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Life on a Sustainable Planet Fellowships

Life on a Sustainable Planet envisions a future in which humanity lives in balance with the natural world. Through collaboration with global partners, we advance our collective understanding of how nature and human communities interact to pursue nature-based solutions for a more resilient Earth for all. As a part of this initiative, the Smithsonian offers three in-residence fellowship programs:

  • Smithsonian Climate Change Postdoctoral Fellowship,
  • Smithsonian Environmental Justice Fellowship, and
  • Resilience and Sustainability Science Postdoctoral Fellowship

The application period is now open—the deadline is October 15, 2024.
Learn more and apply at the Smithsonian’s Office of Academic Appointments and Internships.

Become a part of the Smithsonian community, including our current Life on a Sustainable Planet Fellows:

Climate Change Fellows: 2024 Cohort

Waleska Gravena

Host: National Museum of Natural History

Project: Surveying microorganisms in Amazonian bushmeat, identifying hosts, parasites, and pathogens to understand the potential for disease spillover from wild meat to humans

Abigail Lewis

Host: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Project: Developing forecasts of methane emission from wetlands across the coasts of the contiguous United States to advance climate resilience on local and national scales

Sarah Melo Merino

Host/s: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Project: Exploring how future thermal-related stress events will impact coral distribution and how resulting changes in community traits will affect reef function

Annie Tamalavage

Host: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Project: Researching how cenotes in the Yucatan produce, transform, and likely store blue carbon

Climate Change Fellows: 2023 Cohort

Luca Morreale

Host: National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Project: Examining how human activities, including climate change, landscape fragmentation, and invasive species, impact global forests’ growth, carbon storage, and overall health, with a focus on their role in climate change mitigation

Emily Pappo

Host: National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Project: Examining climate change impacts on smallholder yields, developing resilience strategies for tropical agroforestry, and assessing how agricultural productivity declines affect biodiversity and carbon sequestration in tropical landscapes

Ingrid Romero

Host: National Museum of Natural History

Project: Investigating how terrestrial vegetation in North America shifted across latitudes by comparing the hot EECO (~53-49 My) with the cooler Late Paleocene (61-56 My) to predict future plant distribution changes under warming climates

Environmental Justice Fellows: 2024 Cohort

Alexandria Casteel

Host: Anacostia Community Museum

Project: Developing a comparative framework across Baltimore and D.C. to reframe environmental justice by exploring Black environmental practices, shifting the focus from harm to the potential for repair

Graham Diedrich

Host: National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Project: Surveying Virginian farmers, analyzing renewable energy restrictions, and modeling solar land-use to understand equity impacts and barriers for underserved agricultural communities amid climate change

Kaleigh Karageorge

Host: Anacostia Community Museum

Project: Exploring local autonomy in the Environmental Justice Movement with a focus on partnerships between Big Greens and grassroots organizations

Resilience and Sustainability Fellows: 2024 Cohort

Holly Cronin

Host: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Project: Exploring how coastal communities can create ocean-based livelihood opportunities and build resilience via innovations in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors

Frédérique Fardin

Host: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Project: Integrating traditional use, knowledge, and perception of coastal communities to increase equity in policymaking in the Wider Caribbean Region

Petiangma Dereck Mbeh

Host: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Project: Exploring climate change hazards, vulnerabilities of minority groups, and innovative nature-based solutions, focusing on Afro-Panamanians in Bocas del Toro, Province

Philip Sanchez

Host: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Project: Investigating the habitat use and movement of marine fish in the Panama Canal to predict transoceanic invasion risks and impacts on coastal communities, aiming to develop resilience tools with canal-dependent communities

Liliana Sierra

Host: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Ocean Nexus

Project: Collaborating with coastal communities and small-scale fisheries to develop community-based, nature-driven solutions that address complex challenges, with a strong focus on justice and equity in local decision-making

Vera Solovyeva

Host: National Museum of Natural History

Project: Examining how climate change alters the distribution and use of Indigenous plants traditionally harvested by Indigenous communities in Alaska and Siberia

Additional Fellows in the Cohort

Benjamin Utting, Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow Class: 2023

Host: National Museum of Natural History

Project: Examining how prehistoric hunter-gatherers adapted to major environmental changes, including hotter temperatures and rising sea levels, at the end of the last Ice Age