This spring Laura was award the 2010 Distinguished Master's Thesis Award from the Graduate School of Eastern Illinois University. Congratulations to Laura! One of Laura's theses papers was recently published in Ecology. Check it out: Ladwig and Meiners 2010 Ecology 91: 671-680. Laura just completed the first year of her PhD program at UNM where she will be working on grass-shrub interactions and microbial processes (among other things) at the Sevilleta.

At the 2010 LTER Science Council meeting, Scott Collins, PI of the Sevilleta LTER, was elected Chair of the LTER Science Council. He will serve one year as Chair-elect and two years as Chair of the SC. The scientific direction and vision of the LTER Network is established by the Science Council.

Every year the Department of Biology at UNM offers a number of competitive awards and scholarships. The Springfield Scholarship is to support a graduate student in pursuit of a research in botany with a focus on ecology, and the Grove Research Scholarship provides graduate students with resources to initiate or continue research projects, and/or to attend conferences to present their research. In addition, Michell received $2500 from the T&E Inc.