The Office of Student Research is proud to feature Thomas Hoke in this week’s “Scholar Story”.

Thomas Hoke is a junior Integrated Environmental Sciences major at Longwood University. He also has a minor in Business Administration. Thomas’s research examines shifts in the abundance and wintering distribution of common waterfowl species across the coastal plain in DE, MD, VA, and NC. This research will add to the scientific knowledge about waterfowl populations in this region and allow us to highlight any species in need of conservation efforts. He started this research in Dr. Sujan Henkanaththegedara’s lab during the summer PRISM program in 2020. Thomas began this research because he is “very interested and passionate about waterfowl and want to do all I can to aid in their conservation. This was an opportunity for me to explore a topic I found interesting while developing skills in this field through hands on experience.”

The most important lesson Thomas learned while doing this research “is to be methodical and patient. Because I found this work to be so exciting, I found myself wanting to jump ahead to try and make connections about the results before all our analysis had been completed.” His favorite part of the research was “once we were starting to finish our data analysis and find results since it was the culmination of a lot of hard work while also bringing to light some very interesting findings.”

Thomas presented his research at the National Council for Undergraduate Research annual meeting in April 2021.

Congratulations to Thomas on his success!

If you would like to have your research featured in a “Scholar Story”, or if you would like to learn more about getting involved in research at Longwood University, please visit Longwood’s Office of Student Research website http://www.longwood.edu/office-of-student-research/

or contact Amorette Barber, Director of the Office of Student Research (osr@longwood.edu or barberar@longwood.edu).