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The Nicholas School of the Environment and Duke Marine Lab celebrated graduating students at a recognition ceremony on Saturday, May 9, in the Wilson Recreation Center at ���Ĵ�ý. The ceremony also honored several students who received special awards and those who earned Graduation With Distinction.

Nicholas School Awards for Excellence

Sara LaBoskey Award

Nicholas Nease and Abby Walden each received the Sara LaBoskey Award, presented annually to an environment major in recognition of personal integrity and academic excellence. Vicki and Peter LaBoskey established the award in memory of their daughter, Sara LaBoskey, who was an environmental studies major at Duke in the 1990s.

Nease majored in environmental sciences and policy and in computer science, and was a member of the , led by Meagan Dunphy-Daly, associate dean for experiential education and undergraduate research, and colleagues.

“Nick has immersed himself in climate and energy work across disciplines, combining environmental science with computer science to think about solutions that are not just innovative but scalable,” said Dunphy-Daly.

“As a leader of the undergraduate , Nick has created spaces where students can engage meaningfully with complex climate challenges, helping others not just learn what to think, but how to think,” she added. “As a builder, he’s gone even further, working to develop a startup focused on accelerating clean energy infrastructure, tackling one of the most difficult and least visible challenges in the energy transition.”  

Abby Walden majored in environmental sciences and minored in gender, sexuality, & feminist studies. For their thesis, “Increased Soil Microbial Activity and Nitrogen Availability Through 15 Years of Regenerative Agriculture,” Walden analyzed how gardening at Duke Campus Farm has affected the nitrogen cycle over more than a decade.

“Abby took the pulse of the farm analytically after 15 years of this repeated labor by countless students,” said Walden’s thesis supervisor, Daniel Richter, the Theodore S. Coile Distinguished Professor of Soils and Forest Ecology. “Soil is alive. It has a metabolism just like you and me. It breathes, and Abby measured it, documenting the greatly increased depth to which plant roots and microbes are growing.”

Thomas V. Laska Memorial Award

Bradley Bowen received the Thomas V. Laska Memorial Award, presented annually in recognition of outstanding achievement and promise for the future in the field of earth and climate science. The award was established by Andrew J. and Vera Laska in memory of their son, Thomas Vaclav Laska, a geology major in the 1970s at Duke.

Bowen majored in earth and climate sciences and in statistics. “I had the pleasure of having Bradley in class. He’s been an extraordinary student who’s always there on time, sits in the front row, [and] is a very keen observer,” said Brian McAdoo, the Truman and Nellie Semans/Alex Brown & Sons Professor of Geosciences Bass Chair, adding, “[Bowen’s] hobby is going around the world and playing pipe organs. As one does.”

Marine Conservation Award

Hannah Baetge received the Marine Conservation Award, presented annually in recognition of excellence in scholarship, research and citizenship. Baetge majored in marine science and conservation and was also a Marine Medicine Scholar.

“[Baetge] is truly a master of biochemistry, which is evident in her research,” said postdoctoral associate Jillian Wisse, who mentored Baetge in the lab of Baetge’s thesis supervisor, assistant professor Jason Somarelli.

“In her thesis, titled ‘Altered Lipid Metabolism Pathways Enable Hypoxia Tolerance in Goose-Beaked Whales,’ [Baetge] crafted elegant experiments to elucidate complex molecular processes,” Wisse said. “She also won an award for best oral presentation at a conference recently for that work.”

Additional Awards

maggie Schneider Award

Takoa Jason Cartwright received the Maggie Schneider Award from the Department of Biology, within Duke’s Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. The award, named in memory of Duke biology student Maggie Schneider, is presented to a biology major who demonstrated a love of learning and service in marine conservation biology.

Cartwright spent the 2024 fall semester at the Duke Marine Lab, where he was also involved in the , led by Nicholas School research scientist Liz DeMattia.

FOREVER DUKE Award

During the ceremony, Nicholas School faculty recognized graduating seniors Lizzy Glazer and Dhruv Rungta for receiving a 2026 Forever Duke ���Ĵ�ý Leadership Award from the ���Ĵ�ý Alumni Association. The award honors students who are strong advocates for the Duke community, who embody Duke’s guiding principle of knowledge in the service of society, and who are leaving Duke a better place than they found it.

Rungta majored in economics, ecology and sustainable development and graduated with distinction outside the Nicholas School.

“What makes Dhruv exceptional is not just how much he does, but how he thinks. When he sees a problem, he doesn’t complain about it, he doesn’t wait for someone else to fix it. He builds something that works,” said Lori Bennear, Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School. Rungta, who took Bennear’s energy and economics class, “taught himself how to code and created what is now known as the Duke Wizard — an AI-powered tool that is being scaled across the university to help students access information more easily and equitably.”

Lizzy Glazer, who majored in marine science and conservation and in neuroscience, graduated with distinction from the Nicholas School.

“As president of the Duke Sustainable Ocean Alliance, Glazer didn’t just lead meetings or organize events. She created something entirely new. She founded Duke’s first Summit for Ocean Stewards, bringing together students, faculty, alumni and global leaders in ocean conservation,” said Dunphy-Daly, who was Glazer’s thesis supervisor. “What started as an idea became a conference with over 300 participants…This conference is now a lasting platform for collaboration and learning at Duke.”

Rungta and Glazer were both Rachel Carson Scholars as well.

Graduation With Distinction

The Nicholas School Graduation With Distinction program requires completion of a senior thesis based on an independent research project evaluated by a faculty committee. To earn the honor, students must also have a 3.2 grade point average in their major, and an overall 3.0 at graduation. The Graduates With Distinction, organized by Nicholas School division, are listed below, along with their thesis title and faculty supervisor.

Environmental Sciences

• Jean Chung: “Investigating Genetic Susceptibility to Ozone Exposure,” supervised by Robert Tighe
• Josh Goozman: “Ghost Forest Forensics: What drives variation in soil carbon emissions in coastal forested wetlands?” supervised by Emily Bernhardt
• Michael Kiel: “Neurobehavioral Effects of Embryonic Exposure to Lead and Benzo[a]pyrene in Zebrafish Models,” supervised by Edward Levin
• Sarah Elizabeth Kuhlman: “Assessing Toxicological Impacts of Chronic Exposure to Low-Density and High-Density Polyethylene Nanoplastics on Human Kidney Cells,” supervised by Jason Somarelli
• Ella Tallett: “A Two-Way Fixed Effects Framework to Estimate the Impacts of Urbanization, Vegetation, and Aerosols on Air Temperature in North Carolina,” supervised by David Carlson
• Abby Walden: “Increased soil microbial activity and nitrogen availability through 15 years of regenerative agriculture,” supervised by Daniel Richter

Environmental Sciences and Policy

• Chibuike Okafor: “An Isotopic Analysis of Tree and Surface Water from Ghost Forests in Coastal North Carolina,” supervised by Ryan Emanuel
• Aaron Siegle: “Combatting the Coastal Squeeze: A New Planning Paradigm to Conserve Disappearing Marshes,” supervised by Tibor Vegh
• Ella Weinstein: “Assessing The Environmental, Social, Economic, And Political Barriers To Rare Earth Element Mining in Greenland,” supervised by Jackson Ewing
• Chloe Young: “Investigating the Validity and Utility of Anticipatory Insurance for Oyster Aquaculture in North Carolina,” supervised by Brian McAdoo

Marine Science and Conservation

• Hannah Baetge: “Altered Lipid Metabolism Pathways Enable Hypoxia Tolerance in Goose-Beaked Whales,” supervised by Jason Somarelli
• Jane Curry: “Investigating Larval Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea virginica) Mortality and Sublethal Responses to Acute Heat Stress,” supervised by Juliet Wong
• Samantha George: “Investigating the Dual Impacts of the Parasitic Boring Sponge (Cliona celata) and Acute Thermal Stress on Eastern Oysters (Crassostrea virginica),” supervised by Juliet Wong
• Lizzy Glazer: “Disturbing the Sanctuary: Anthropogenic Noise Disrupts Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Song and Alters Dive Behavior,” supervised by Meagan Dunphy-Daly
• Ruth Havener: “Using the Sea Urchin Lytechinus variegatus to Mitigate Biofouling in Oyster Aquaculture,” supervised by Juliet Wong
• Kira Lichtenfeld: “Predicting Future Distribution of Tamanend’s Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops erebennus) Based On Thermal Tolerance and Prey Shifts,” supervised by Andy Read
• Thomas Tianrui Tan: “Temperature and Symbiotic Status Drive Rates of Sediment Removal by the Temperate Coral, Astrangia poculata,” supervised by Brian Silliman