied for;
- A copy of your transcript (unofficial copy will be accepted); and
- A letter of recommendation from your faculty thesis adviser.
Please feel free to reach out to Amber Lee, Undergraduate / Graduate Program Manager if you have any questions.
2023 Becky Colvin Memorial Award Recipients are forthcoming.
2022 Becky Colvin Memorial Award Recipients
Darcy Chang ’23, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Thesis Title: Hummingbird Pollination Behavior in the Rocky Mountains
Advised by Mary Caswell Stoddard, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, Chang will contribute to the lab’s ongoing research in the Rocky Mountains into how broad-tailed hummingbird behavior is changing as a result of climate change by examining how males are responding to differences in snowmelt and the timing of spring flower blooms occurring as global temperatures rise.
Joanna Shoubaki ’23, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Thesis Title: Chemical Signaling in Lasioglossum baleicum
Advised by Sarah Kocher, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Shoubaki will explore the role of chemical signaling in communication, and in the establishment and maintenance of social behavior, in the bee species Lasioglossum baleicum as part of the Kocher Lab’s larger work addressing the genetic and environmental components of the species’ social phenotypes.
Past Recipients
| Year | Recipient (click name for stories) |
Major | Adviser(s) | Senior Thesis Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Willow Dalehite | EEB | Christina Riehl | Pair-bond and Parental Care Behavior in the Socially Monogamous Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) |
| 2021 | Katherine Irelan | EEB | Lars Hedin | Impact of Water Stress on Nutrient Acquisition and Below-Ground Traits of Model Plant Leptecophylla tameiameiae |
| 2020 | Joe Kawalec | EEB | Mary Caswell Stoddard | Warning and Cryptic Coloration in Woodpecker Camouflage |
| 2019 | Maria Stahl | EEB | Robert Pringle | Understanding the Role of Fire in Maintaining Herbivore Diversity in a Recovering Savanna Ecosystem |
| 2018 | Daniel Petticord | EEB | Robert Pringle | The Ecology of the Leopard Tortoise |
| 2017 | Alana Reynolds | EEB | Robert Pringle | Strategies that Can Prevent Elephant Crop-Raiding in Farming Communities Bordering Gorongosa National Park |
| 2016 | Zoe Sims | EEB | Stephen Pacala | Impacts of Anthropogenically Enriched Groundwater Discharge on Bermuda’s Near-shore Coral Reefs and the Role of Bermuda’s Herbivorous Fish in Maintaining the Reef Ecosystem |
| 2015 | Connor Stonesifer | EEB | Lars Hedin | Phosphorus Utilization in Panamanian Tropical Forests |
| 2015 | Kathryn Grabowski | CEE | Rob Pringle | Consequences of a Vegetation Shift Following the War-Driven Loss of Large Mammals in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique |
| 2014 | Katherine Smith | EEB | Lars Hedin | Assessing the Efficiency of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Uptake in the Backwaters and Wetlands of the Lower Mississippi Watershed |
| 2013 | Lauren Wyman | EEB | Robert Pringle | Analyzing the Impact of a Dual Lizard Introduction on Orb-weaver Spider Communities in the Bahamas: An Experimental Approach |
| 2013 | Elizabeth McKenna | EEB | Simon Levin | Researching the Effects of Varying Light and Sedimentation Conditions on the Growth Rates of Juvenile Corals at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) |
| 2012 | Abigail Hewitt | EEB | Andrew Dobson | Land-Use Dynamics on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula: A Model for Balancing Ecological, Economic and Social Development |
| 2012 | Tara Thean | EEB | James Gould | Signature Whistle Models in Bottlenose Dolphins, Tursiops truncatus |
| 2011 | Madelon Case | EEB | Simon Levin | Gopher Disturbances and Plant Community Dynamics in Montane Meadows |
| 2011 | Sara Nason | GEO | Satish Myneni | The Effects of Elevated Soil CO2 on Plant Uptake of Metals |
| 2010 | Hannah Barkley | EEB | Stephen Pacala | The Effect of Temperature and Feeding on the Early Tissue Growth and Calcification of the Atlantic Coral Porites astreoides |
| 2009 | Sarah Chambliss | EEB | David Wilcove | Land Degradation and Plant Community Change: Examining the Case of Sansevieria volkensii, a Native Plant Spreading in Kenya |
| 2009 | Josephine Walker | EEB | Simon Levin | Acaricide Use and the Control of Theileria parva at the Wildlife-Livestock Disease Interface in Kenya |
| 2008 | Ruth Schwab | EEB | Stuart Altmann, Henry Horn | From Wild Apples to Modern Cultivars: Chemical Profile Changes of Sugars, Acids and the Phenolics Over Selective Time |
| 2007 | Nathan Crumpton | SOC | Elizabeth Armstrong | Dissonant Realities: Behind the Veil of AIDS in Tanzania |
| 2007 | Jonah Wagner | WWS | David Wilcove | Water-Pricing Reform and Water Service Sustainability: Case Studies of Hyderabad and Johannesburg |
| 2006 | Meha Jain | EEB | Daniel Rubenstein | Measuring the Effects of Cattle on Land and Wildlife in Laikipia, Kenya |
| 2006 | Aliya Sanders | EEB | Lars Hedin | Nutrient Limitation on N2 Fixation by Acacia saligna Stands of the Western Cape, South Africa |
| 2004 | Wenfei Tong | EEB | Daniel Rubenstein | On the Genetic Structure of Plains Zebra Populations and Societies: Insights from Non-invasive Microsatellite Genotyping |
| 2004 | Olympia Moy | EEB | David Wilcove | The “Grain-to-Green” Program and Its Implications for the Conservation of Giant Panda Habitat in Woolong National Nature Reserve, China |
| 2003 | John Kim | EEB | Effects of Cultivation and Proximity to Natural Habitat on Ground-nesting Native Bees in California Sunflower Fields | |
| 2002 | Andrew Bryant | HIS | Social, Economic and Environmental Transformations Following the Introduction of Coffee to the Kilmanjaro Region of Tanzania, 1900 | |
| 2000 | Amanda Hawn | EEB | Early Juvenile Mortality in a Cohort of Chromis cyanea: The Grownth Mortality Hypothesis Revisited | |
| 1999 | Mark Cornwall | EEB | Daniel Rubenstein | An Analysis of the Competitive Interaction Between Two Sympatric Species of Zebra: Equus greyvi and Equus burchelli |