Jeremy Caves

Undergraduate Student
Earth Science major
Wiess College
Research Project:
Graduation Date: May 2009

Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, undergraduate Jeremy Caves is in Samoa this semester working for Ecology & Evolutionary Biology graduate student Amy Savage. Amy is examining community-scale impacts of the mutualism between the invasive yellow-crazy ant and the Nonu. Jeremy says, “I was looking to study abroad and was interested in doing some research as part of the experience.”

Dr. Andre Droxler, Rice Earth Science Professor, observes, “In my 20 years at Rice I have met many students—Jeremy Caves is one of perhaps four or five unique, unbelievably talented, and surprisingly well-rounded students I have known. It is so exciting that he is majoring in Earth Science and is interested in global change issues and especially how the oceans and atmosphere affect those changes. Our society is in great need of such potential leaders; I see Jeremy becoming one very quickly. Jeremy was awarded a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Hollings Scholarship, and will be involved in this context in some large geochemical experiments in the Gulf of Mexico with NOAA in the summer of 2008. He has already organized three different research projects he will be involved with in addition to working as a field assistant.”

Why Rice? Jeremy answers, “I wanted to attend a small, liberal-arts university that also had full-fledged research programs. In addition, the low tuition price was a major lure.” He adds, “I am always surprised by how much professors, advisors, and staff are interested in my ideas and in making them a reality, whether it is a research idea or a project to improve sustainability on campus.  I absolutely love the bird watching in and around Houston. I thoroughly enjoy trips down to the Gulf Coast to watch shorebirds and migrants, particularly to High Island.”

Jeremy has a history of incredible summer and semester-long experiences that make him a perfect example of the multi-faceted Rice student: “In the summer of 2006, I received a travel scholarship (the Parish Fellowship) from Wiess College to backpack 500-miles across Colorado along the Colorado Trail. The trip took two months and was an experience I will never forget, not just because of the scenery, but also because of the unique perspective it gave me concerning our society’s relationship with wilderness. Part of my desire to see wilderness sprang from my summer as a Forest Ranger in 2005, where I led nature walks, gave talks, and patrolled and maintained trails at the top of the Sandia Mountains outside of Albuquerque.”

On campus, Jeremy is heavily involved with the Environmental Club, as well as the Rice Community Garden, Rice Model United Nations, Baker Institute Student Forum, and EREAD (a student and faculty environmental reading group).

When not conducting research, you can find Jeremy backpacking, bird watching, reading the New York Times, kite-flying, gardening, or hiking in his home state of New Mexico.

One day Jeremy hopes to be Director of a Federal Land Agency (such as the Forest Service, Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, or the Department of Fish and Wildlife). His next step is to be a researcher in academia or for the government.

Jeremy’s favorite websites:
www.nytimes.com
www.washingtonpost.com