Jimmy Haugh named Goldwater Scholar

Jimmy Haugh, a Central Michigan University junior from Orion, MI, has been awarded a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship. Haugh is an Honors Program student pursuing a major in biology and a minor in geographic information sciences.

As a young kid, Haugh wanted to be like his idol, Diego, from the show “Go, Diego, Go!” It was his dream to visit the Amazon rainforest, recording rare species and helping to save the rainforest. 

“I often trekked through my yard, field guide in hand, collecting the frogs or snakes to show my (usually dismayed) mother,” he said.

Haugh is currently fulfilling part of his childhood dream by studying abroad in the middle of the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Galápagos Islands to continue his studies in ecology, evolution, and conservation. The trip includes a visit to Yasuní National Park, which contains the highest biodiversity of reptiles and amphibians on Earth. 

“Herptiles are among the most at-risk of extinction and are an indicator species for climate change due to their endothermic nature and reproductive strategy; their conservation is vital to the preservation of biodiversity and ecosystem functions,” he said. “Understanding how they evolve and interact can help increase our knowledge and catalyze conservation efforts.”

Under the guidance of his research advisor, Dave Zanatta, and John Pfeiffer, curator of Bivalvia at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., Haugh has been conducting research on shell shape variations in the critically endangered freshwater mussel genus Epioblasma. This undergraduate research experience will help prepare Haugh to achieve his ultimate goal of earning a Ph.D. in ecological and evolutionary biology and conducting herpetological research.

Haugh worked with Zanatta and Maureen Harke, director of the CMU National Scholarship Program, throughout the Goldwater Scholarship application process. The Goldwater Foundation seeks to support college sophomores and juniors who demonstrate strong potential to join the next generation of leaders in STEM research. Haugh was selected from a competitive pool of 1,353 applicants from 446 institutions to receive this award.