Resilience Connects Foundation Cohort of Field Biology Awardees
The Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation Awards in Field Biology were the Foundation’s first awards — unrestricted funds designed to support the power of individuals exploring our natural world and helping us better understand it. These are awarded to remarkable field biologists who are making an impact with their original thinking and are at a critical career juncture where recognition can be catalytic. This year’s cohort is the Foundation’s seventh, and this year’s awardees demonstrate a quality we often note in nature: resilience.
As field biologists share the details of their work with us, we appreciate the resilience it requires to travel to remote areas of the world, endure weather, persist in surfacing insights from complex systems and challenges, and sustain a commitment to field work while balancing other parts of work and life. I’ve worked at sea and other field locations, so I’m curious about what drives field biologists to pursue their ideas despite hardships. As I’ve gotten to know this year’s awardees, I see their resilience stemming from their deep connections to nature and their strong relationships with colleagues.
As we learned about their connections to the field, we heard one nominee being described as almost part of the land itself, given his ability to find organisms when no one else could. We heard stories about another awardee practically living on the coral reef to develop the experiments that would help her better understand it. And as the biologists described their work, we learned about the respect and care they share with partners in their work. The humanity they bring to their practice leads them to mentor, teach and partner in ways that not only yield insights, but truly build the field.
Please join me in celebrating the individuals we recognize with the 2026 Awards in Field Biology:
- Angelo Soto-Centeno’s work helps us understand how global changes — including natural and anthropogenic changes in temperature and habitats — affect bat populations, especially in the insular Caribbean.
- Marcelo Araya-Salas explores how communication systems evolve and shape behavior for wild animal populations, with a focus on hummingbirds, songbirds and bats in neotropical ecosystems.
- Noelle Lucey is a marine biologist whose research in the Caribbean has brought attention to ocean deoxygenation as a significant driver of the decline of coral reefs.
- Todd Elliott’s research on how animals consume and disperse fungi frames vertebrates as architects of fungal biodiversity that provide a novel and critical service to ecosystems around the world.
- Ummat Somjee’s innovative, field-based experiments focus on the evolution, function and costs of elaborated insect traits, particularly weapons used in male–male competition, that reveal how these traits influence reproduction, physiology and survival.
We appreciate their sustained commitment to science, and we’re grateful that the Foundation’s nominators introduced us to their work. We invite you to explore more details of their experience at the Field Biology Program page.