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Awards & Honors

I am an award-winning scholar, artist, and writer.  My work has been described in the following ways:

  • "Bethann is a visionary and natural leader."

  • "Her intellectual contributions, found in extensive, transdisciplinary publications and scholarly products, demonstrate exceptional advancement of our discipline."

  • "She knows what works, what doesn’t, what’s most impactful and what’s potentially harmful. Her science communication training, scholarship and practice are evidence-based, and she has directly empowered thousands of scientists to embrace evidence-based communication tools to share their work with the world."

2024

Elected. Early Career Fellow. Ecological Society of America. Details here.

Invited. Partnerships and Innovation Advisor. National Science Foundation Program for Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity (EPIIC).

 

Invited. Faculty Advisor. The Alliance of Students with Disabilities for Inclusion, Networking, and Transition Opportunities in STEM, Wyoming Institute for Disabilities. (declined)

 

Creative approaches to writing proposals. Residency lead, with A. Hagy. University of Wyoming-Neltje Center for Excellence in Creativity and the Arts, Banner, WY. May 2024. Our residency proposal was selected through a competitive application process.

 

2023

Invited. Renewed for a second term, Associate/Subject Editor of Integrative Sciences/Science Communication, and Zoology, for the peer-reviewed journal FACETS, Canadian Science Publishing. Royal Society of Canada. FACETS is the flagship journal of the Canadian Royal Society’s Academy of Science. 

 

Invited. Science editor for peer-reviewed journal Prompt: A Journal of Writing Assignments. (Declined)

 

2022

Honorary Coach Award, Office of Academic Support, Athletic Department, University of Wyoming. Nominated by science communication student. Context: “Being nominated as an Honorary Coach means that you have made a significant impact on our student-athlete’s education and life.”

 

Outstanding Associate Editor Award. Natural Sciences Education peer-reviewed journal, Alliance of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Science Societies. Selected by editorial board.

 

Invited. UW Task Force, Carnegie Engaged Institution application. (Declined due to prior commitment to co-facilitate/advise on communications for UW strategic planning.)

 

Nominated. Presidential Fellowship program, University of Wyoming.

 

Nominated. Early Career Research Achievement Award. Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station Research Awards.

 

2021

Invited. People’s Choice Judge. Visualizing Science image contest, Canadian Science Publishing, Academy of Science, Royal Society of Canada.

 

Nominated. Promoting Intellectual Engagement in the First-Year teaching award; blind nomination by students. University of Wyoming. 

 

Invited. Professional Mentor. Early Career Leadership Program, Genetics Society of America. (Declined)

 

2020

Antell Diversity Award. OWN IT Women in STEM Award. University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming.

 

Invited. Associate/Subject Editor. FACETS, Canadian Science Publishing. Royal Society of Canada.  FACETS is the flagship journal of the Canadian Royal Society’s Academy of Science. 

 

Invited. Mentor. COVID-19 Intervention, Faculty Support in Transition to Teaching Online, Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Wyoming. One of 20 faculty recruited campus-wide. 

 

Featured woman in STEM. Lifeology Women in STEAM Biography Series, LifeOmic, Indianapolis, Indiana. Nominated by a graduate student; accepted through competitive review process. View here.

 

Decelerator Residency, The Strange Foundation, New York. Co-PIs: K. Schwarz and E. Cook. Selected through competitive application process. 

 

Outstanding Associate Editor Award. Natural Sciences Education peer-reviewed journal, Alliance of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Science Societies. Selected by editorial board.

 

Official Tour Selection, Colorado Environmental Film Festival, for Deer 139 film. 

 

Official Tour Selection, Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capitol, Deer 139 film. 

 

Official Tour Selection, Gutsy Girls Adventure Film Tour, Deer 139 film. 

 

Official Tour Selection, No Man’s Land Film Festival, Deer 139 film. 

 

Official Tour Selection, Wild and Scenic Film Festival, Deer 139 film.

 

2019   

Honorable Mention. Education Section Publication of the Year Award, Ecological Society of America. Award received for Januchowski-Hartley, S.R., N. Sopinka, N., B.G. Merkle, C. Lux, A. Zivian, P. Goff, and S. Oester. 2018. Poetry as a creative practice to enhance engagement and learning in conservation science. BioScience. Vol 68(10): biy105. 

 

Shortlist (1 of 5 teams, out of 220 submissions). Art in Public Buildings Project for University of Wyoming Science Initiative new research facility. Potential contract: $90,000.00. Co-PIs: B. Gellis and M. Thompson Stanton.

 

Invited/Nominated. Associate Member of Sigma Xi – Research Scholarship Honors Society. 

 

Best in Show Award, 40th Annual Map Competition, Cartography and Geographic Information Society for Wild Migrations: Atlas of Wyoming’s Ungulates.

 

Best Atlas Award, 40th Annual Map Competition, Cartography and Geographic Information Society for Wild Migrations: Atlas of Wyoming’s Ungulates.

 

Official Tour Selection, Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival, Deer 139 film.

 

Wildlife Publication Award for an Edited Book, The Wildlife Society for Wild Migrations: Atlas of Wyoming’s Ungulates.

 

2018

Invited. Advisory council member. Science Communication Professional Development for Scientists Initiative. Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

 

OCEANDOTCOMM professional science communicators residency. 42 accepted out of 75 applicants. Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. 

 

2017

Creative writing residency. Shortgrass Steppe Long-term Ecological Research Station, University of Colorado, Nunn, CO. 

 

2016

University of Wyoming, Alumni Association Graduate Student Award 

 

Creative writing residency. AMK Ranch, University of Wyoming/National Park Service Research Center

 

Promoting Intellectual Engagement in the First-Year teaching award; blind nomination by students; 170+ nominees, 26 awardees; University of Wyoming

 

Selected for inclusion in Poems Across the Big Sky (2), a 2016 anthology, ed. Lowell Jager, Many Voices Press; >1,200 submissions, ~250 poems selected.\

 

2015

Best Environmental Reporting (3rd place) for article “An eel is an eel is an eel, or is it?” Québec Community Newspaper Association (QCNA) 

 

University of Wyoming MFA in Creative Writing Program (2015-2017); one of ten admitted out of >300 applicants

 

2014

Best Special Section, 1st place, Québec Community Newspapers Association (QCNA) award for 250th anniversary special edition magazine I edited/coordinated for the Québec Chronicle-Telegraph, North America's oldest newspaper

 

Best Community Newspaper Promotion, 1st place, QCNA award for year-long 250th anniversary campaign I coordinated for the Québec Chronicle-Telegraph

 

National journalism award, Newspapers Canada/Canadian Tire Jumpstart Foundation

 

Feature photograph on back cover, Montana Outdoors annual photography issue

 

2013

Best Business Column or Feature, 1st place, QCNA

 

Best Investigative or In-depth Reporting, 2nd place, QCNA

 

Best Newspaper Promotion, 2nd place, QCNA

 

Best Special Section, 3rd place, QCNA

 

2012

Best Newspaper Promotion, 2nd place, QCNA

 

Best Sports Story, 2nd place, QCNA

 

Outstanding Photojournalism award, QCNA

 

Best Sports Photograph, 2nd place, QCNA

 

Best News Photo, 3rd place, QCNA

 

2007   

Heisey Foundation Scholarship 

 

Montana Baker Grant 

2007

'Best of the Best' writing assessment award, University of Montana

 

Elizabeth Jestrab-Chaffee Scholarship

 

Montana Baker Grant

 

Montana Motor Carriers Association Leonard Eckel Memorial Educational Trust Scholarship 

 

University of Montana anonymous donor scholarship 

 

2005  

Montana Motor Carriers Association Leonard Eckel Memorial Educational Trust Scholarship 

 

2003

Member, NASA Space Consortium student project; Selected by Dean of Engineering to be a member of a student design team which constructed and carried out experiments whose purpose was to collect data about the feasibility of full-scale near-space experiments. Montana Tech of the University of Montana

 

1st Place, Front Range Art Association’s Choteau High School Art Award

 

Anne Wiprud Memorial Scholarship

 

Choteau Kiwanis Scholarship

 

Elizabeth Jestrab-Chaffee Scholarship

 

Montana Baker Grant

 

Montana Motor Carriers Association Leonard Eckel Memorial Educational Trust Scholarship

 

Montana Tech of the University of Montana scholarship

 

3 Rivers Communication Scholarship

commnatural sciencecommunication research & practice Bethann Garramon Merkle

© 2025 by Bethann Garramon Merkle.

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