Congratulations to 2021 Maybelle F. Roth ARCS Scholar in Conservation Biology Manya Singh, who successfully defended her Botany PhD dissertation on Mechanisms and Mitigation of Soil Legacies in May. She has accepted a position with the US Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District as a biologist/study manager in the Environmental Justice Section of the Planning Division.

The oil painting enthusiast and animal rescue volunteer is finalizing three papers based on her investigation in to whether invasive grasses modify the soil and living organisms within it in ways that impede restoration with native Hawaiian plants and how droughts will impact that dynamic as climate change progresses. She described the research via video for the 2021 ARCS Scholar Symposium.