Travel Award

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Land, it gives me great pleasure to announce the three winners of the 2020 Travel Award sponsored by Land. Given the abundance of outstanding applicants, the award committee had to take particular care and consideration when deciding upon the winners.

The Travel Award was granted to Dr. Cynthia Isley, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, Macquarie University, Australia; Ms. Tzu-Hsin Karen Chen, Ph.D. student in the Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Denmark; and Ms. Rebecca Riggs, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Canada.

Dr. Cynthia Isley’s research aims to identify and reduce contaminant exposure, benefiting society through providing scientifically tested advice to citizens living in contaminated areas. As well as being involved in the citizen science programs VegeSafe and DustSafe, which are focused on broadening community knowledge of contaminants and promoting safe gardening practices, Dr. Isley is investigating the most effective methods to remove perfluorinated substances (PFAS) from contaminated groundwater, an emerging global environmental concern of great significance to health and economic development.

Ms. Tzu-Hsin Karen Chen seeks to reveal the impacts of urban environmental changes on people’s health outcomes across the life course. Her work is characterized a synergy of machine learning, remote sensing, and human geography. In her current project, she is using Landsat time-series and deep learning approaches to investigate urban densification in Denmark and mental health trajectories during the rural–urban migration process. In her ongoing and future research, she is keen to understand how medium-sized cities transit, and how their influences on human well-being differ in European countries compared to the Global South.

Ms. Rebecca Riggs seeks to contribute to understanding the drivers of change in rural forest landscapes and the opportunities for sustainable development. For her doctoral research, Rebecca examined forest landscapes in Cambodia to understand local perceptions and institutional leverage points for nurturing landscape transitions for prosperity and sustainability. She is interested in how systems approaches support evidence-based decision making, including identifying social and environmental trade-offs and communicating evidence to decision-makers. Through her work, Rebecca hopes to demonstrate the value of place-based sustainability science and the importance of engaging with people in landscapes where changes are occurring.

The prize consists of 800 Swiss Francs each to support travel for attendance at an academic conference in 2020 or 2021. To encourage the passion of young researchers and enable their attendance at academic conferences, we rewarded three researchers in total.

The standard of applicants for this award was exceptionally high, with each exemplifying innovative practice and interesting approaches toward addressing land-based research issues. All of the shortlisted applicants would have been worthy recipients of this year’s travel award. This made the final decision difficult, and we would like to thank all applicants for submitting details of what was, collectively, a diverse and fascinating range of research topics. Finally, we wish to congratulate the winners on their accomplishments.

Prof. Dr. Andrew Millington
Editor-in-Chief, Land

 
Land 2020 Travel Award
 
 
Past Winners
 
Year: 

Winner

Rocky Talchabhadel
Texas A&M University, USA
Leah Renwick
University of Chile, Chile

Award Committee

Prof. Dr. Christine Fürst Chairman
Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Prof. Dr. Hossein Azadi
Department of Economics and Rural Development, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium
Prof. Dr. Le Yu
Tsinghua University

Winner

Alvaro Castilla-Beltrán
University of La Laguna, Spain
Lauren Nerfa
University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA

Award Committee

Prof. Dr. Andrew Millington Chairman
Flinders University
Prof. Dr. Thomas Maloutas
Dr. Eddie J. B. Van Etten
Edith Cowan University
Dr. Agata Novara
Prof. Dr. Alejandro Rescia Perazzo
Complutense University of Madrid
Prof. Krish Jayachandran
Earth and Environment Department, Agroecology Program
Dr. Javier Martínez-López
Ecology Department - University of Granada

Winner

Cynthia Faye Isley
Macquarie University, Australia
Tzu-Hsin Karen Chen
Aarhus University, Denmark

Award Committee

Prof. Dr. Andrew Millington Chairman
Flinders University
Prof. Audrey Mayer
Michigan Technological University
Dr. Ward Anseeuw
CIRAD & University of Pretoria
Dr. Saskia Keesstra
Wageningen Environmental Research

Winner

Elizabeth Tellman
Arizona State University, USA
Catalina Munteanu
Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany

Award Committee

Prof. Dr. Andrew Millington Chairman
Flinders University
Dr. Purushothaman Chirakkuzhyil Abhilash
Dr. Zahra Kalantari
Stockholm University
Prof. Dr. Hossein Azadi
Department of Economics and Rural Development, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium
Prof. Paul Aplin
Mary Immaculate College
Dr. Alexander Prishchepov
University of Copenhagen
Prof. Ian Baird

Winner

Giulia Sofia
University of Padova, Italy
KHADIZA BEGUM
University of Aberdeen, UK

Winner

Michael Lathuillière
University of British Columbia, Canada
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