MCM Students Garner Prestigious Awards and Grants for their Work

Whether it’s researching Hendra virus in Australian fly foxes, tracking elephants’ social behaviors at the Copenhagen Zoo, or designing maps recognized at the Tufts GIS Expo and ESRI User Conference, five students from the Class of 2024 Master of Science in Conservation Medicine (MCM) program at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University have distinguished themselves with several awards and grants.

Dr. Christopher Whittier (he/him), director of the MCM program and assistant teaching professor in the Department of Infectious Disease & Global Health at Cummings School, says of the student’s achievements, “We’re proud of the work our dedicated students produce, and it’s especially gratifying to see them recognized for it. The MCM Class of ’24 kept up the great tradition of winning these awards and also raised the bar across the board.”

Carolyn Talmadge (she/her), Data Lab services manager at Tufts Technology Services, teaches in the MCM program and works closely with students on their research. She adds, "I am continually amazed by the caliber and creativity of the students who come through the MCM program. They are among the most passionate, dedicated, and hardworking students at Tufts, and their accomplishments truly deserve to be celebrated.”

Lily Glidden Award: Marisa Mizzoni

Lily Glidden was a Tufts graduate who loved wildlife and planned to become a biologist or veterinarian. She passed away while traveling in Southeast Asia, pursuing her passions. The Lily Glidden Award embodies her spirit of curiosity and exploring the natural world.

The Tufts Department of Biology this year presented Marisa Mizzoni, VG24 (MCM0(she/her), with the Lily Glidden Award. The $2,500 award helped fund an externship with Bat One Health researchers in Brisbane, Australia, this past summer. Mizzoni conducted under-roosting sampling of flying foxes looking for the Hendra virus, her first research experience in the field.

“I reminded myself while I was there of the importance of exploring and diving head-first into new things. It’s a great honor and something I would not have been able to pursue without the Lily Glidden Award,” she says. “The spirit of adventure, trying new things, and finding yourself in new places for the sake of science and conservation, connected with me.”

Mizzoni came into the MCM program interested in bat pathology and ecology, specifically the Hendra virus and how transmission can lead to disease spillover. After graduating from Smith College, she spent two years in health equity research at Tufts Medical Center before starting the program. “The MCM program gave me all the basics I needed to break into the field. I learned so much and was able to position myself to pursue a career in disease ecology.”

The externship enabled Mizzoni to learn hands-on about disease surveillance and sample collection. “It was absolutely incredible to be able to work with the Bat One Health team. It was so unlike anything I’ve ever done before. Prior to MCM, I had never pipetted anything, never done any form of animal trapping; it’s all so new to me.”

Mizzoni is currently a teaching assistant in the MCM course GIS for Conservation Medicine. She is also working on publishing research from her case study on the spatial ecology of Hendra virus in flying fox roosts with her One Health colleagues in Brisbane. She will analyze the data she helped collect over the summer and use the geographic analysis skills she gained in the GIS course.  

“The Lily Glidden Award allowed me to have this incredible experience. It taught me a lot about myself, being a biologist, and taking risks—and affirmed why I wanted to enter this field.”

Tufts Elephant Conservation Alliance Student Research Funding Award: Charlotte Topchik

Charlotte Topchik, VG24 (MCM) (she/her) joined the MCM program interested in project management and ecology after graduating from Brandeis University with a degree in environmental studies. She designed a summer externship at the Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark to conduct research in elephant conservation with the help of a veterinarian at the zoo and Dr. Alan Rutberg, associate research professor in the Department of Infectious Disease & Global Health at Cummings School. She examined the behavior of two elephant calves and how they relate to their mothers in comparison to other female elephants in the exhibit.

To help fund the externship, Topchik applied for the Tufts Elephant Conservation Alliance (TECA) student research grant. She was awarded $5,000 for the project. She explains that in the wild, elephant calves are raised by female family members, while in a zoo, female calves are not always related to one another or the other elephants in the exhibit. The two unrelated calves Topchik studied lived in the exhibit with their mothers and an additional unrelated adult female. Topchik created an ethogram to score the calves’ social behaviors—for example, walking in pairs, moving away when another elephant moves closer, and maternal behaviors, like nursing.

Topchik spent the first few weeks in Copenhagen preparing for the study, becoming familiar with the exhibit and best vantage points for filming, learning to tell the elephants apart, and timing the zookeepers’ routines as the elephants’ behavior changes in the zookeepers’ presence. Once all of her preliminary background work was complete, Topchik observed each calf for 15 hours. She is currently analyzing all of the data and will submit her study to the Copenhagen Zoo and TECA. She plans to work on conservation projects or conservation education in a zoo or natural history museum.

“I was ecstatic to receive the grant,” Topchik says. “I’m so excited and proud to be able to help elephants.”

“We’re very fortunate to have students regularly benefit from the funding opportunities provided by the Lily Glidden and TECA awards, as these often make the difference between their externships and capstone field projects actually happening,” says Whittier.

ESRI User Conference and Tufts GIS Expo Award Winners: Rachel Giglio, Jess Zulch, and Shannon O’Connor

The Tufts Annual GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Expo on geospatial research, hosted by the Data Lab and Tufts Technology Services this past spring, featured 163 posters and 53 StoryMaps and Dashboards created by Tufts students and researchers within the 28 geospatial courses offered throughout all Tufts schools and programs. All of the Tufts GIS Expo award winners can be viewed here.

Instructor Talmadge, who teaches the GIS for Conservation Medicine course, brought the 18 award-winning posters to the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) User Conference, the largest GIS conference in the world, to enter into the Map Gallery Competition.

“MCM students have a long history of winning ESRI awards—since 2017 there have been 14 MCM students who have won map gallery prizes, and this year was no exception!” says Instructor Talmadge. "As an instructor, I’m honored to have the opportunity to shape how our students approach the unique challenges in conservation medicine. Spatial thinking and data-driven problem-solving skills are essential in conservation, wildlife management and One Health. The ability to transform how students analyze, visualize, and communicate these topics inspires me to expand and enhance the course.”

Best in Show Award at Tufts GIS Expo and Cartography Excellence Award at ESRI User Conference: Rachel Giglio

Rachel Giglio, VG24 (MCM) (she/her) brings a mix of science and art to her work. She earned her B.S. in biology and dance performance at Roger Williams University and waded into the research waters as an undergrad studying neoplasia in clams. She worked for Charles River Laboratories conducting preclinical studies and later as a veterinary assistant at Angell Animal Medical Center. Giglio volunteered with Operation Wallacea in South Africa, helping with bird counts and land surveys of elephant habitats, and conducted coral reef surveys in Mozambique. “I worked in science and taught dance at night,” she says.

Putting her career on pause for several years to start a family, she volunteered in her free time at Zoo New England in the education department and as a zookeeper’s aid. She worked part-time, creating logos and artwork for a branding and design studio.

“I always wanted to go back to school for wildlife medicine. I had my eye on Tufts for a while and decided to pull the trigger,” she says. “The program was amazing. It was such a period of tremendous personal growth for me, being a nontraditional student out of the field for so long, coming back, and meeting people that are passionate about the same things you are.”

Inspired by the Snow Leopard Trust (from her time volunteering at the zoo) for her research project, “Ghosts of the Mountains: Understanding Risk Factors to Snow Leopards (Panthera uncia) in China,” Giglio focused on factors impacting the animals’ survival. She tapped into her art background to express those elements in her poster. “I feel strongly that the arts and science are not just complementary but essential partners in communicating the importance of preserving wildlife, emphasizing the intrinsic connection between human, animal, and environmental health.”

Giglio’s poster won Best in Show for Intro Students at the 2024 Tufts GIS Expo, and the Cartography Excellence Special Interest Group Award at the ESRI User Conference. “This is an extremely impressive and notable award at ESRI’s Map Gallery, since it is not a student-specific award. Rachel’s project outperformed projects submitted by GIS professionals who have been doing this for their entire career,” says Instructor Talmadge.

This past summer, she participated in an externship with the nonprofit Project Coyote, helping to create a coexistence toolkit for volunteers and other wildlife advocates. She plans to pursue a career in wildlife conservation that combines science and art to mitigate human-wildlife conflict, one that respects the knowledge of indigenous cultures and uplifts community-led efforts.

“Props and kudos to Carolyn Talmadge,” says Giglio. “It’s amazing what she has taught us in such a short period of time. The awards are a tribute to her as a teacher.”

Best Graduate Student Poster Runner- Up at Tufts GIS Expo and Second Place Student Map at ESRI User Conference: Jess Zulch

An allergy to cats sidelined Jess Zulch, VG (MCM) (she/her)’s veterinary career plans, but she continued to pursue her passion for science and in particular, salamanders. She attended the University of Vermont, earning her B.S. in animal sciences, and under the mentorship of her UVM herpetology professor, she began a research project studying Jefferson salamanders and identifying new sites of occupancy in Vermont for her thesis. She expanded upon the project for her research in the MCM program.

“Herpetologists think there are more sites of occupancy than we know, but they’re hard to find on the landscape. Running habitat suitability analysis helps find new sites for them,” she says. “Based my analysis, I found a new site for them in Vermont. It’s encouraging to see that even if we’re not seeing them, they might not be as rare as we think.”

After college, Zulch taught preschool before transitioning to a research lab at Taconic Biosciences, working on the Pfizer Covid vaccine, and later a zookeeper at the Bronx Zoo. She decided that research was her calling and applied to the MCM program, where she focused her studies on bat biology and herpetology.

For her research poster, “How Many Are There Really? A Habitat Suitability Analysis of Jefferson Salamanders in Vermont,” Zulch enlisted herpetologist enthusiasts to visit the survey sites.

“I had an immense amount of help from volunteers in Vermont that was crucial to the project’s findings.

The citizen scientists were incredible.” Jess hit a few road blocks in her work, once a bug that deleted her entire project, and many late nights in the Data Lab, but it all paid off.

Zulch won Best Graduate Student Runner-Up at the Tufts GIS Expo and Second Place Student Map at the ESRI Users Conference. “That meant the world to me, seeing my work validated by my peers and the scientific community. Shout out to Carolyn Talmadge and Kelsie Belanger [GIS course TA]. They helped me through the entire project. I couldn’t have done it without them.”

Currently interning in natural resource management with the National Park Service at Oregon Caves National Monuments and Preserve, Zulch monitors bats, collects data for a bumble bee survey, and conducts habitat suitability analysis for Del Norte salamanders. She’d like to continue with her research on Jefferson salamanders, adding in more factors and more sites, and to possibly stay with the National Park Service. “I love working with kids and youth groups, showing them the natural world and all the wonderful creatures in it.”

Third Place Student Map at ESRI User Conference: Shannon O’Connor

Shannon O’Connor, VG24 (MCM), won Third Place in the Student Map Post Secondary category at the ESRI Conference for her research, “Nipah Virus: Risk Analysis of Outbreak Potential in South and Southeast Asia,” that looked at human population, bat and pig density, land cover types, and other factors to identify areas at elevated risk for a virus outbreak in Southeast Asia.

“Knowing that the students’ work stands up alongside GIS professionals and seeing how it impacts their career paths is deeply rewarding. I couldn’t be prouder of their achievements,” says Instructor Talmadge. “It's not just about giving them well-deserved recognition, but also about promoting and sharing the significant and impactful GIS research that emerges from the MCM program on ESRI’s global platform."

Whittier adds, “The GIS awards are a tribute both to the excellent training students receive from Carolyn and the hard work and passion they put into their always meaningful GIS projects.”