The University of Vermont Graduate College is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2022-2023 Dr. Roberto Fabri Fialho Research Award is Maia Austin, a doctoral candidate in Biology Graduate Program.

Maia Austin is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in Dr. Laura May-Collado's lab. She is interested in combining novel computational methods with behavioral ecology to better understand the drivers of acoustic communication in dolphins and whales. Maia applies machine learning techniques to underwater recordings of different dolphin species from Central America to quantify the size and diversity of their vocal repertoires. This method will be combined with social network analysis to study how social and genetic relationships between dolphins affect their communication.

Maia is originally from Boston, Massachusetts. She received her B.A.Sc. in Cognitive Science with a focus in Linguistics and Neuroscience from McGill University (Canada), which helped to stoke her interest in interdisciplinary studies and the applications of artificial intelligence for analysis. At UVM, she serves as one of the Graduate Student Representatives to the Biology faculty Graduate Affairs Committee and is a leader for the Northeast student chapter for Marine Mammalogy. In her spare time, Maia enjoys knitting, hiking, and cooking.

The Fialho Research Award is given annually to a University of Vermont doctoral student in support of their research in areas related to ecology, evolution, population genetics, or animal behavior. The funds are awarded in memory of Roberto Fabri Fialho, Ph.D., Biology.