Current Bullard Fellowship Recipients

Harvard Forest is pleased to announce the 2023-2024 Charles Bullard Fellows in Forest Research. The purpose of this Fellowship program, established in 1962, is to support advanced research and study by persons who show promise of making important contributions, either as scholars or administrators, to forestry defined in its broadest sense as the human use and study of forested environments.

Fellows are supported by an endowment named after the benefactor Charles Bullard. While in residence at Harvard, Fellows interact with faculty and students, give seminars, participate in conferences and symposia and avail themselves of the University's great research resources. Applications are accepted beginning in August for Bullard Fellowships for the following year.

Describing the role of Bullard Fellows at Harvard, Missy Holbrook, Director of the Harvard Forest, explains, "Bullard Fellows are a vital and dynamic part of the Harvard Forest community. Their work is propelled by the important role forests play in the carbon cycle, in sustaining biodiversity, and in supporting human livelihoods. Over the past fifty years, Bullard collaborations have forged new paths of inquiry here at Harvard Forest and in nearly every corner of Harvard University. We look forward to welcoming a new cohort of Bullard Fellows who will work with us to advance our understanding of how forests can contribute to solving some of humanity's most pressing environmental challenges.”

2023-2024 Charles Bullard Fellows

Meghan Blumstein is an NSF (National Science Foundation) Postdoctoral Fellow. Her primary research interest is the local adaptation of red oak (Quercus rubra). Her Bullard Fellowship will be spent examining the genes and alleles that enable local adaptation of red oak to global change. She earned her PhD at Harvard University, where she also received the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

Rinku Roy Chowdhury is Professor of Geography at Clark University. Her work focuses on the institutional, ecological and spatial diversity of human-environment interactions in forested and urban ecosystems, including themes of smallholder decision-making, political economy, land stewardship and restoration, and climate resilience. Her Bullard project will analyze the resilience of forest commons in Central Massachusetts, integrating collective action theory and “design principles” for sustainable management with approaches in land system science and environmental history.

Cheryll Holley is the Sonksq (chief) Hassanamisco Nipmuc Band. Her research is on Indigenous-centered Forest Management. She plans to spend her Bullard Fellowship creating forest management plans that center the Nipmuc community's relationships with their more than human kin. She holds a degree in History from Worcester State College, and she is a previous Mellon Visiting Fellow at the Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice at Brown University. 

Sam Ma is professor and PI of Computational Biology and Medical Ecology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and he holds a double PhD in Computer Science and Entomology. He plans to conduct a cross-scale investigation of forest-soil microbiomes using metacommunity networks, evolutionary games, fault-tolerance theory, and AI approaches. 

Noah McDonald is the Land and Research Coordinator at Southeastern African American Farmers' Organic Network. His research interests center on native grass and forb restoration and conservation grazing. He will spend his Bullard Fellowship identifying, collecting, and propagating native grasses and forbs. He has a dual BS degree in Biology and Religious Studies from Guilford College.

Ahmed Siddig is an Associate Professor of Ecology and Environmental Conservation at the University of Khartoum, Sudan. His research interests include global change ecology, forest ecology & conservation, environmental monitoring & indicators, and biodiversity conservation. His Bullard Fellowship will be spent exploring the conservation status of forest trees in conflict-affected areas of Sudan (via remote sensing analysis and surveys). He earned his PhD at the University of Massachusetts, and he is also receiving support this year from an AGYA fellowship.

Maciej Zwieniecki is a Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, CA. His primary research is on plant biophysics, tree physiology, ecophysiology, plant water relations, tree non-carbohydrate management. He earned his PhD in tree ecophysiology at Oregon State University.