The prize is part of the Applied Microbiology International Horizon Awards 2025, which celebrate the brightest minds in the field and promote the research, group, projects, products and individuals who continue to help shape the future of applied microbiology. The Dorothy Jones Diversity and Inclusion Achievement Award honours Dorothy Jones’ commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion within STEM. This award acknowledges individuals or organisations that have made significant strides in these areas. It celebrates initiatives that dismantle barriers to participation and representation, especially for underrepresented groups, and recognises inclusive research and experimental design and practice.
Johanna Holman received the 2022 Norris Charles Clements Graduate Student Award from the University of Maine College of Natural Sciences, Forestry, and Agriculture (NSFA), for her research and academics over the last two years for her Master’s of Science in Nutrition!! This award highlights the achievements and potential for positive impact of graduate students in agriculture, is more often awarded to doctoral students who have had more years of graduate work in which to accomplish their research, give presentations, mentor undergraduates, and otherwise develop their professional skills.
Despite the setbacks and challenges of the pandemic, Johanna has been extremely productive and has done an extraordinary amount in just a year and a half (from start to the time of application submission) for her masters work. Johanna is currently writing up the results of her masters work into three manuscripts that we plan to submit to scientific journals for peer review this summer. She will defend her thesis at the end of the summer, just in time to start in September as a PhD student working with Dr. Yanyan Li and I!
Artwork by Johanna Holman
From the NSFA award page: “The Norris Charles Clements Graduate Student Award was established in the University of Maine Foundation in May 1997 for the benefit of the University of Maine, Orono, with a bequest from Laurel Clements ’48 in honor of her father, Norris Charles Clements, a distinguished Maine poultry farmer who in 1953 was honored by the University of Maine as Maine’s Outstanding Farmer. Income shall be used to provide financial assistance for rewarding outstanding graduate students in agricultural sciences and to recognize the accomplishments of graduate students whose studies have the potential to make a significant contribution to Maine agriculture. Candidates should have training and be doing research in disciplines related to Maine agriculture, such as agronomy, soil science, animal and veterinary sciences, agricultural economics, entomology, plant pathology, agricultural engineering and other disciplines the dean deems contribute significantly to the well being of Maine agriculture. Students will be chosen for awards on the basis of their high academic standing, the quality of their research and their personal integrity.”
Nick Hershbine, undergraduate student majoring in Ecology and Environmental Sciences in the Ishaq Lab has been awarded a 2020-2021 University of Maine Undergraduate Student Employee of the Year!!!!
Nick began working with me in summer 2020, on a collaborative project looking at microbes in the soil around low bush blueberry plants. At the time, he was early in his undergraduate program and having no prior laboratory skills. In addition, because of the pandemic, we have minimized interactions between students, such that Nick has primarily been working independently with occasional meetings with me to discuss his progress. Despite all of that, he has exceeded my expectations for his capacity to handle this tricky project, and more than that, to have the independence to make it his own and contribute to protocol development. Nick has had a positive impact on the lab, within the confines of the limited interactions between students allowed at this time. He is kind and friendly, and makes the lab a welcoming place to work. Congrats on the award!!
The Ishaq Lab 