The Winners
The Selection Committee for the Peccei and Mikhalevich Scholarships has completed its review of the 2008 nominations. The winner of the Peccei Scholarship is Flora Piasentin of the Federal University of Brasilia in Brazil. The Mikhalevich Scholarship goes to German Jan Ohlberger from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin.

Flora is a second year Ph.D. student in Sustainable Development, with emphasis on Environmental Policy and Management, at the University of Brasilia, Brazil. She graduated in 2001 from the University of Padova, Italy, in Agronomy, and received her Master's degree in Management of Agricultural Knowledge Systems in 2003 from the University of Wageningen, the Netherlands.

During her three month stay in IIASA's Land Use Change and Agriculture Program, Flora completed a study entitled “Assessing the Suitability for Cacao in Bahia State (Brazil) by combining the Farming Systems Approach and the Agro-Ecological Zones Methodology.” Her research assessed the land suitability for different cacao agroforestry production systems in Bahia. Her study was rated by reviewers as "...of direct relevance to the targeting of cocoa management, development and policy interventions ...the application of the combined Farming Systems-AEZ approach to tree crops in general and cocoa in particular is novel and valuable ...the research topic acts on an important, but not sufficiently studied subject."

Jan Ohlberger, from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin, who only recently finished his Ph.D. degree received this year's Mikhalevich Award for his work in the Evolution and Ecology Program. His research paper "Modeling Coregonid Fish Diversification along a Vertical Gradient in Water Temperature" aimed to develop a model to help understand the adaptive speciation of fish populations.

As one external reviewer noted, “the combination of empirical data and adaptive dynamics modeling approach is important and original ...bringing forth this particular example is especially novel and useful.” Another reviewer pointed out the originality of the paper. "The chosen methodology and approach differs mainly from other studies on adaptive dynamics in that the functional relationships used are derived from empirically known relationships."

About the Awards
The scholarships, which are awarded annually for outstanding work by participants of the IIASA's Young Scientists Summer Program, provide financial support for the winners to return to IIASA for an additional three-month period of research.

The Selection Committee
The Selection Committee was made up of IIASA Director Detlof von Winterfeldt, Summer Program Dean Mahendra Shah, and scientific representatives from IIASA programs.

The Selection Criteria
In making its decisions, the committee drew on the following sources of information:

• Written reports prepared by the candidates during their participation in the 2008 summer program. The reports were ranked on:
  • the quality of the research;
  • originality of the research;
  • effectiveness of the approach;
  • and the relevance and impact of the research.
• Memos from supervisors supporting and evaluating their candidates' nomination;
• Evaluations of the candidates' reports by external reviewers.

External Reviewers
Nine papers were submitted for consideration. The Selection Committee gratefully acknowledges the evaluations of the reviewers; their input was of great value in the selection process.

Responsible for this page: Tanja Huber
Last updated: 18 Feb 2009