APSU grad student awarded NSF fellowship
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. 鈥 Dustin Owen didn鈥檛 spend much time outside as a child. While other boys stomped through creeks chasing lizards and frogs, he stared out the window of his parents鈥 Indiana home, wishing away the severe allergies that kept him trapped indoors.
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. 鈥 Dustin Owen didn鈥檛 spend much time outside as a child. While other boys stomped through creeks chasing lizards and frogs, he stared out the window of his parents鈥 Indiana home, wishing away the severe allergies that kept him trapped indoors.
As he slowly grew out of his allergies, allowing a 10-year-old Owen to finally venture outside, he decided to make up for lost time. He threw himself into the wild, tracking down turtles and snakes and other creatures his mother appreciated but didn鈥檛 particularly care for. This fascination with the natural world never left him, prompting Owen to travel south to Tennessee last year to conduct fieldwork as a graduate student with the APSU Center of Excellence for Field Biology.
鈥淭he Center of Excellence for Field Biology is what drew me to Austin Peay,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 saw the (Sundquist) building, met all the faculty and I thought this is exactly the kind of place I want to be.鈥
The Center has allowed him to grow as a scientist, and earlier this spring, Owen was awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. According to the NSF, 鈥淭he 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 U.S. institutions.
鈥淔ellows benefit from a three-year annual stipend of $32,000, along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees (paid to the institution), opportunities for international research and professional development, and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited U.S. institution of graduate education they choose.鈥
As an NSF fellow, Owen will be able to expand the important fieldwork he is currently undertaking at APSU. His research focuses on how environmental disturbances impact stress physiology in bats and snakes.
鈥淲hat I do is look at their stress hormone levels, and I can tell how stressed one group is compared to another,鈥 he said. 鈥淲ith the bats, I鈥檓 looking at bats captured in harvested forests versus bats in natural forests, and seeing if the bats in the harvested forests are more stressed out or sick, and I鈥檓 doing the same thing with snakes in burned and unburned forests. If you鈥檙e more stressed out, you鈥檙e more prone to diseases, you鈥檙e more prone to all sorts of bad things.鈥
With the fellowship, Owen plans to broaden his research by visiting Florida to study stress physiology in pythons and other invasive reptiles. And, the NSF award will help him when he graduates from APSU.
鈥淎nother cool thing about the NSF is it鈥檒l go with you, so I鈥檝e looked at a couple of universities,鈥 he said. 鈥淣ow that I鈥檝e become essentially a free graduate student, it really helps out. Some of the more elite grad schools I was looking at are suddenly within grasp.鈥
For more information, contact the APSU Center of Excellence for Field Biology at fieldbiology@apsu.edu.
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Photo cutline: Dustin Owen conducts research in the APSU David H. Snyder Museum of Zoology. (Photo by Taylor Slifko/APSU)