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This summer, as part of a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) funded by the National Science Foundation, 10 undergraduates came from around the country to spend the summer immersed in field- and laboratory-based conservation research at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s 3,200-acre campus.

With funding from 4-VA, George Mason rsearcher Haw Chuan Lim and his team developed a novel genotyping panel for powerful and cost-effective evaluations of population structure and kinship in the critically endangered mountain bongo.

On a recent field trip to Patuxent River Park in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, undergraduate students from ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ’s Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation got to view secretive marsh birds up close, including Virginia and sora rail birds.

In late September, 18 undergraduates from the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation‘s (SMSC) Wildlife Ecology and Conservation program tagged monarch butterflies on their journey south to help researchers better understand their grand migration.

Black-footed ferrets were once thought to be extinct, until a small population was discovered in Wyoming in 1981. The species is still endangered, but scientists—including a ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ researcher and students at the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation (SMSC)—are coming to the rescue.

In December 2020, Willa, a black-footed ferret who died in 1988, was cloned using her cells that had been frozen. That clone, Elizabeth Ann, is now the first North American endangered species to be cloned in the United States. Senior Research Scientist Klaus-Peter Koepfli conducted critical research on her genetic cell line.

Outside their dorms, students at the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation (SMSC) have visual access to rare and endangered species. On any given day, you can find them doing field and laboratory work with influential conservation mentors. Midway through the spring semester, the school known for its hands-on conservation training, had to quickly transition their courses online due to COVID-19.

Around the world, environmental crises are making headlines, from the potential extinction of species and ecosystems to climate change. Students in ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP) are driven to make a change.
This year five PhD students in the department received grants from the Cosmos Club Foundation to tackle a wide range of conservation efforts.