The Albert R. and Alma Shadle Fellowship is awarded to a graduate student in recognition of current accomplishments and future potential in Mammalogy. The 2020 recipient of the Albert R. and Alma Shadle award is Jesse Alston of the University of Wyoming.
Mr. Alston has published in journals including Conservation Letters, Biological Conservation, and Forest Ecology and Management. He has independently raised over $220,000 to support his research from numerous organizations, including the National Park Service, Prairie Biotic Research, the Wyoming Chapter of The Wildlife Society, and the American Society of Mammalogists. He has written about science, policy, and the environment for several public media outlets, including FiveThirtyEight and High Country News, and is on the pre-print editorial team at Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. He is an active member of ASM, serving on the Human Diversity, African Graduate Student Research Fund, and Biodiversity Committees, and has presented at the past two annual meetings.
Mr. Alston's dissertation work combines field research and analyses of a large biometric data set to link thermal ecology to behavior, reproduction, and biogeography in bats. He is also working on several additional projects concerning disease ecology, animal movement, demography, conservation, and open science. He plans to use funds from the Shadle Fellowship to expand the scope of his ongoing field research at Jewel Cave National Monument and to attend the next ASM annual meeting.