{"id":76184,"date":"2013-04-23T08:21:56","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T12:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=76184"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:13:06","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T17:13:06","slug":"class-of-2013-frank-cervo-future-environmentalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/04\/class-of-2013-frank-cervo-future-environmentalist\/","title":{"rendered":"Class of 2013: Frank Cervo, Future Environmentalist"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is part of a series featuring some of this year\u2019s outstanding graduating students, nominated by their academic school or college or another University program in which they participated. Check for additional profiles of students in the Class of 2013<\/a> on UConn Today from now through Commencement.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Frank<\/a>
Frank Cervo ’13 (CLAS). (Ariel Dowski ’14 (CLAS)\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Frank Cervo, a senior environmental science major and Honors student from Long Island, N.Y., is not afraid to get his hands dirty for research.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing field work means being sweaty, buggy, and being rained on,\u201d says Robin Chazdon, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and Cervo\u2019s advisor. \u201cFrank really enjoys doing field work though, and that\u2019s important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

To feed his passion for field work and environmental issues, for the past two summers Cervo has participated in research projects in the tropical Costa Rican rainforests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe forests in Costa Rica are just beautiful,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s unlike anything I\u2019ve ever seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the summer of 2011, Cervo worked as a research assistant for graduate student Vanessa Boukili, who is also working in Chazdon\u2019s lab, studying the functional traits of trees in tropical forests. A tree\u2019s functional traits are characteristics such as leaf thickness, toughness, and size. These traits, Cervo says, can help scientists to gauge a tree\u2019s growth strategy: \u201cIf you\u2019re planning a forest restoration project, you can see which species would be best fit for that specific area, based on their functional traits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cervo says that studying functional traits of plants is also a highly useful tool for scientists to effectively manage forests.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a forest is struggling and you don\u2019t know too much about the species there, you can measure its functional traits to make some assumptions,\u201d he says. \u201cFrom there you can make a decision and help improve the forest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Boukili studied the functional traits of seedlings and full-grown trees, no one in their lab had yet researched the middle stage of tree development, the saplings. Chazdon, Cervo\u2019s advisor, encouraged him to adopt the project for his own Honors senior thesis. Last summer, Cervo traveled back to the tropical paradise to conduct his research.<\/p>\n

\u201cI studied tree saplings that are about 1-5 centimeters in diameter,\u201d says Cervo. \u201cI studied their functional variations, and compared those traits between old growth and second growth forests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back on campus, Cervo also works in Chazdon\u2019s lab with her graduate students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would take the samples that we collected from the field and grind them up into a powder so that they could be analyzed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Chazdon is impressed with Cervo\u2019s thorough work ethic both in the field and in the lab.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think that doing research is a lot of \u2018aha\u2019 moments,\u201d says Chazdon. \u201cBut it\u2019s actually a lot of collecting, rechecking, and waiting for results.\u201d<\/p>\n

This summer Cervo will return to Costa Rica, this time to present his research at the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation\u2019s 50th anniversary conference. Chazdon is excited for Cervo to have the opportunity to exhibit his hard work.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a fearless learner,\u201d says Chazdon. \u201cI have high hopes for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cervo\u2019s field studies in Costa Rica and his lab experience at UConn have shaped his goal for the future: to obtain a Ph.D. in environmental science.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to spend some time as a research assistant and find out what\u2019s going on in the field today,\u201d he says. \u201cThe environment is something that I feel I could really have an effect on and improve for the better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Frank Cervo ’13 (CLAS), field research in Costa Rica shaped his future goals: to earn a Ph.D. in environmental science and help improve the environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":75776,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-76184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 08:47:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76184"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76841,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76184\/revisions\/76841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/75776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76184"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=76184"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=76184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}