RECIPIENTS’ STORIES

Carrie Seltzer receives the Arnold R. & Doris G. Bodmer Science Travel Award from Professor Emeritus Arnold Bodmer at the LAS Recognition Dinner on October 1, 2008.

Multiple Awards Allow Graduate Student to Go Batty in Tanzania

You might say that Carrie Seltzer has gone completely batty. She’d be the first to admit that she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Seltzer, a PhD student in Biological Sciences, is currently in Tanzania, investigating the effects of forest fragmentation on seed dispersal by fruit bats in an African rainforest.

Tanzanian fruit bats are important agents of pollination and seed dispersal in the tropics. Seltzer hopes to learn about the relationship between the bats and plants, and how both are affected by human activity such as forest fragmentation and habitat loss.

“Areas where forests have been cleared then left to re-grow need animals such as bats and birds to bring seeds,” she said. “My research will help determine which bats are responsible for seed dispersal in deforested areas.” Her research will also help to ascertain whether the bats themselves help to reseed areas of the forest that have been cleared by humans.

Carrie Seltzer examines a fruit bat ensnared in a net at one of her field sites in Tanzania

Seltzer spent one month in Tanzania in the summer of 2008 where she was able to identify field sites, connect with many Tanzanian collaborators and members of the international research community, and identify locations for outreach programs about bats.

“I spent two weeks at my field site in the Usambara Mountains learning as much as possible about the natural history of the area,” Seltzer said. “I hiked through farms, plantations, forest fragments, and pristine forest and learned to identify many tree species with bat-dispersed seeds. Science outreach and education are important components of my research goals. During this trip, I identified a potential site for a public bat education program as well as field sites.”

Seltzer is a second-year doctoral student specializing in ecology and evolution. Last year, she was named one of the recipients of the Arnold R. and Doris G. Bodmer Science Travel Award, an award the Bodmers established in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2006.

“This award made it possible for me to travel to East Africa to begin my study of fruit bat ecology in Tanzania,” Seltzer said. “In the field of ecology and evolution, many graduate students undertake research that is not part of a large grant given to their advisor. Students like me are dependent on finding smaller grants such as the Bodmer Award to cover their research expenses.”

Which is precisely what Arnold Bodmer had in mind. Bodmer, emeritus professor of Physics, and his late wife, Doris, established the Arnold R. and Doris G. Bodmer Science Travel Award to permit students to travel abroad as part of their education in science. The award permits junior or senior undergraduates or first or second-year graduate students the opportunity to travel abroad for science-related study, seminars, workshops or summer sessions.

Bodmer, considered an expert in theoretical nuclear physics, lived in various parts of the world, immersing in various cultures throughout his life. By experiencing firsthand the global nature of the field of physics, he realized that mastering your field may require study beyond your home shores.

“In an increasingly global community, it is especially important for students to widen their horizons and experience other cultures,” Bodmer said.

One of the Tanzanian field sites identified by Carrie Seltzer for her work

Carrie Seltzer knows only too well the truth behind that statement. In 2001, she visited the Galapagos Islands to study tropical island ecology with the Earlham College Foreign Study Program. One year later, the program would send her to travel extensively in Kenya studying conservation ecology and economics. In 2004, she collaborated with Russian scientists conducting research on Lake Baikal in the Summer Environmental Exchange Program with Tahoe Baikal Institute.

One could argue that earning the Bodmer grant has broadened Seltzer’s horizons in other ways as well. One year after earning the Bodmer, Seltzer has now won a highly competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. The $30,000 fellowship provides allowances for tuition, fees and travel and gives her the flexibility to do fieldwork in Tanzania throughout the year rather than just summers. Her work in Tanzania this summer is also supported by funding from the Field Museum, Bat Conservation International and the American Society of Mammalogists.

“After completing my PhD here at UIC, my goal is to lead foreign study programs for undergraduates to countries like Tanzania,” Seltzer said. “International partnerships are critical for the success of such programs, and I am thankful that the Bodmer Award enabled me to begin the process of building relationships in Tanzania last summer. I thank Professor Bodmer for supporting my research and broadening my horizons as a scientist.”