ENBT Botany PPG students receive awards and recognition for their research

From January to July 2024, six students from the Postgraduate Program in Botany at the National School of Tropical Botany received awards that will contribute to the development of their research. See below.

Lucian Rodrigues com seu prêmio ao lado do orientador Jerônimo Sansevero

Lucian Rodrigues Duarte, a master's student supervised by Dr. Jerônimo Boelsums Barreto Sansevero, won 1st prize for best video at the 5th Brazilian Conference on Ecological Restoration (SOBRE+10 2024), in Bahia. The work presented by Lucien is entitled “Predominance of evergreen species promotes greater litter mass in a restored area in the Atlantic Forest”. The Conference was held between July 8 and 12 in the cities of Petrolina and Juazeiro.

Another three students were awarded the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) Research Grant: Lara Serpa Jaegge Deccache, Gabrielly Delamarche and Alysson Siva da Matta Barbosa. They were selected from 102 applicants for the award.

Lara Serpa

Lara Serpa was grateful for the opportunity granted through the investment in her doctoral project: “I am supervised by Professor Dr. Claudio Nicoletti de Fraga, from the Botanical Garden Research Institute of Rio de Janeiro, and co-supervised by Professor Dr. Leandro Lacerda Giacomin, from the Federal University of Paraíba. My project 'Systematics, Evolution, and Biogeography of Ouratea Aubl. (Ochnoideae - Ochnaceae)' aims to study a genus of plants with approximately 300 species and, due to this number of species, its taxonomic treatment has become a challenge over the years. The award granted by the IAPT will fund an important stage in my thesis project, where I will have access to the type materials of the species in Europe, and will make it possible to compile a complete and detailed taxonomic synopsis, as well as helping to propose a natural infrageneric classification for the genus Ouratea. In addition, a new phylogeny for the genus and studies into the evolution of morphological traits and biogeography will be carried out. It was valuable to be selected by the IAPT Research Grant, not only for the financial support, but for the recognition that motivates and drives our work with passion in the study of the Neotropical flora.”

Gabrielly Delamarche

Gabrielly Delamarche says she was extremely happy when the awards were announced. “It was the first time I applied for grants! The value of the award will effectively help with field collections and visits to herbaria with collections relevant to Ormosia. I, my advisor Domingos Cardoso, and all the colleagues in our research group are very happy! These results demonstrate the scientific relevance of the project and this is very gratifying. Ormosia species awaiting descriptions thank you!”

Alysson Barbosa

Alysson Silva da Matta Barbosa's prize was won as part of his doctoral project 'Exploring an Amazonian Mountain Ferns and Lycophytes Flora: Diversity and Ethnobotanical Connections' and the money will help with field activities. “The project aims to increase our knowledge of the flora of Amazonian ferns and lycophytes, specifically in the upper Rio Negro region, as well as to record the traditional knowledge and practices of indigenous populations in relation to these plants, contributing to the preservation and maintenance of local biological and cultural diversity,” says Alysson.

Valner Jordão

Doctoral student Valner Matheus Milanezi Jordão, supervised by Dr. Domingos Cardoso, has won the Emily Holmes Memorial Scholarship, which will allow him to do part of his doctorate at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew in London. “During my degree, I took part in the Flora do Brasil 2020 project, developing monographs for the genera Crudia, Dussia, Mora, Paramachaerium and Pterocarpus. The grant I received will be fundamental to the development of my PhD, entitled 'Advances in the systematics of the tribe Dalbergieae (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae): Phylogenomics of the Dalbergia clade and taxonomy of Machaerium in Amazonia', enabling me to work in the K herbarium, one of the largest plant collections in the world.”
Diego Nunes da Silva, also a doctoral student, was awarded a prize by The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) to encourage postgraduate students to visit the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium to study botanical collections. Diego, who is doing his sandwich doctorate at the NYBG under the supervision of Dr. Fabián Michelangeli, received the NYBG Visiting Scientist Travel Award to study approximately 4,600 herbarium collections from his research group. The student's project, entitled 'Phylogeny of Marcetieae and taxonomic revision of Ernestia sensu lato (Melastomataceae)', was supervised by Dr. João Marcelo A. Braga and Dr. Paulo José F. Guimarães, has already been recognized with other awards: IAPT Research Grant (2022), IDEA WILD Small Equipment Grants (2022) and ASPT Graduate Student Research Grant (2023).

JBRJ congratulates everyone on their achievements!