Since 1999, the Environmental Studies Program has recognized its most outstanding seniors for their academic achievements with the Gaylord Donnelley Prize. The award is made by faculty to the author of a distinguished piece of interdisciplinary scholarship. The Prize is presented to a senior at commencement. It is funded by an endowment from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation and the Donnelley Family, in memory of Mr. Gaylord Donnelley, a conservationist dedicated to advances in research and education.
Gaylord Donnelley Prize in Environmental Studies
Past Gaylord Donnelley Prize Recipients
Makenzie Birkey (Timothy Dwight College) Redlining’s lasting mark: Persisting disparities in climate change-driven health risks in New Haven, CT
Grace Cajski (Benjamin Franklin College) The Stewards and Residents of Anchialine Pools: Storytelling as a Tool for Marine Conservation, through the Lens of Hawaiʻi Island’s Nearshore Subterranean Pools
Sofia Diggins (Ezra Stiles College) Talking Trash: Strategies for Reducing Landfill Gas Emissions
Saskia Grisaru (Branford College) The Effects of Site Heterogeneity on Groundstory Microclimates Within Regeneration Treatments of a Dying Norway Spruce Plantation
Grace Lawrie (Jonathan Edwards College) Mother’s Milk: Sovereignty, Land, and Reproductive Healthcare in the Work of Katsi Cook
Santana Vannarath (Berkeley College) Extractions: Exploring a New Framework for Choreographing about Climate Change
Khenzom Alling (Grace Hopper College) Caring for Home and Homeland: Environmental Placemaking in Dharamshala and Tibet
Marc Gonzalez (Davenport College) Maldita Sea, Otro Apagón”: A Historical, Decolonial Analysis of the Puerto Rican Power Grid and the Making of the Energy Crisis
Elizabeth Hopkinson (Jonathon Edwards College) Dying in and out of place: The American hospital as a setting for end-of-life care
Adin Ring (Saybrook College) Harnessing Citizen Science and Collections Data for Invasive Plant Surveillance
2022
Helen Dugmore (Timothy Dwight College ) Winds of Change: Insurance, Climate Science and the Moral Economy of Risk at the IBHS Research Center
Sean Johnson (Grace Hopper College) An Analysis of Capital Flows within US Climate Tech Venture Capital
Danielle Losos (Saybrook College) Weather Satellites for Wildfire Tracking: Mapping Burned Area in Near-Real Time using Geostationary Satellite Data
Caroline Magavern (Berkeley College) Curators of Climate Change: Art Museums in the Anthropocene
Evan Parker (Morse College) An Assessment of Geographic and Taxonomic Biases in Research on Climate Change-Related Range Shifts
Katie Schlick (Silliman College) Disaster, Human Mobility, & Networks of Care: How the U.S. government can mitigate the challenge of managing chronic disease and mental health in populations displaced by natural disaster
Victoria Dombrowik (Pierson College) Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on Ground-Level Ozone Formation in Four Cities
Rebecca Ju (Morse College) Developmental acclimation of Porites astreoides larvae enhances
Will Mukamal (Saybrook College) The Environmental Costs of Energy Generation: An LCOE Analysis of ISO New England Generating Facilities
Kenneth Xu (Timothy Dwight College) A Novel Approach to Modeling the Regional Acidification Impacts of Ocean Carbon Disposal: Case Study of the U.S. East Coast
Addison Luck (Pierson College) Upholding Nature’s Rights in Ecuador: Identifying Problems and Providing Solutions
Tristan Furnary (Davenport College) Potential Role of Acetaminophen and Pesticides in the Developmental Origins of Autism Spectrum Disorder via In Silico and Stem Cell Models
Gemma Shepherd (Jonathan Edwards College) Using chitosan for future food packaging: An investigation into the effect of metal crosslinking on chitosan films’ mechanical, water barrier, and antimicrobial properties
Jordan Schmolka (Silliman College) What’s Under the City? Constructing and Contesting the Natural in Settler Colonial New York
Franklin Eccher (Saybrook College), The Hardier Fish: An Environmental History of Trout and Grayling Management in the Montana “Trout Paradise”
Cayley Geffen (Ezra Styles College), Monumental Conflict: The Role of Local and Regional Conflicts In the Opposition to Bears Ears National Monument
Miela Mayer (Silliman College), US Cities’ Renewable Energy Targets, Rhetoric or Reality
Connor Reed (Berkeley College), Engaging open-source precision viticulture to manage spatial heterogeneity and improve cover-cropping practice on an organic vineyard
Joel Abraham (Hopper College), Drought-Response Strategies of Savanna Herbivores
Nicole Boardman (Timothy Dwight College), Glyphosate in Corn Products: Investigating Patterns and Risks of Residue Levels
Claire Gottsegen (Morse College), Species delimitation of the Snail Darter, Percina tanasi, and its implications in U.S. Conservation Policy
Maya Jenkins (Hopper College), Environmental Violence and Resistance while Incarcerated: An Exploration of Spatial Rupturing & Place-Based Imaginations in New York Prisons
Amanda Mei (Berkeley College), The Spirit that Moves Us: A study of the Spiritual and Sustainable Development of Intentional Communities
Abigail Cheskis (Hopper College), Food Frames for Climate Change Awareness and Action
Alexandra Golden (Trumbull College), “To Preserve Unimpaired”: The Challenges of Climate Change Adaptation in Yellowstone National Park and Statue of Liberty National Monument
Calvin Harrison (Hopper College), “If You Don’t Protect The Companion of the Environment, There Won’t Be an Environment”: Naqab Bedouin and Sustainability at Wadi Attir
Nathaniel Haslett (Hopper College), Offsetting the Cost of Emissions Reductions: Maine Forests and Claifornia’s Cap-and-Trade Market
Eamon Heberlein (Davenport College), Farmland Access Strategies for the Upper Midwest
Hannah Sassoon (Calhoun College), Chasing the Agrarian Dream in Bells Bend, Tennessee
Andres Valdivieso (Pierson College), A Real-World Jurassic Park? Evaluating the Potential Application of Captive Breeding Programs for the Galapagos National Park Through the Design of Breeding Pairs for “Extinct” Lineages of the Galapagos Giant Tortoise
Gracie White (Jonathan Edwards College), Bren Smith’s Ocean Farm: An Assessment of Ecosystem Services
Ijeamaka Anyene (Timothy Dwight College), Children in Dangerous Locations: Mapping Environmental Hazards Near Pennsylvania Child Care Centers
Carlos Gould (Trumbull College), Adoption and Abandonment of Improved Cookstoves: A Case Study of Proyecto Mirador’s dos por tres Cookstove
Shizue RocheAdachi (Davenport College), Together and Apart: Stories of a Patchwork Farming Community in Southwest Wisconsin
Aily Zhang (Silliman College), Let a Thousand Rice Paddies Bloom: Social Eco-preneurs, Food Activism, and Market-driven Sustainable Food Movement in Guangzhou
Abigail Bok (Berkeley College), Organically Urban: Cultivating Alternative Landscapes of Living in Guangzhou, China
Natalia Garza (Calhoun College), The Untold Side of Uranium: Using a Statistical Analysis of the Continuous NHANES to Explore the Decline in Reproductive Health of the Navajo Population
Angela Lee (Davenport College), Dietary Transition of Korean-Americans
James Shirvell (Morse College), Evaluating the Genetic Structure of the Leptospirosis Transmitting Rat Population of Salvador, Brazil
Anna Rose Gable (Pierson College), Practical Pedology: Soil, Sustainability and Agricultural Knowledge in the Georgia Piedmont
Victoria Montanez (Pierson College), Food Waste: The Value of Knowledge-Based Campaigns in Environmental Protection
Coleman Wheeler (Saybrook College), Big Coal in Small-Town Virginia: A Case Study of Environmental Justice and Racial Polarization in the Rural South
Lucia Woo (Calhoun College), The Air Our Children Breathe: PM 2.5 Pollution Survey of New Haven
Holly Rippon-Butler, Moving Milk: Transportation and Commodification of Milk in New York State
Rachel Shaffer, Ozone Pollution and Health in Atlanta: The Implications of a Presidential Decision
Rachael Styer, Faith, Family and Farming: The Survival of Small and Mid-Sized Farms in Lancaster, PA Throughout the Twentieth Century
Michael Wysolmerski, The Fight for a Neighborhood: Flood Control and Race on the Anacostia Tributaries
Reuben Fischer-Baum, Private Gardens, Public Streets: The Evolution of Istanbul’s Urban Forest from 1922 to 2007
Cornelia Twining, Changes in the Lakes: The Ecological History of Two Watersheds in South Central Connecticut
Charles Zhu, The Desire for Car Ownership in China
Kathy Hughes, Empirical Study of Habitat Complexity and Predator-Prey Interactions as it Informs Ecosystem Conservation
Kevin Currey, ”We’re Iñupiat, We’re Hunters” Subsistence, Petroleum Development, and Cultural Identity in Nuiqsut, Alaska
Emily Jack-Scott, A Tale of Two Shore Towns: Avalon and Wildwood, New Jersey
Anna Johnson, Climate Change and Agriculture: Carbon Sequestration
Adineke Adeyeye, Sanitation in Batey Libertad: Latrine Use and Waste Disposal Practices
Christa Anderson, Livestock Predation Patterns and Incidents in Northern Tanzania
Jane Brandon Berkeley, The Athens Metro Project: Public Transportation in Urban Planning
Dawn Lippert, The Two Thousand Pound Question: An Analysis of Leatherback Sea Turtle Management on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico
Ariane Lotti, Monitoring the Connection Between Humans and the Land: The Use of Indicators on Three Farms in Italy
Leanna Südhof, A Very Selective Evaluation of Malaria Control Efforts in Africa South of the Sahara: The Global Fund and ITNs
Flora Lichtman, Crafting Sound Policy: The Origins, Evolution and Mis-regulation of Ocean Noise
Livia DeMarchis, Amphibian Conservation: The Public Perception, Policy, and Science of Declines and Deformities
Christopher McPhee, Climate and Cultural Collapse: The Anasazi Implications for Abrupt Human Change
Brian Boyd, American Studies and Studies in the Environment,The Coyote in the Garden
Megan MacLeod, Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology and Studies in the Environment, Heat Shock Proteins: Cellular Superheroes in the Face of Environmental Pollution
Susan Brown, American Studies and Studies in the Environment,The Silent Leader: Rachel Carson’s Role in the Emergence of the Modern Environmental Movement
Sarah Hollinshead, Political Science and Studies in the Environment, The Big Mess: Environmental Policy and Contamination at the Massachusetts Military Reservation
Joshua Olsen, Architecture and Studies in the Environment, Are Master-Planned Communities Worth It? An Analysis of Financial and Environmental Viability