Congratulations to the Spring 2025 Interfaces of Global Change Graduates!
May 12, 2025
This spring, the Global Change Center proudly celebrates the graduation of eleven exceptional students from the Interfaces of Global Change (IGC) Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program (IGEP).
These fellows have demonstrated a strong commitment to advancing solutions to complex environmental challenges through innovative research, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and science communication. As they complete their graduate journeys, each fellow leaves a mark on the IGC community and continues forward as a leader prepared to tackle the world’s most pressing global change issues.
Please join us in congratulating this semester's IGC IGEP graduates!
Stephanie Duston
Relationships Among Root Traits, Nitrogen Availability, and Mineral-Associated Organic Carbon
Defended on January 23, 2025
Sara Teemer Richards
Effects of ambient temperature on mechanisms of pathogen transmission in house finches
Defended on January 29, 2025
Heather Wander
Understanding and Predicting the Response of Reservoir Zooplankton Communities and Water Quality to Climate Change
Defended on March 7, 2025
Meredith Snyder
Soil Microbial Response to Land Management Practices and Wildfire in Central and Southern Appalachian Ecosystems
Defended on March 31, 2025
Macy Kailing
Identifying Patterns and Processes of Sex-Biases for an Emerging Fungal Disease of Wildlife
Defended on April 14, 2025
Jordan Coscia
Floristics, Conservation, and Restoration of Virginia’s Piedmont Grasslands
Defended on April 30, 2025
Prashasti Agarwal
Linking Plant and Soil Microbial Diversity via Plant Functional Trait Ecology
Defended on May 2, 2025
Nic Bone
When the Map Fails the Territory: Hidden State Models, Complex Traits and the Evolution of Bird Migration
Defended on May 6, 2025
Amber Wendler
Morphological, Genetic, and Ecological Insights into the Puerto Rican Tody: Investigating Variation Between and Within Dry Forest and Rainforest Populations
Defended on May 7, 2025
Bailey Howell
The legacy of macroevolution: understanding and predicting evolutionary responses to novel environments
Defended on May 9, 2025
Camilo Alfonso
From Hormones to Genomes: Investigating Testosterone, Social Behavior, and Evolution in Manakins
Defended on May 9, 2025
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The Interfaces of Global Change (IGC) program is an innovative interdisciplinary graduate education program offered by the Global Change Center designed to address the multidimensional aspects of global change (e.g., social, economic, environmental).
Our Ph.D. students come from around the world and form a vibrant interdisciplinary community of scholars learning to collaborate, engage stakeholders, and effectively communicate. Our alumni are in positions of influence in academia, NGOs, government, and the private sector in the U.S. and abroad, tackling wicked problems like climate change, biodiversity loss, and water pollution.
