Charlie Nicholson, a doctoral student in the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for Ecological Economics and Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources garnered one of the top prizes available to graduate students this past March. One of three UVM students to earn a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate research fellowship, Charlie receives nearly $140,000 over the next three years.  

Charlie, who works with Professor Taylor Ricketts, will use the award to advance his research on how pollinators can improve agricultural productivity and sustainability. He is working with blueberry farmers to understand how land conservation can support native bees while boosting crop yields.

Prior to arriving at the Gund Institute, Charlie, a Massachusetts native, earned a B.A. in Biology from Skidmore College where he studied Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. He followed his passion for plant sciences and spent two years in Philadelphia working in the botany departments of both the Morris Arboretum and the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.

Currently, Charlie is interested in the local and landscape factors that most directly influence the activity, diversity, and economic role of pollinator communities. He aims to understand the crop production benefits provided by native pollinators, particularly native bees. The goal of his research is to demonstrate, through models and field experimentation, how changes to the land influence bees and the services they provide.

"This NSF Fellowship is the most prestigious graduate student award in the country, and it recognizes Charlie's ideas as an extraordinarily promising young researcher," says Prof. Taylor Ricketts. "It also speaks to the novelty and importance of his pollination research, which seeks to conserve wild bees in a way that improves crop yields and strengthens our food system.”