What are you up to now?

Bennet Leon

Summer Research Program '05

Mentors: Audrey Barker-Plotkin

Project: Evolution of pit and mound microtopography 15 years after a simulated hurricane (abstract)

Hometown: Sudbury, MA

College and major: Bates College, class of 2007, Geology

• 

  What you miss most about the Summer Research program: Being around enthusiastic students with similar interests and spending all day in the hemlock forest or simulated hurricane experiment.

• What you miss least about the program: Having Lyme disease--check for ticks!

• What about the program has stuck with you: A better understanding of our dynamic landscape and renewable forest resource.

• Have you stayed in touch with other Summer students? Yes.

• Did your Summer Research experience support or change your school/career plans? My experience at HF added a unique element to my geology major at Bates and gave me a different perspective on my work with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife after college. When at Harvard Forest, I did not expect that I would end up studying forest ecology and applied forestry as a graduate student.

• What are you up to now? I am a Masters of Forestry Candidate at the University of Maine School of Forest Resources. I am looking forward to a career as a consulting forester, and possibly seeking a policy role some day concerning the forest resources of New England, the nation, and the world.