Enabling early-career researchers to study animal behavior in one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, the NOMIS Foundation and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) have launched the NOMIS–STRI Fellowship Program.
Although tropical forests and reefs represent only a small portion of the Earth’s surface, they contain the vast majority of the planet’s biodiversity. How do inhabitants of the tropics evolve and learn to coexist in this hyperdiverse and hypercomplex ecosystem? What lessons does nature offer humans as we seek to build sustainable and resilient societies?
For over a century, scientists from around the world have converged at STRI in Panama to study such tropical-biodiversity questions, leading groundbreaking research on tropical forests and marine ecosystems and their astounding biodiversity. Research at STRI takes advanced instrumentation and controlled experiments from the laboratory, deploying them in the field to study animals under natural conditions and aims to provide unique insights into the evolution of fundamental biological processes—from the evolution of perception to the consequences of sociality.
NOMIS–STRI Fellowship Program
Now, the NOMIS Foundation has partnered with STRI to enable the continuation of this important research through the NOMIS–STRI Fellowship Program. The program supports exceptional early-career scholars in a collaborative setting designed to promote the interdisciplinary, synthetic study of animal behavior. NOMIS–STRI Fellows propose and carry out independent investigations with advisors from STRI and partner institutions.