Carlos Vargas is a master’s student at the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia, where he uses robust analysis of aquatic macroinvertebrate communities to better inform how effective restoration projects are for conserving fish and mussel species of interest.
Carlos is incredibly passionate about making ecology accessible to the public, especially his birthplace of rural Appalachia. As Vargas wrote, “academia has not given people the opportunity or the agency to feel adequate to be a part of science. Nevertheless, the ecology of environmental change has no bounds; it can be studied in urban and rural locations by people of all backgrounds and has been experienced by everyone globally. I believe that everyone should have the opportunity to know how the environment around them functions and I know that with proper communication and outreach, we can move towards that outcome.” He achieved this wonderfully through his outreach project, where he aimed to raise local awareness about hellbenders through his article in a local North Carolina newspaper: the Alleghany News. Read his piece about Hellbenders here!
