Soon-to-be Department of Applied Ecology graduate student, Kate Gorman, has been awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship!  She will be joining Applied Ecology in the fall of 2020 to study urban ecology with her supervisor, Dr. Elsa Youngsteadt.

The Graduate Research Fellowship began in 1951 under President Truman, and is the USA’s oldest fellowship program for graduate students pursuing studies within STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).  Kate joins a legacy of 50,000 fellows – 42 of which have gone on to win Nobel prizes.

“Writing the grant was a whirlwind experience, and I was so grateful to write it with Dr. Elsa Youngsteadt,” says Gorman. “It’s a very competitive grant, so I was seriously surprised when I got the news. I read the email in my bed at 6am!”  

Kate will be moving to NC State from Ohio State University, and says that her experience studying urban ecology there will be put to great use in Raleigh.

“Columbus, Ohio is one of the fastest growing cities in America, like Raleigh, so studying urban ecology and NC State is an ideal proving ground for what I’ve learned up north.”

“I am really interested in urban ecology, especially in relation to native bees,” says Gorman.  “I’m particularly interested in how urban land cover types can influence ground-nesting bee emergence, and how levels of affluence can impact the types of land covers. This idea has been looked at with birds, but no one has really looked at this with arthropods, so we took those two ideas and put them together for my research.”  

Congratulations, Kate!  We look forward to welcoming you to the wolfpack, soon!