ECoGSS

We are looking for students to join the Planning committee: If you are interested in joining the board to make this event possible please nominate yourself or a friend here: 

https://forms.gle/TxCY86H99Gc3r6sJ8

• Chair – (1 person)
• Marketing/Communications Coordinators – (2 people) 
• Speaker Logistics Coordinators – (2 people) 
• Sponsorship & Budget Coordinator – (2 people)
• Outreach Coordinator – (1 person) 
• Secretary –  (1 person) 
• Faculty Advisor – (1 person)

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We hope you will be able to join us for the 5th Environmental Conservation Graduate Student Symposium which will take place in the Design Building on Friday, April 1st, 2022. Visit the Program to see the incredible and diverse line-up of graduate student presenters!

Please register (deadline March 18th) to come to the symposium!

A few notes:

1. Lunch will be provided by UMass Amherst’s dining/catering services.
2. Masks are strongly suggested to keep this event safe for everyone.
3. We are working on a virtual viewing option for those who cannot attend in person.
4. In collaboration with the UMass Amherst Student Parent Programs, we will be providing supervised child activity space during the Symposium. However, priority is given to UMass affiliated participants, and childcare is contingent upon capacity.

We look forward to seeing you at ECoGSS 2022 on Friday, April 1st! Please direct any questions to ecogss@umass.edu.

Inviting all Graduate Students involved in environmental conservation-related research!

Whether you are from ECo, MS3, OEB, or anywhere else, we want you to be involved in the 2022 ECo Graduate Student Symposium (ECoGSS). ECoGSS is a great space to present your conservation science research to friendly faces, whether you are just starting out in your graduate career or seasoned at attending conferences! Wherever you are in the research process, we welcome you to present anything, including a research idea, research proposal, case study, or anything else you may want to get feedback on.

The symposium, hosted by the Environmental Conservation Department, will be held from 9 am – 5 pm on April 1st, 2022 in the John Olver Design building, room 170. Abstracts for talks and posters are due Friday, February 11th, 2022 at 11:59 pm EST.

For further details: https://websites.umass.edu/ecogss/abstract-presentation-guidelines/

Abstract submissions for talks and posters are due FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11th 2022 at 11:59 pm EST.

The ECoGSS organizing committee is excited to announce ECoGSS 2022!

This one-day in person symposium will be held from 9 am – 5 pm on Friday, April 1st in the John Oliver Design building, room 170.

Although we are organizing this symposium within ECo, we encourage graduate students in various departments (e.g., OEB, Geosciences, Microbiology, etc.) to participate. Typically, the day consists of a keynote speaker, lightning and traditional talks and poster sessions, with lunch (or, because of COVID, hopefully some kind of dining voucher) included.

ECoGSS is a great opportunity to share your research and practice oral presentation skills in a friendly, supportive environment. This is great way to support and meet other graduate students at UMass, connect with faculty and other conservation professionals & state representatives, and network within/across departments! This year, we’re happy to announce a few changes that we are planning on executing:

• Students that present at the symposium will automatically be entered in a raffle to win a $50 visa gift card! In addition, students that ATTEND the symposium will be entered in a raffle to win a $25 gift card to Cushman’s Market.
• Faculty that ATTEND the symposium will be entered in a raffle to win a $25 gift card at Cushman’s Market.
• We plan on featuring a special “early graduate career” session where graduate students who are in the beginning stages of graduate school can present their research without having to stress over a results section.
• Lastly, we are considering holding a career panel discussion with post-docs within ECo, OEB, Geosciences, Microbiology, etc. to talk to folks about their academic and non-academic trajectories after graduate school.

Again, please mark Friday, April 1st on your calendar and keep an eye out future information on submitting an abstract, the program/schedule, and more!

Today, EcoGSS?finalized committee appointments for the 2021–2022 leadership year. EcoGSS’s abilities and achievements are a direct result of the incredible, dedicated volunteers who tirelessly strive to help realize its vision of inspiring graduate students to share their diverse and interdisciplinary research.

Congratulations to the newly appointed 2022 committee!

Please join us in welcoming these leaders to their new roles!

Patricia Levasseur, Chair
Amanda Suzzi, Marketing/Communications & Financial Planner
Seema Ravandale and Katrina Zarrella Smith, Speaker Logistics Coordinators
Sarah Deckel, Sponsorship & Outreach Coordinator
Graziella DiRenzo, Faculty Advisor

From the entire ECoGSS committee, we want to sincerely thank you for your participation in our first ever virtual conference day. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to share the wide range of graduate research topics. We hope you found the event both rewarding and insightful.

We would appreciate if you could complete this brief summary evaluation survey and let us know how we did. Please share your feedback to help us improve!  

We are so grateful to the conference presenters, speakers, volunteers, and sponsors who made this event possible.  It was a truly collaborative effort! We also thank you, the attendees, for your willingness to engage with peers in a new way during this extraordinary year.  

Thank you again for your participation in this year’s conference. We appreciate your commitment to conservation, and we hope to see you again next year!

A special congratulations to the winners of our audience choice awards.

Traditional talk

Emma Sylvia, first year Master’s student of Sustainability Science, is the winner of the “Audience choice” award at this year’s ECoGSS traditional talk session for her unique presentation on “Dust to Dust to CO2: A Comparison of Mortuary Practices & Natural Alternatives”.

Lightning Talk

Katrina A. Zarrella Smith, first year PhD student of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, is the winner of the “Audience choice” award at this year’s ECoGSS lightning talk session for her presentation on “How individual movements of the invasive green crab, Carcinus maenas, in a Gulf of Maine estuary help to identify reasons for its success”.

Thank all of the participants for helping make this conference a success!

Here’s one final reminder to please register before the end of the day today at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfpeyO2Jn_vhnLCRItZejkS1dNJh6utgBwlAUwsoYnjtoaaRg/viewform?usp=sf_link .

We have a full day of talks and a panel discussion scheduled tomorrow, along with our keynote address from Casey Clapp. Please feel free to come to as much of the programming as you are able. The zoom links will allow you to come and go freely throughout the day.

Those of you who have already registered will receive zoom links from us this evening.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow and appreciate your support of our graduate student presenters.

We’re pleased to announce our keynote speaker for ECoGSS 2021.

We’re building a program of talented, creative, brilliant people to share their insights and experience. We wanted our keynote to be a combination of an established as well as an emerging voice who has something to say from the diverse fields within conservation science.

“The Urban Tree and Me”

Our invited speaker is J. Casey Clapp. Casey is co-host of the podcast Completely Arbortrary, and enjoys learning and talking about all sorts of things, namely trees. He got his Bachelor of Science in Forest Management, with a focus on Urban Forestry, and his Masters of Arboriculture and Urban Forestry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As the Forester for the city of Portland, Oregon, Casey is responsible for reviewing and permitting street-tree work associated with housing or commercial development.

Follow Casey Clapp at Instagram.com/Clapp4Trees and his new podcast Instagram.com/arbortrarypod

Please visit the Program to see the incredible and diverse line-up of graduate student presenters!

We look forward to seeing you at ECoGSS 2021 on Friday, March 19th! Please direct any questions to ecogss@umass.edu.