UNH graduate student Matthew Vadeboncoeur was recently awarded a 2011 Switzer Environmental Fellowship by the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation. The fellowship is one of just 20 awarded this year by the foundation for emerging environmental leaders who are pursuing graduate degrees and are dedicated to working towards positive environmental change in their career work. Fellows, chosen from universities in New England and California, each receive $15,000 to help them complete their degrees.

Vadeboncoeur, of Harrisville, R.I., is a Ph.D. candidate in the Natural Resources and Earth Systems Science (NRESS) program. His research is focused on understanding management‐ and disturbance‐related changes to the cycling of nutrients in forest ecosystems. Currently he is using a detailed regional soil chemistry data set he collected with collaborators to characterize variation in the long‐term sustainability of forest harvesting across the northern hardwood forest region.

Vadeboncoeur is advised by research associate professor Erik Hobbie of the Earth Systems Research Center within the UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space. Hobbie specializes in understanding the importance of mycorrhizal fungi in forests, both as a carbon sink and as a source for nitrogen.

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