April 21, 1997

Two UAF Students Receive Angus Gavin Grants

Apr. 21, 1997  NR 9-1997

The University of Alaska Foundation announced this week that Amy Zacheis, a graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has been selected to receive a $12,000 Angus Gavin Memorial Bird Research grant for the 1997 summer field season. Also selected to receive a grant from the endowment managed by the foundation was Pamela Svete who was awarded a $5,000 grant.

Established by a generous gift from ARCO in 1981 the grant fund is named after Angus Gavin, a world renowned biologist and engineer who spent the last 13 years of his life working for ARCO on Alaska's North Slope studying, measuring, and documenting the wildlife of the area. Each year the earnings on the endowment established in Angus Gavin's name are awarded as grants to students and faculty at the University of Alaska whose research centers around developing new knowledge about bird species and their interactions with the environment. A competitive proposal process for the grant is announced throughout the university each winter. In the spring, a five person selection committee made up of ornithologists and biologists from across Alaska is convened by the foundation to select the grant recipient.

Amy Zacheis is a graduate student at the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks studying for her Ph.D. in biology. The $12,000 grant will allow her to complete her study of the effects of migratory geese on plant communities and nitrogen cycles in salt-marsh ecosystems in upper Cook Inlet. Amy intends to complete her doctoral degree at UAF in the spring of 1999.

The second grant was awarded by the Angus Gavin Committee to Pamela Svete, also a graduate student at UAF's Institute of Arctic Biology working toward a master's degree in wildlife biology. The $5,000 award will help fund her work investigating the breeding characteristics of the black brant using microsatellites.

The Angus Gavin endowment is administered and managed by the University of Alaska Foundation as part of its pooled endowment fund. The Angus Gavin endowment is currently more than $335,000 in size.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Scott Taylor, UA Foundation, 474-7687