Todd Pierson ’09 receives 2011 Udall Scholarship

Todd Pierson ’09, current sophomore at the University of Georgia (UGA), has been named a recipient of the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation Scholarship. Todd is one of 80 recipients of the national award, which recognizes college sophomores and juniors who are pursuing careers in environmental or Native American issues.

Todd is a UGA Foundation Fellow and is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in ecology.

The Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation administers the scholarship program, which was created in 1992 by Congress to recognize Morris Udall’s 30 years of service in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2009, Congress expanded the foundation to honor the legacy of former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, his older brother. Each recipient receives a scholarship worth up to $5,000.

With the goal of combining a research and teaching career focused on ecological conservation, Todd has been conducting amphibian research for excellence in undergraduate teaching, in the UGA Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Todd also has worked as a researcher, photographer and database contributor in the UGA Odum School of Ecology.

Todd has taken his ecology interests abroad, having become involved in a research partnership between Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley. With travel-study funds provided as part of his UGA Foundation Fellowship, Todd traveled to the highlands of Guatemala in late fall where he collected and studied new species of amphibians and reptiles. He plans a return trip this month, along with expeditions to Oman and the United Arab Emirates this summer.

Among his extracurricular activities at UGA, Todd has served on the executive board of the UGA Gameday Recycling Program, and as a representative for the Go Green Alliance, a coalition of UGA environmental groups. He also has been active in the UGA Herpetology Society, most recently serving as co-president. The student organizations promotes education, outreach and conservations in the field of herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians).