{"id":3701,"date":"2018-01-25T08:58:08","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T08:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/?p=3701"},"modified":"2023-07-17T18:35:23","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T01:35:23","slug":"atescholar-costa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2018\/01\/25\/atescholar-costa","title":{"rendered":"Gates scholarship affirms spider man\u2019s research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
From left, Cynthia Chang, Camilo Acosta-Garcia, Michele Price \/ Marc Studer photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Douglas Esser
\nWhen Camilo Acosta-Garcia is down in the dirt collecting specimens from traps and comes up with a spider he\u2019s been studying, it\u2019s really exciting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou see pictures of them in books. Seeing them in person is like meeting a celebrity,\u201d said Acosta-Garcia, a third-year University of Washington Bothell biology major and a recent recipient of a Mary Gates scholarship<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe minute Camilo started collecting insects, it was like watching a kid in a candy shop. I have never seen someone so excited about natural history,\u201d said Cynthia Chang, one of his mentors who led him on field research at Mount St. Helens. Chang is a plant ecologist and an assistant professor in the School of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics since 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acosta-Garcia is just as excited to examine beetles collected in the campus wetlands for research with his other mentor, Michele Price, an entomologist and lecturer in the School of STEM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a whole new world under the microscope. His enthusiasm in that is pretty cool to see,\u201d Price said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acosta-Garcia has long been interested in spiders as a hobby and recently downsized his collection of tarantulas to only 24 of the big, hairy arachnids. When he entered UW Bothell, he wanted to start research as soon as possible and jumped at the chance to work with an entomologist. He contacted Price as soon as she came to the University in 2016 \u201cbefore I even had keys to my office,\u201d Price said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price set him to work in the wetlands. Acosta-Garcia focused on beetles. \u201cThey\u2019re an important part of the lower levels of the ecosystem, because they break down matter and prey on pests.\u201d He found that the most abundant species are non-native beetles of European origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Camilo
Camilo collecting insects at Mount St. Helens \/ contributed photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a sense, the wetlands, which were created on restored farmland, are similar to the blast zone of Mount St. Helens that was scoured by the 1980 eruption. In both places, populations of spiders and insects that were wiped out are coming back, Price said. Surveying the species creates a record that can answer questions about whether populations are changing over time, perhaps in response to the climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel really lucky to be as involved as I am with two advisers and the amazing opportunity the Mary Gates Endowment is giving me with this scholarship,\u201d said Acosta-Garcia. \u201cThe thing that\u2019s cool to me is they found my research compelling enough to reward me with this money. So that gives me hope I\u2019ll be able to do the same in the future with larger sums of money, bigger projects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acosta-Garcia is already thinking of graduate school, thanks in part to the scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt gave me a confidence boost in pursuing science as a career,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need more people in the spider community right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last spring UW Bothell had six Mary Gates scholars.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n <\/path>\n<\/svg>

The competitive Mary Gates Research Scholarship<\/a> goes to University of Washington undergraduates to enhance faculty-guided research. The $5,000 scholarship — disbursed in $2,500 installments over two quarters — enables students to focus more time and attention on their projects. Students present their work in the spring at the annual Undergraduate Research Symposium.\n <\/path>\n<\/svg><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scholarships were endowed by Bill and Melinda Gates in 1995 in memory of his mother, Mary Maxwell Gates, who served as a UW regent 1975-1993. The endowment takes applications twice a year, once in the fall and once in the winter, and announces recipients in winter and spring.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Receiving a Mary Gates scholarship gave Camilo Acosta-Garcia a confidence boost in pursuing science as a career. Guided by two faculty members, he researches beetles in the campus wetlands with entomologist Michele Price and collects spiders and insects at Mount St. Helens with plant ecologist Cynthia Chang.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_is_archived":false,"_archived_contact_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[202,211,214],"tags":[287],"school":[],"class_list":["post-3701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-news","category-honors-and-awards","category-research","tag-scholarship"],"acf":{"related_links":{"toggle_visibility":false,"link_1":null,"link_2":null,"link_3":null,"link_4":null,"link_5":null},"highlight_box":{"toggle_visibility":false,"title":"","content":"","button":null,"button_style":"angled-purple-button","button_screen_reader_text":""},"contact_type_1":{"toggle_visibility":true,"contact_title":"","email":"","phone":"","box":"","address_line_1":"","address_line_2":"","location":""},"contact_type_2":{"toggle_visibility":false,"contact_title":"","email":"","phone":"","box":"","address_line_1":"","address_line_2":"","location":""},"social_media":{"toggle_visibility":false,"facebook_url":"","instagram_url":"","linkedin_url":"","twitter_url":"","youtube_url":""},"blog_archive_sidebar_visibility":false},"yoast_head":"\nGates scholarship affirms spider man\u2019s research - News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2018\/01\/25\/atescholar-costa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gates scholarship affirms spider man\u2019s research - News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Receiving a Mary Gates scholarship gave Camilo Acosta-Garcia a confidence boost in pursuing science as a career. 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