The CIAS Mini-Grant Program provides funding for graduate students to conduct research and outreach projects over the course of a single summer. In 2023, 11 graduate students will receive funding to conduct the research and outreach projects listed below. Recipients will learn how to manage a grant, participate in leadership activities and present their findings to their peers. Visit our site next fall to learn what they discovered, and apply for research support for summer 2024 when the Call for Proposals is released in spring.

Rurality as Relations: Organizational networks, multispecies interactions, and place-based knowledge in north central Montana’s changing socio-ecological landscape

Student researcher: John Canfield, Department of Sociology
Faculty advisor: Katherine Curtis, Department of Sociology

Geographies of Food Excess and Access: Visualizing Dane County foodscapes

Student researcher: Delaney Gobster, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
Faculty advisor: Holly Gibbs, Department of Geography and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies

Pressures and incentives for cranberry management practices

Student researcher: Celeste Huff, Department of Entomology           
Faculty advisor: Shawn Steffan, Department of Entomology

The political ecology of climate-smart agriculture

Student researcher: Laura Lawler, Department of Geography
Faculty advisor: Matt Turner, Department of Geography

Examining the effects of increased water prices to agricultural producers in the Colorado River basin

Student researcher: Ben Lebowitz, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics
Faculty advisor: Charles Nicholson, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics

Growing Resistance: An analysis of Montreal’s urban agriculture

Student researcher: Tristian Lee, Department of Community and Environmental Sociology
Faculty advisor: Nan Enstad, Department of Community and Environmental Sociology

Evaluation of flowering cover crops to support wild pollinators in Wisconsin

Student researcher: Eliza Pessereau, Department of Entomology
Faculty advisor: Claudio Gratton, Department of Entomology

Managing inter-row spacing and nitrogen fertility in dual-use Kernza intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium) to sustain grain yield over time

Student researcher: Erica Shoenberger, Department of Agronomy and Department of Soil Science
Faculty advisor: Valentin Picasso, Department of Agronomy

Genetic diversity of mastitis-associated bacterial isolates from stable flies in Wisconsin dairy barns

Student researcher: Andrew Sommer, Department of Bacteriology
Faculty advisor: Kerri Coon, Department of Bacteriology

Aerial mapping of ammonia emissions from rotationally grazed dairy pastures

Student researcher: Doee Yang, Department of Biological Systems Engineering
Faculty advisor: Neslihan Akdeniz, Department of Biological Systems Engineering

Ventilation design for calf barns

Student researcher: Yoonhong Yi, Department of Biological Systems Engineering
Faculty advisor: Neslihan Akdeniz, Department of Biological Systems Engineering