Harvard Forest Represented at Undergraduate Research Conference

Israel Marquez, REU 2010, has been selected to attend the 2011 REU Conference hosted by the Council for Undergraduate Research, in Arlington VA this month, where he will present a poster on "Predicting Ragweed Hotspots in New England." Israel conducted presence-absence surveys and spatial analysis for this work as part of a study funded by the EPA and headed by HF Ecologist Kristina Stinson. His experience in the Summer Program has played a key role in his longer term educational and career directions in GIS and environmental studies. After working for the planning department of the City of San Diego last year, he has been accepted at San Francisco State for a master's program in Urban Planning and Natural Resources Management, where he hopes to attend next Fall. He currently works for an environmental consulting firm. The conference will feature presentations by students from REU programs in all disciplines, sessions for REU administrators and faculty, and opportunities to meet with representatives from the National Science Foundation and other government agencies. Marquez and Stinson will represent the Harvard Forest at this event.