The National Science Foundation East Asia Pacific Summer Institute recently awarded travel funding for a biology graduate student at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Amanda Chappell received the notable honor for her thesis work in Taiwan. The award will support Chappell’s travel there, as well as provide language training.

The East Asia Pacific Summer Institute program is highly competitive, receiving excellent masters and doctoral applicants from programs across the United States.

Chappell will study how environmental variation influences the neuroanatomy and mating behavior of the Taiwan field vole, a small rodent found in high altitude forests and meadows in central Taiwan. She will collaborate with Dr. Kirk Lin, an assistant professor at National Taiwan University in Taipei.

Chappell earned her bachelor's degree in wildlife ecology at the University of New Hampshire before enrolling in ULM.