Peter Abrams Prize:
The prize celebrates the sustained research excellence of senior PhD students.

Winner: Chris Brimacombe (Fortin Lab)
Runners-Up: Joe Moysiuk (Caron Lab) & Kayla Bazzana-Adams (Evans Lab)

Chris has published 9 papers and a book chapter so far and has another two manuscripts in review.  Many of his papers have been in high impact journals such as Ecology Letters, Global Ecology and Biogeography, and Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Harold H. Harvey Award:
This award celebrates PhD students who make sustained contributions to the intellectual life of the EEB Graduate Department.

Winners: Kayla Bazzana-Adams (Evans Lab) & Bianca Sacchi (Wright Lab)

Kayla: served two years as the president of the UTM Biology Graduate Student Society, as well as on their mental health committee, their departmental seminar committee, among various other activities. As Kayla just received an honorable mention for the Peter Abrams Prize, it is clear that she has also been very active within the department while also being highly successful in her research activities.

Bianca: served as co-president of EGSA last year, helping to deal with graduate-student related issues associated with covid, she has served on the EGSA social committee, is the co-organizer of the EGSA career and professional development program, among other contributions within the department.  She has been actively engaged in various activities throughout her time her during her PhD. 

Ramsay Wright Prize:
This prize celebrates 3rd or 4th year PhD candidates at any campus who have done well academically (i.e. publishing and presenting their PhD research), and who have contributed to the life of the Department.

Winners: Tom Dudgeon (Evans Lab) and Ilia Ferzoco (McCauley Lab)

Tom: In the three years since starting his PhD, Tom has published 8 papers and has another in review. He has given numerous conference presentations. He’s been an active contributor to the department in serving on the EGSA executive, been the departmental representative on the GSU, co-developed a BREWS workshop on decolonizing fieldwork, among his other activities.

Ilia: has developed an extensive set of publications in top journals, including Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution and multiple papers in Journal of Animal Ecology.  She also has been very active in presenting her work at conferences. Ilia has served on the UTM Biology Graduate Student Society Executive, chaired their fall retreat, was a member of the UTM Biology Community committee and in various capacities of helping to coordinate and lead departmental outreach activities.