A plant ecologist who loves making curiosity contagious!
Officially in PBIO!
Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
-
Well, this past week has brought some exciting news, folks - I'm officially a PBIO student! It was an enjoyable exercise taking the form around and garnering signatures, from Dr. Peterson (yay!), as well as my outgoing and incoming grad coordinators.
I'm so excited to officially be able to share this news. Now it's confirmed that much of my next five years or so will involve getting paid to traipse out in the woods...I'm not complaining.
It's been a little while since I've posted here, hasn't it! I think a little recap is more than appropriate, so here goes! I was so excited to join Dr. Peterson's lab in late fall 2019 as referenced in my previous post, then...life happened. First of all, COVID. Rather than starting fieldwork as planned, I spent 2020 immersing myself in the literature and expanding my focus from just looking at wind disturbance to that of wind disturbance and salvage logging on herbaceous species. In 2021 I started fieldwork in earnest: a short-term (<5 years since disturbance) experimental (human-created) wind disturbance in Piedmont Georgia, a short-term hurricane and logging disturbance in coastal plain Georgia, and a long-term (>20 years since disturbance) thunderstorm and logging disturbance in coastal plain Tennessee. Due to logistical constraints, I was only able to visit the Georgia coastal plain site in 2021, but the other two sites I have been able to return to multip...
During my undergraduate career, my best friends lovingly nicknamed me "FDM". The initials stood for Future Dr. Menzmer, because while not all of them wanted to pursue a doctoral degree themselves, they were quite supportive of my dreams! I'm thrilled to announce a change to my status, though not nickname initials: Finally Dr. Menzmer! :) My presentation and defense was in late February. I've spent the past month or so making changes requested by my committee and graduate school and finally submitted the document tonight.
I am a plant ecologist with a passion to make curiosity contagious! If people begin to understand the natural world around them, they can then go on to appreciate and care about our Earth. I love helping people begin their journey of discovery and understanding with the amazing nature around them! Want to chat plants? Don't hesitate to reach out to me! austin.menzmer@gmail.com
Comments
Post a Comment