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April 22, 2011

ULM Biology Graduate Student earns prestigious Odom Award at Annual Meeting

A University of Louisiana at Monroe graduate student in the Department of Biology recently earned the prestigious E.P. Odum Award for best oral presentation on ecological research given by a student.

Alex Fotis of Columbus, Ohio presented his paper, "Living on the edge: trees promoting optimal growing conditions for woody seedlings," at the 72nd Annual Meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists in Huntsville, Ala., and the award was conferred by the South East Chapter of the Ecological Society of America.

According to its Web site, the purpose of the ASB is "to promote the advancement of biology as a science by encouraging research, the imparting of knowledge, the application of knowledge to the solution of biological problems, and the preservation of biological resources."

In addition, Fotis was also presented with the ASB Student Research Award, given for an especially meritorious manuscript presented at the annual meeting.

"It is a very rare stance that a single person gets both awards," said Dr. Joydeep Bhattacharjee, who serves as faculty advisor to Fotis.

"In addition, Alex has also won two other awards in professional meetings last year and was the recipient of the Dr. Tom Kee Memorial Scholarship. I am honored to have him conduct research under my guidance for the past two years. His work makes all of us in the department, college and the university extremely proud."

Recently, Fotis accepted a position at Ohio State University to do his doctoral research starting this fall.

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