The Cameron Award supports graduate and postdoctoral research on the ecology or behavior of rodents native to the New World, with an emphasis on (1) field research or (2) laboratory research that supports or augments field research. The 2020 graduate student recipient of the Cameron Award is Carson Keller.
Mr. Keller is a PhD student in the Orrock lab at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is interested in understanding the mechanisms driving predator-prey relationships and the contexts in which they alter anti-predator defenses, population dynamics, and trophic interactions. He earned a M.S. in 2018 from California State University, Northridge, where he investigated how big-eared woodrats (Neotoma macrotis) cope with acute and chronic perceived predation risk by examining changes in foraging behavior and stress physiology.
Mr. Keller’s dissertation research focuses on individual and population-level responses of native rodents to different types of biological invasions. His research combines the use of camera traps and foraging experiments, as well as video behavioral assays and immunoassays to determine if rodents respond with predictable or contrasting suites of behaviors within invaded ecosystems. The results of his research will help scientists to better understand the behavioral and trophic consequences of invasions on native plant and animal species.