Bio Station scientist receives prestigious award

The Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation has honored Rachel Malison, an assistant research professor at the University of Montana Flathead Lake Biological Station, with the foundation’s prestigious Award in Field Biology.

The foundation’s Awards in Field Biology provide support for scientists working at critical moments in their careers to explore, test and help the world in the face of great challenges and opportunities.

Only five awards are made each year from nominations received from around the globe. Each awarded scientist receives $100,000 in unrestricted funds supporting their individual work, elevating their diverse perspectives and enabling them to commit time to observation and experimentation that helps us better understand ourselves and the world around us.

“Dr. Rachel Malison is a consummate field biologist whose insightful and extensive work in stream ecosystems, ranging from stonefly ecophysiology to the impacts of beavers and wildfire to water quality impacts of pesticides, is imaginative and impactful,” said FLBS Director Jim Elser. “Not only that, but Dr. Malison is a wonderful mentor of students and interns who provides an inspiring example for all of us here at the bio station. We are so proud to see her receive this well-deserved recognition.”

According to the FLBS website, Malison developed and runs the station’s Monitoring Montana Waters program, which supports water quality monitoring efforts in Montana by providing scientific, technical and financial support to citizen-science watershed groups. She also was awarded a large EPA grant in 2023 to expand efforts to protect Montana's waters by developing a Pesticide Stewardship Partnership Program for the portion of the Columbia River Basin encompassed by western Montana.

Launched in 2020, the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation awards provide support for scientists at critical junctures in their careers so they can focus on mastery and creativity, elevate often underrepresented perspectives to problem-solving and promote progress in the biological sciences through individual research focused on our natural world.

In the selection process, nominators from around the world confidentially identified scientists for consideration and a committee selected winners based on impact in the field, originality and the momentum an award could provide at a critical career point.

The Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation powers people who explore and ask, teach and try, conserve and connect, and create and captivate. Learn more about the foundation and its work at www.Maxwell-Hanrahan.org