Join Us on November 19 for the 2025 Tinker Field Research Grant Symposium

LACC is pleased to host the second symposium highlighting the 2025 Tinker Field Research Grant recipients. This event will showcase the exceptional work of FIU graduate students who conducted summer field research across Latin America and the Caribbean, supported by the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center and the generous funding of the Tinker Foundation.

The Tinker Field Research Grant provides graduate students with the opportunity to engage directly with their research topics—building language skills, deepening cultural understanding, establishing research networks, and collecting preliminary data essential for future academic and professional development.

Join us in celebrating and supporting this outstanding cohort of student researchers as they share insights from their fieldwork and contributions to regional scholarship.

10:00 AM – 12:30 PM

Demonica Brown, MS Environmental Studies:               “Drivers of Nest Site Selection in Underground Nesting Bahama Parrots on Great Abaco”

Andrew Natter, MS Biology: “Assessing Genetic Connectivity of Permit (Trachinotus falcatus) Between Belize and South Florida”

Gabriela Ochoa, Combined MS Forensic Science and PhD Biology: Understanding Shark Movements and Foraging at Spawning Aggregations in Belize”

Jeison Oviedo, Combined MA LACS and PhD GSS: “Community Media, Territory and Alternate Territorialities in Montes de Maria, Colombia”

Ruchao Qian, PhD Biology: “Crypsis and Motion Camouflage in Praying Mantises”

2:00 PM – 4:30 PM

David Santamaria: PhD Earth Systems Science: “Investigating the common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) as an invasive species in Colombia”

Nicholas SirLouis, PhD Biology: “Long Term Successional Changes in Secondary Tropical Forests: Biodiversity and Functional Trajectories”

Nyya Toussaint, PhD History: “Global Black Social Movements and dependance on third spaces”

Veronica Zuccolo, PhD Biology: “The Ecological Role and Behavior of Tiger Sharks in a Top Ecotourism Destination in Brazil”