Zeke received the 2024-25 Russell J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Fellowship for his proposal on “Fueling Coastal Microplastics Research with Community Engagement” to conduct research at Bodega Marine Laboratory.

Zeke received the 2024-25 Donald Crosby Fellowship in Environmental Chemistry for his proposal on “Characterizing Microplastics  Leachate Accumulation in Wild Rockfish Along the California Coast” by the Annual Internal Fellowship Competition for Continuing Graduate Students.

Zeke was honored for his proposal on “Characterizing Microplastics and Microplastic Leachate Accumulation in Wild Rockfish Along the California Coast” by the 2024 NSF GRFP Competition. In the coming years, Zeke will be working on this project under the mentorship of Dr. Nicklisch and Dr. Pasparakis.

Angela received the UC LFRP 2023 AAUW In-Residence National Laboratory Graduate Fellowship which will allow her to collaborate with Dr. Bruce A. Buchholz at the AMS facility in LLNL. Her project was selected for two years of full scholarship.

Angela received the 2022-23 AAUW International Doctoral Fellowship award for her research proposal on chemical exposure effects on queen and worker bee gut microbiome structure and health.

PhD student Angela Encerrado received the 2022 Jastro-Shields fellowship award for her research proposal on metabolism of pesticides in honeybee colony members.

Angela received the highly competitive 2022 PAm-Costco USA Scholarship for outstanding scholars who are dedicated to making an impact on honey bee health and the sustainability of beekeeping. Her project won first place for 3 years of full scholarship.

Master’s student Matthew Michel was awarded additional Jastro-Shields funding for his research proposal to characterize the vacuolar transport of lignin monomers during cell wall synthesis. Matthew has been growing Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress), Picea abies (Norway spruce), and Medicago sativa (alfalfa) to explore using different plant tissues for transport characterization experiments.

PhD student Angela Encerrado received the 2021 Fumio Matsumura Graduate Award for her research proposal on the “Effects of Pesticides/PFAS co-exposures on queen and worker bee gut microbial community structure and health“.

PhD student Angela Encerrado and masters student Matthew Michel both received the 2021 Jastro-Shields fellowship award for their research proposals on the honeybee gut microbiome and lignin monomer transporters respectively.