Vanessa Luna Celino is the 2024 Schmink Outstanding Dissertation Award recipient!

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Vanesa Luna Celino is the 2024 winner of the Marianne Schmink Outstanding Dissertation Award from UF’s Tropical Conservation and Development Program.

Dr. Luna completed her dissertation in Interdisciplinary Ecology in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment in May 2024 under the supervision of Dr. Karen Kainer (advisor) and Dr. Bette Loiselle (co-advisor). Her dissertation was entitled “Fire in the Peruvian Andes: Agricultural burns, changes in community-based management, and key actor perceptions.”

Vanessa addressed an important gap in knowledge that integrates fire use and control techniques, local knowledge and state control policies. The selection committee noted that her dissertation was an outstanding example of interdisciplinary research that both advanced scientific understanding while also addressing fire governance strategies and potential collaborative solutions to reduce risk of escaped fires, which can destroy property and impact adjacent protected areas.

Please read the complete announcement here and join us in congratulating Dr. Vanessa Luna Celino!