Sally Koerner recently joined Chelse Prather as replacement for Amber Hardison in the Graduate Student Committee co-chair position. We thank Amber, who will be starting a postdoc position at Brown University this summer, for her service in this position especially for her work organizing the graduate student symposium, and we wish her luck in her future endeavors.
Sally, a University of New Mexico student and a Konza Prairie LTER affiliate, is excited about working with LTER Network Office (LNO) staff to develop a more effective website for graduate students. Sally’s current research focuses on plant community structure and dynamics in grasslands. She has, so far, spent most of this year in South Africa collecting data at her field research site in the Kruger National Park. Sally represented the graduate students during the recent LTER Science Council meeting in Massachusetts in May.
Chelse will soon be finishing her PhD, whereupon she will rotate out of her co-chair position. Calls for nominations for Chelse’s replacement will be sent out mid-summer, 2010. Please contact Chelse (cprather@nd.edu) or Sally (skoerne@unm.edu) for more information if you are interested in this position.
During the forthcoming Ecological Society of America (ESA) annual meeting in August, 2010, the LTER graduate students will sponsor an organized oral session entitled “The Role of Student Research in Long-Term Studies: Insights into Climate Change and Disturbance Theory.” This session, organized by Amber and Chelse, will be held on Tuesday, August 3, from 1:30-5:00 p.m. Speakers will include current and former LTER graduate students whose work relate to climate change and/or disturbance across a wide range of LTER sites and ecosystems. Please check the official program for location details. We are very excited about this first of what we hope will be annual LTER graduate student sessions at ESA.