Award-winning BU graduate making a difference in Europe
MSc Biodiversity Conservation graduate Mariana García Criado will be enjoying graduation this year with the added bonus of scooping a Dorset Wildlife Trust Prize.
She will receive a BU prize certificate and book from the Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT) entitled “The Great Trees of Dorset” for having the best biodiversity research project, as judged by her academic course tutors. Her research project was on the assessment of extinction risk of bumblebee species in Europe.
On top of this achievement, Mariana has been working at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on the production of European Red Lists of Threatened Species. She has since been acknowledged for her immense support and participation in the European Red List of Bees and in the European Red List of Marine Fishes, and for co-authoring these two publications.
The European Red List is a review of the conservation status of ca. 10,000 European species, and it identifies those species that are threatened with extinction at the European level so that appropriate conservation action can be taken to improve their status.
Mariana said “I am extremely honoured to have received the DWT prize for my research project on European bumblebees. I am also very grateful to BU, who provided support throughout my MSc in Biodiversity Conservation and my internship at IUCN, which I was able to complete while working on my thesis. I’m happy to say that I’ve now been with IUCN for almost two years, working on nature conservation and biodiversity issues – a perfect transition from my MSc.”
Dr Kathy Hodder, course leader for MSc Biodiversity said “I was delighted when Mariana started a placement with the IUCN and even more so when she was recruited onto their Biodiversity Conservation team afterwards.
"Her keen interest in developing our knowledge of threats to key species also resulted in her completing an exemplary research report on the extinction risk to the bumblebees of Europe, for which she was awarded a distinction and also the Dorset Wildlife Trust prize for the best biodiversity research project. Congratulations Mariana!”
