Fondell Memorial Student Travel Award
The Tom Fondell Memorial Student Travel Award provides $500 awards to two students (undergraduate or graduate) actively engaged in avian biology, ecology, or conservation in Alaska. Additional awards may be given depending on fund raising.
The Award supports attendance and presentation of one’s research at the Alaska Bird Conference in Anchorage, Alaska, December 11–14, 2023.
How to Apply
Deadline – November 1, 2023
Send a brief letter describing your background, work, and reasons for attending the conference to Dan Ruthrauff at druthrauff@usgs.gov.
In recognition of his career and strong support of student research, the Tom Fondell Memorial Student Travel Award was created in 2018.
Initially endowed with contributions from friends and colleagues, the Award is now maintained through fund-raising activities associated with each Alaska Bird Conference.
About Tom Fondell
Raised in Minnesota, Tom Fondell grew up loving the outdoors. He worked his way through college and earned a bachelor’s of science degree in wildlife management from the University of Minnesota in 1979. After college, Tom volunteered for the Peace Corps and spent eight years in Malawi and the Central African Republic. Teaching beekeeping was one of his passions.
After some temporary jobs, such as banding ducks in the bayous of Louisiana, Tom moved to Alaska to work on northern pintail ecology with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Science Center. A few years later, he entered a master’s degree program at the University of Montana where he focused on the effects of livestock grazing on nesting and survival of grassland birds, which culminated with a highly cited paper in the journal Biological Conservation.
Tom returned to the Alaska Science Center in 1997, and over the next two decades he led research statewide on population ecology of Arctic waterbirds, such as brant, white-fronted geese and dusky Canada geese. His work was valued by state and federal agencies and continues to be used to analyze annual monitoring data, directly impacting harvest management decisions in the Pacific Flyway.
“Ignatius Tom,” as the Yupik called him, was a talented and dedicated biologist who was happiest when working in wild places. Those who shared field camps with him knew Tom to be tireless with a positive attitude regardless of conditions. He was deeply concerned with the state of the planet and passed on a legacy of environmental stewardship. He was an extremely generous individual who was quick to assist others. His esteemed personal integrity served as a model for younger biologists, who often had difficulty keeping up with him on the tundra.
Tom provided a helping hand to so many over the course of his career.
It’s fitting that this spirit endures in the Tom Fondell Memorial Student Travel Award.
Tom died surrounded by family and friends on April 16, 2017, at his home in Anchorage, Alaska, from pancreatic cancer. He was 61. Tom is survived by his wife Melonie Rieck and remembered by friends and colleagues who are grateful for their times together and his many contributions to wildlife conservation.