DURHAM, N.C. – Nine students at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at 91 have received Student International Discussion Group (SIDG) awards totaling more than $10,000 to help fund summer research travel to Central America, West Africa and other environmental hotspots worldwide.

The SIDG awards are made possible by the Lazar Foundation of Portland, Ore., a philanthropic nonprofit dedicated to supporting innovative projects that protect the environment. Support from the foundation has helped make it possible for nearly 175 Nicholas School students to conduct research projects abroad over the last 19 years.

This year’s SIDG award recipients, their funded projects and award amounts are:

Myriah Cornwell of San Jose, Calif.; “Citizen-based Sea Turtle Conservation: Science and Communities Across the First World-Third World Divide” in Mexico; $900;

Soumya Hassan of New Delhi, India; “Which Information Most Changes Behavior and Why: Responses to Well-Water Arsenic Tests in Bangladesh,” $500;

Heidi Hausman of McLean, Va.; “Mapping Groundwater and the Impact of Population Centers on Water Quality in Quintana Roo, Mexico,” $1,400;

Katherine McClellan of Lewes, Del.; “Fish, Lobster and Conch Census of St. Eustatius (West Indies) Marine Park,” $1,600

Kelli Mineard of Mason, Ohio; “Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods in Burkina Faso, West Africa,” $2,200;

Joshua Schneck of White Plains, N.Y.; “Assessing the Potential for Timber Plantations to Offset Primary Forest Extractions in West Kalimantan, Indonesia,” $650;

Mary Turnipseed of Decatur, Ga.; “The Future of Seafood: A Global Perspective,” in Tasmania, Australia, $1,600;

Elda Varela-Acevedo of San Diego, Calif.; “Risk Assessment and Climate Change: Hawksbill Sea Turtles as Flagship Species,” in Barbados, $950; and

Kala Wolfe of Wilcox, Pa.; “Coffee Plantations in Buffer Zones in El Salvador,” $1,600.

SIDG award recipients are selected by a student panel made up of the previous year’s recipients, with oversight from the program’s faculty advisor, Erika Weinthal, associate professor of environmental policy at the Nicholas School.

“Having prior recipients make the funding decisions fosters leadership skills and strategic decision-making,” Weinthal explains. “Developing these skills is a shared priority of the Lazar Foundation and the Nicholas School.”

Robert Healy, professor emeritus of environmental policy and public policy studies, served as the SIDG program faculty advisor prior to retiring from the Nicholas School faculty in 2007. Many past recipients of the SIDG funding have gone on to hold important positions in international conservation, he notes. “These grants offer many students their first exposure to the joys and challenges of doing their own field research in our countries. It literally opens their eyes to problems and to their own capacity to address those problems with the skills they have learned at Duke,” Healy says.

In addition to the annual research travel awards, SIDG funds two Lazar Fellow at the Nicholas School each academic year and puts on a student-organized conference.