A graduate of the UF/IFAS School of Natural Resources and Environment will receive the E. Lucy Braun Award.
Jules NeSmith was selected because she presented outstanding research at the annual Ecological Society of America meeting.
The Braun award will be given to NeSmith at the next ESA meeting in August for her research on the impacts of drought and invasive plants on the survival of pine tree seedlings.
“Understanding how these two stressors may combine to affect tree species that we rely on for timber and non-timber products, and provide habitat for wildlife, is increasingly important to the stability of our economy and natural areas,” the 30-year-old wrote in an email.
NeSmith earned a Bachelor’s in plant science from UF in December 2013. She then went on to complete her Master’s in interdisciplinary ecology with a concentration in forest resources and conservation in December 2016.
When NeSmith went to the ESA meeting in August 2016, where she said she was surrounded by great ecologists, she knew it was going to be competitive.
She said when she found out she would be receiving the Braun award, she was completely shocked.
“To be recognized at the national level for something I’d worked incredibly hard for is confidence building to say the least,” she said.
NeSmith is the second alumna of IFAS to receive the Braun award within the last six years.
S. Luke Flory, an assistant professor and ecologist at UF, said NeSmith was very enthusiastic about her research, and it was evident that NeSmith was deserving of this award.
“The project that she worked on is a big multi-collaborative project with many people involved,” Flory said, “but she took on her part of the project and did a very complete job.”
Contact Catie Wegman at cwegman@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter: @catie_wegman.
Jules NeSmith, a 30-year-old UF alumna, will receive the E. Lucy Braun Award in August for presenting outstanding research at the annual Ecological Society of America meeting.
