2025 Biota Awardees
Postdoctoral Fellows

In 2025, for the first time, Walder Foundation’s Biota Awards are exclusively focused on providing support for postdocs. Each Biota Award recipient will receive funding over two years to address key conservation challenges across a variety of different landscapes in the Chicago region and beyond. From restoring reefs to supporting urban tree health, and from saving threatened species in prairies to enhancing freshwater conservation planning, these projects will help ensure that people and nature can thrive together. These early-career scientists are leading innovative research and driving real-world solutions to protect our natural ecosystems
Learn About the Projects
University of Illinois Chicago
Leveraging Mating System Theory for Targeted Conservation of Endangered Prairie Wildflowers
Field Museum of Natural History
From Seasonal Biodiversity Distribution Patterns to Local Ecological Knowledge: A Multiscale Investigation to Enhance Freshwater Conservation Planning in Guyana
Field Museum of Natural History
From Museum Collections to Conservation: Uncovering Climate-driven Shifts in Tropical Montane Bat Communities
The Morton Arboretum
Roots of Equity: Uncovering Soil Biodiversity to Support Urban Tree Health in Chicago