In the Student Spotlight: March 5, 2021

Kudos to these students

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  • Doctoral student of forestry Sneha Vissa was the lead author on the article, “Field Translocation of Mountain Pine Beetles Suggests Phoretic Mite Communities Are Locally Adapted, and Mite Populations Respond Variably to Climate Warming” published in Insects. The article discusses how climate warming affects the mite community associated with the mountain pine beetle. Forestry professor Rich Hofstetter was a co-author.
  • Master’s student of forestry Charlotte Rozanski received second place for oral presentations at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Arizona and New Mexico Chapters of The Wildlife Society. The presentation was titled, “Can fluvial geomorphology predict New Mexico meadow jumping mouse occupancy?”
  • Doctoral student of astronomy and planetary science Lauren McGraw co-authored the article, “A satellite orbit drift in binary near-Earth asteroids (66391) 1999 KW4 and (88710) 2001 SL9 — Indication of the BYORP effect” published in Icarus. The article analyzes the BYORP effect on NEA (66391) Moshup and its satellite. McGraw was part of a world-wide campaign to observe Moshup and its moon during their close pass by to Earth in May 2019.
  • Freshman volleyball player Lyla Hollis was honored as the Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week. She averaged 3.86 kills per set and hit a combined .339 against Southern Utah.
  • The NAU women’s cross country team won the Big Sky Conference Championship and jumped up to No. 9 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association (USTFCCCA) Division I poll. The championship win was led by junior Taryn O’Neill’s first place individual finish. O’Neill was also honored as the Big Sky Women’s Individual Champion, the 18th woman in NAU history to win the award. Juniors Jessa Hanson and Bryn Morley and seniors Pipi Eitel and Delaney Rasmussen finished in the top eight, while sophomores Jesselyn Bries and Annika Reiss finished in the top 20.
  • The NAU men’s cross country team placed second in the Big Sky Conference Championship and was ranked No. 2 on the USTFCCCA poll. Sophomore runner Abdihamid Nur was honored as the Big Sky Men’s individual champion, becoming the 29th individual champion for NAU. Following Nur were junior Ryan Raff and sophomores Drew Bosley and Brodey Hasty.