{"id":17360,"date":"2021-08-10T11:00:47","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T17:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/?p=17360"},"modified":"2021-08-17T16:13:33","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T22:13:33","slug":"cc-alumna-wins-ecological-award-using-both-her-degrees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/2021\/08\/cc-alumna-wins-ecological-award-using-both-her-degrees\/","title":{"rendered":"CC Alumna Wins Ecological Award Using Both Her Degrees"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you\u2019re reading this, Lauren Shoemaker \u201911 <\/strong>probably is on a mountain in Colorado, brushing up on her alpine plant identification skills in preparation for her latest research project. On these mountaintops, above treeline, a stunning diversity of short-statured wildflowers and other plants form a unique community that\u2019s adapted to the high-altitude conditions. Shoemaker wants to understand the invisible forces that allow these species to live together in harmony \u2014 and what will happen to them when climate change alters their environment.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Before now, the ecologist\u2019s work predominantly focused on grasslands, though she\u2019s been known to climb a mountain or two. \u201cThe alpine is definitely my favorite ecosystem. I\u2019ve always loved it from a personal standpoint,\u201d says Shoemaker, who grew up in Fort Collins, Colorado. \u201cI haven\u2019t actually worked in the alpine as part of my research until, well, last week.\u201d<\/p>\n

This spring, Shoemaker, an assistant professor at the University of Wyoming, was named a 2021-25 Early Career Fellow of the Ecological Society of America. ESA names a cohort of fellows each year to honor early-career (less than eight years from their Ph.D.) ecologists who show promise for continuing out-standing contributions to the field. Shoemaker was elected for not only her research endeavors, but also her leadership in collaborative science, teaching, and mentoring.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s co-led working groups at the Santa Fe Institute and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research in Leipzig, as well as a project for an international global research network called DRAGNet (Disturbance and Resources Across Global Grasslands Network) \u2014 all co-led by other women. \u201cI find that I\u2019m working in women-led teams pretty often,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m passionate about supporting other women in science, and I\u2019ve found in my own research I love working with women teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cMentoring has been one of the most fulfilling parts of my job as assistant professor,\u201d says Shoemaker. \u201cSupporting students as they figure out what their passions are and their own career paths has been incredibly rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shoemaker\u2019s scientific pursuits combine math and ecology to study natural communities. Mathematical modeling allows ecologists to make quantitative predictions about things like the abundance and diversity of species. But it\u2019s not all number-crunching: Shoemaker tests predictions from her models in the field \u2014 and uses data from field observations to make her models better.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s long been interested in the theme of combining math and biology. She double majored in the two at CC, though at the time, she didn\u2019t realize she could combine them. \u201cI knew I wanted to do ecology longer term,\u201d says Shoemaker, citing her interest in conservation. \u201cI was just also really passionate about math and started taking math classes on the side \u2014 I found I loved them so much I decided to double major.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shoemaker remembers the specific class that set her on her current career path: A one-credit, semester-long course on mathematical modeling with Associate Professor David Brown. It was her first exposure to real-world applications of math models. In class, Brown encouraged the students to apply for a two-week workshop with the National Marine Fisheries Service at Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida that applied math models to fisheries science. Shoemaker applied, was accepted, and has been using mathematical modeling in ecology ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the really amazing things about CC is how you can make the curriculum your own,\u201d Shoemaker says. \u201cYou can tailor your courses around your goals and career aspirations, and make them what you\u2019re most excited and passionate about. I think that played a huge role in my love of ecology.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating from CC, Shoemaker earned a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the James S. McDonnell Foundation in complex systems science, which she took to the University of Minnesota. She has been assistant professor in the Botany Department at the University of Wyoming since 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cEcological communities are incredibly complex, and it\u2019s really challenging to understand their dynamics and to think about them in a unified way across systems,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s a tendency to think each different ecosystem is distinct. But what I\u2019m passionate about is looking at the themes that unify them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lauren Shoemaker \u201911 was named a 2021-25 Early Career Fellow of the Ecological Society of America. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1496,"featured_media":17230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-17360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summer-2021","tag-peak-profiles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/files\/2021\/08\/CC-BUL-SUM21-30-Shoemaker2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1496"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17360"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17457,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17360\/revisions\/17457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}