New College Student, Alumna Receive
NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

(April 19, 2007) – A senior student and an alumna of New College of Florida have each received 2007-08 Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation, and three other New College alumni received honorable mentions from NSF.

The nationally competitive awards support outstanding graduate students who can contribute significantly to research, teaching and innovations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. About 1,000 fellowships, which carry a stipend of $30,000 for a 12-month tenure period, will be awarded by the NSF this year. All awards are for a maximum of three years usable over a five-year period.

Trevor Caughlin (at right), a senior thesis student who will graduate from New College in May with a double major in biology and environmental studies, will do graduate study toward a doctorate in ecology at the University of Florida with his NSF fellowship. Before beginning his graduate study, however, he will first do research in Thailand under the Fulbright Research Grant he also received this spring.

For his senior thesis, Caughlin spent three months studying bird and bat visitations to sacred fig trees of Hindu temples in India. In Thailand, Caughlin will study the survival prospects of wild fruit trees endangered by the disappearance of large fruit-eating animals. He plans to continue his research of tropical trees as a graduate student. His career goals are in research and education, focusing on international awareness of conservation issues.

Caughlin is from Boise, Idaho. His adviser is Dr. Heidi E. Harley, an associate professor of psychology at New College.

Sarah A. Stamper (at left), a May 2006 graduate of New College, also received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Stamper will pursue a Ph.D. in experimental psychology at Brown University, where she currently is a laboratory technician in the BatLab in Brown's department of neuroscience working on several behavioral and anatomical studies of the big brown bat. Her doctoral research will focus on sensory integration and development, continuing her sensory studies of honeybees, manatees and bats. She is currently conducting field research in Belize.

For her undergraduate thesis at New College, Stamper conducted spatial navigation research on how honeybees use landmarks to find food sources. Her adviser at New College was psychology Professor Gordon B. Bauer. Stamper came to New College from Louisville, Ky.

Three New College graduates – William J. Werner (in Germany this year as a Fulbright Research Scholar), Timothy H. Sanchez and Julia A. McReynolds – earned honorable mentions from the National Science Foundation. Though they do not receive fellowships, the designation is considered a significant academic achievement.

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New College of Florida is a national leader in the arts and sciences and is the State of Florida’s designated honors college for the liberal arts. Rated as the #1 public liberal arts college in America by U.S. News & World Report ("America's Best Colleges, 2007 Edition"), New College attracts highly-motivated, academically-talented students from throughout the United States, as well as 27 foreign countries.