Meet Dr Matthew Niemiller, Associate Ecologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS), Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He and his team earned top honors in IDT’s 2016 Sustainability Award contest and will receive $14,000 in IDT product credit.
His project, titled, “Is Out of Sight Really Out of Mind? Environmental DNA Detection and Monitoring of Rare Groundwater Fauna,” explores the amount and location of groundwater species, particularly those that are small and that live in habitats and ecosystems extremely difficult to survey and study.
Joining Dr Niemiller on the team are molecular ecologists and geneticists Dr Mark Davis (INHS), and Dr Megan L. Porter (University of Hawaii); cave biologists and subterranean biosurvey experts Dr Steven J. Taylor (INHS), Michael E. Slay (The Nature Conservancy), and Dr Kirk S. Zigler (University of the South).