Three graduate students from the UAB Department of Biology have been recognized for their excellent scholarship and service: Julie Schram has won the UAB Barker Award, and Corey Cates and Megan Roegner have reveived research fellowships from the National Science Foundation.

Samuel B. Barker Award for Excellence in Graduate Studies

Julie Schram, pictured with UAB Biologist Maggie Amsler (left), out in the field in Antarctica.Julie Schram has been awarded the 2015 UAB Samuel B. Barker Award for Excellence in Graduate Studies at the Doctoral Level. The award — named for UAB’s first graduate dean, Dr. Samuel Booth Barker — recognizes top UAB-wide achievements by graduate students each year.

“I am grateful to have my research recognized. It really is an honor and a tribute to the supportive community we have here in the Biology Department. There is no way I could have done my research without the support and guidance from the faculty, staff, and fellow graduate students,” says the future Dr. Schram.

Julie’s research takes place in Antarctica, where she is assessing the effects of climate change on the ecological interactions among sea bottom creatures as well as investigating the effects of ocean acidification on sea stars.

This is the fourth Barker PhD award won by Biology Department students since 2010.

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships

Corey Cates and Megan Roegner have both been awarded graduate research fellowships by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based Master's and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.

Cates and Roegner received two of the three NSF fellowships offered to UAB students in 2015. The awards offer a $34,000 annual stipend to the awardees for three years during their graduate careers. More than 16,500 students applied this year and only 2,000 such awards were made.