Established by the IIES in 2025 to honour the enduring contributions of its founding director, Professor Emeritus R. Douglas Evans, the R. Douglas Evans Award for International Research and Collaboration recognizes Trent Environmental and Life Sciences (EnLS) graduate students with outstanding achievements in international environmental research partnerships. These students demonstrate significant research contributions and the potential to influence the development of research and policy for managing environmental issues of international scope.
R.D.E. Award 2025 Winner – Brittany Welsh
Last year’s award was granted to Brittany Welsh, a Trent PhD candidate studying the distribution and fate of microplastics in lake catchments in Muskoka-Haliburton (Ontario, Canada). Throughout her PhD, Brittany showcased her efforts to establish international collaborations on environmental work through her research visits at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the University of Koblenz–Landau in Germany.
Brittany’s dedication to collaborative environmental research went beyond her dissertation with endeavors such as the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) GlobAl LAke miCroplasTIC (GALACTIC) project, an international collaborative research initiative studying the pollution levels of microplastics in lakes across the globe and investigating the underlying factors behind this pollution.
In her continued strife to influence the development of environmental research and policy, Brittany has shared her work at global conferences and guest lectured at the University of Koblenz–Landau. Beyond academic circles, she has engaged in science communication through national media outlets including CBC Radio, The Globe and Mail, Random Acts of Green, and the Narwhal. Her innovative research and commitment to improving environmental policy have culminated in discussions with the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Her journey to becoming a young global environmental leader persists with collaborations with researchers from the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Institute as well as continued work studying microplastics in Lake Victoria. Through her past and current work, Brittany Welsh embodies the core values at the heart of the R. Douglas Evans Award for International Research and Collaboration.
“As a fourth-year PhD candidate at Trent University, my research is rooted in addressing global environmental challenges through cross-border collaboration and policy-relevant science, goals that closely mirror the mission of IIES.”
– Brittany Welsh, PhD Candidate at Trent University
2026 R.D.E. Award Competition
This year’s award will be presented at the annual EnLS conference (March 7, 2026). The award’s selection committee is current accepting (self) nominations from Trent EnLS graduate students and their supervisors. The deadline to submit a nomination package is 4 pm on February 16, 2026.
Award Value
- A $500 cash award.
- A travel grant to participate in the IIES’s Annual Science and Policy Workshop and International Graduate Student Forum in the south of France (June 14-20, 2026).
Application and Selection Processes
Applications are reviewed by a selection committee, including representatives from the IIES and the EnLS. The award is presented at the annual EnLS conference (March 7, 2026).
Applicants must submit a nomination package (a single PDF) to the evaluation committee () before 4 pm on February 16, 2026. The package should contain the following:
