2023 - 2024 Graduate Fellowships
- Megan Freiler
- Sierra McAlister
- Tyler Nighswander
- Cassandra Sheridan
CISAB member awards
2023 Alex Black Memorial Scholarship
- Mya Fayyaz
- Peyton Hutchinson
2023 Summer Internships
- Londyn Riley
- Hayley Wilson
CISAB Awards
CISAB Exemplar Award
The CISAB Exemplar Award recognizes the careers of scientists who set outstanding examples of integrating different perspectives in the study of Animal Behavior. The list of CISAB Exemplars is impressive and includes some of IU’s own outstanding animal behaviorists as well as leaders in the field of animal behavior from around the country.
2023 CISAB Exemplar Award Winner is Vanessa Ezenwa
Vanessa Ezenwa received her B. A. at Rice University and her Ph.D. at Princeton University. Vanessa completed a postdoc at the United States Geological Survey. Her first faculty position was at the University of Montana, before moving to University of Georgia in 2010. Vanessa is currently a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University.Vanessa’s work combines theory, field studies, and behavioral approaches with molecular and immunological techniques to investigate how behavioral, physiological, and ecological processes at the individual level shape interactions between hosts and their parasites, and the consequences for population and community-wide patterns of disease. She has authored more than 150 journal articles and book chapters and has been cited nearly 8000 times. She has mentored many undergraduates and masters students who have gone on to PhD programs, as well as PhD students and postdocs who have gone on to faculty positions as well as applied positions in conservation and science communication. Dr. Ezenwa has received numerous honors, for instance, she serves on the editorial advisory board of Science and is a AAAS Fellow. In 2020, Ezenwa was selected by The Community of Scholars as one of the most inspiring Black scientists in the United States.
- Previous CISAB Exemplar Awardees
2002 - Ellen Ketterson and William D. Timberlake
2003 - Marlene Zuk
2004 - Dale R. Sengelaub
2005 - Carl D. Hopkins
2006 - Sarah W. Bottjer
2007 - Michael J. Ryan
2008 - Meredith J. West
2009 - Darcy B. Kelley
2010 - Roy Caldwell
2011 - Jeffery R. Alberts
2012 - John C. Wingfield
2013 - Emilia Martins
2014 - Mark S. Blumberg
2015 - David Crews and James L. Goodson
2016 - Gregory E. Demas
2017 - Elizabeth Adkins-Regan
2018 - Frans B. M. de Waal
2019 - Hans Hofmann
2020 - COVID
2021 - Karen L. Bales
2022 - Susan Alberts
2023 - Vanessa Ezenwa
Rowland Mentoring Award
CISAB founding member William J. Rowland was devoted to the study of animal behavior, and a strong advocate for mentoring and training undergraduates in research, particularly undergraduates who were in one way or another disadvantaged in their opportunities to get research experience. The Bill Rowland Mentoring Award was established in Bill’s memory to recognize graduate students who have served as outstanding research mentors to undergraduates.
2023 award recipient: Lana Bolin
Lana is a student in Jennifer Lau’s lab, pursuing a PhD in Biology. According to Jen, Lana is a strong advocate for making research more accessible to all undergraduate students, particularly those from disadvantaged groups, community college transfer students, and non-traditional students. For instance, Lana consulted with several groups across campus to help non-traditional and community college students transition to IU by introducing community college transfer students to careers and research in STEM, building a cohort and creating a sense of belonging among transfer students, and teaching college success skills. Notably, Lana sought and received funding from IU’s Environmental Resilience Institute to initiate one of her ideas: ScienceCORPS. Now in its 3rd year, this program uses a distributed experiment to provide paid summer research opportunities to community college students across Indiana (many of whom have to work full time and cannot participate in other full-time summer research programs). Lana mails participants experimental supplies so that students can execute an experiment investigating seed predation in their backyard or a nearby public space. She meets with students online each week to work with them on their experiment and provide professional development. Lana then collaborated with the GEMS Biological Integration Institute to expand the program to community college students in Illinois and to partner with an education researcher to evaluate how the program affected student learning and perceptions. Lana and her collaborators are now working to document the success of the program and encourage others to adopt it. Lana continues to meet with many of her ScienceCORPS students to work with them on posters presenting their findings at regional conferences and to introduce them to additional research at IU. Congratulations Lana on your well-deserved Rowland Award.
Lana Bolin receives 2023 Rowland Mentoring Award
2023 award recipient: Megan Freiler
Megan Freiler is finishing up her Biology PhD in Troy Smith’s lab, where she studies how species variation in sociality influences the function of communication signals and how social experience influences steroid hormone levels and the expression of neuromodulator-related genes in brain regions that process communication signals. According to Troy, Megan is intellectually curious, focused, and hardworking. She is also passionate about mentoring.
For nearly her whole time at IU, Megan has been an instructor and administrator in the Foundations in Science and Mathematics Summer courses, helping disadvantaged high school students prepare for college-level science and math and encouraging them to pursue STEM majors. She has also designed demos for ScienceFest. She has been a valued member of CISAB’s steering committee for 5 years, has served on the program committee for this Conference since her very first year in grad school, and has chaired the committee for the last 4 years.
Megan has also mentored REU interns and undergraduate students in the lab since the very beginning of her graduate career. According to Troy, she has devoted enormous efforts to helping her mentees develop excellent research skills as well as interesting and independent research projects-- talking to them about their projects and experimental design, working with them to analyze data and write it up, advising them on pursuing graduate research and more. All of her undergraduate mentees completed honors theses based on these projects. Three of her six undergraduate mentees went on to Ph.D. programs; two of those received NSF fellowships). One is going to medical school, one to veterinary school, and the third currently works in IU’s Office of the Vice Provost for Research.
For nearly her whole time at IU, Megan has been an instructor and administrator in the Foundations in Science and Mathematics Summer courses, helping disadvantaged high school students prepare for college-level science and math and encouraging them to pursue STEM majors. She has also designed demos for ScienceFest. She has been a valued member of CISAB’s steering committee for 5 years, has served on the program committee for this Conference since her very first year in grad school, and has chaired the committee for the last 4 years.
Megan has also mentored REU interns and undergraduate students in the lab since the very beginning of her graduate career. According to Troy, she has devoted enormous efforts to helping her mentees develop excellent research skills as well as interesting and independent research projects-- talking to them about their projects and experimental design, working with them to analyze data and write it up, advising them on pursuing graduate research and more. All of her undergraduate mentees completed honors theses based on these projects. Three of her six undergraduate mentees went on to Ph.D. programs; two of those received NSF fellowships). One is going to medical school, one to veterinary school, and the third currently works in IU’s Office of the Vice Provost for Research.
Megan Freiler receives 2023 Rowland Mentoring Award
- Previous Dr. William J. Rowland Mentoring Awardees
2005 - Teresa L. Dzieweczynski and Richard M. Granquist
2006 - Eduardo J. Fernandez
2007 - Bronwyn Heather Bleakley
2008 - Antino R. Allen
2009 - Johanna "Hanna" Kolodziejski
2010 - Jonathan Atwell
2011 - Winnie Ho and Harald Parzer
2012 - Brandon Hill and Dustin Reichard
2013 - Elizabeth Carlton and David Civitello
2014 - Alejandra Rossi
2015 - Sarah Keesom
2016 - Nikki Rendon
2017 - Mikus Abolins-Abols
2018 - Abigail Kimmitt
2019 - Misty Proffitt
2020 - Elizabeth George
2021 - Kara Million
2022 - Kayleigh Hood and Ashwini Ramesh
2023 - Lana Bolin and Megan Freiler
Hanna Kolodziejski Fellowship
Established in memory of Hanna Kolodziejski, a remarkable graduate student in CISAB and the Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior program in Biology, this fellowship is an annual award for a graduate student who, like Hanna, shows academic talent in both research and teaching, and who demonstrates a commitment to the community through service or outreach programs. The fellowship is open to all CISAB and Biology graduate students, with a preference given to members of CISAB and Evolution, Ecology & Behavior (EEB) students.
2023 Hanna Kolodziejski fellowship recipient: Erica Nadolski
Erica is pursuing a PhD in Biology and is mentored by Armin Mozcek. Erica is interested in the interactions between genetic mechanisms, developmental processes, environmental circumstances, and how all combine to shape evolutionary trajectories, studying this in the context of condition-dependent development in horned beetles, where she investigates the role of sex- and nutrition-specific chromatin remodeling (and how it affects which genes can be expressed and which cannot), explores this across multiple traits (to determine how the same genome may instruct formation of varying degrees of conditional trait development) and further contrasts this across species that have diverged in in pattern of sex- and nutrition-dependent growth. Armin describes her as an innovative and integrative researcher, a ferocious and critical reader of the literature.
According to Armin, to Erica the practice of science and the teaching of science go hand in hand. For instance in the lab, she has mentored many students who come from groups that are underrespresented in the sciences. In the department, Erica co-founded the BioLGBTQ student group, and serves on the department’s DEI committee. In the community, she has also assisted in teaching outreach modules in high school Biology classes, introduced 3rd graders the Scientific Method using experiments with live termites, and participated in both Science Fest and Bug Fest. Erica has independently developed a module focused on the Biological Basis of Sex Differences, an area our K12 teachers tell us uniformly is in desperate need of additional, science-based curricular resources. Erica’s commitment to service to science outreach: she also volunteers at the Bloomington Emergency Youth Shelter. Thus, for Erica’s many and sustained efforts in mentoring, outreach, and community service during her time at IU, I am delighted to award her the Hanna Kolodziejski Fellowship.
Erica Nadolski receives 2023 Hanna Kolodziejski Fellowship
- Previous Johanna "Hanna" A. Kolodziejski Fellowship Awardees
2011 - Emily Chester
2012 - Harald Parzer
2013 - Liz Carlton
2014 - Aubrey Kelly
2015 - Daniel Schwab and Leah Wilson
2016 - Jessica Hite
2017 - Briana Whitaker
2018 - Kristyn Sylvia
2019 - Savannah Bennett
2020 - Lana Ruck
2021 - Kayleigh Hood
2022 - Kat Munley
2023 - Erica Nadolski
Goodson Prize for Art in Science
Dr. Jim Goodson was a vibrant member of the CISAB community. In addition to being a consummate neuroscientist and critical thinker, Jim was also extraordinarily gifted at capturing the beauty of his science via images, of both his study subjects and his histological material. The Goodson Prize for Art in Science recognizes outstanding research images from CISAB members that are not just scientifically meaningful but are also beautiful. Winning images are showcased both in the CISAB house and on our website.
2023 Goodson Art in Science winner and honorable mention
The College of Arts