As an undergraduate biology major at William and Mary, Adrian Duehl spent a few weeks doing fieldwork in Australia as part of the Monroe Scholar program. But otherwise, his classes were more lab-based rather than field-oriented. When he finished his degree, he knew he would want to pursue graduate work but didn't want to spend his career inside a lab. A lifelong interest in conservation and a love of the forest environment led him to the Nicholas School to pursue an MF in Forest Resource Management.

As an undergraduate biology major at William and Mary, Adrian Duehl spent a few weeks doing fieldwork in Australia as part of the Monroe Scholar program. But otherwise, his classes were more lab-based rather than field-oriented. When he finished his degree, he knew he would want to pursue graduate work but didn't want to spend his career inside a lab. A lifelong interest in conservation and a love of the forest environment led him to the Nicholas School to pursue an MF in Forest Resource Management.

Adrian appreciates that the Nicholas School’s forestry program encompasses both forest and environmental management, and he enjoys the field-based nature of the coursework. “There are classes where I've gotten to go out in the field and see the forestry practices that I was learning in class,” he says. A particularly memorable class was a forestry seminar in which students traveled to the mountains and the coastal plains and had a chance to talk to the Open Land Trust in Charleston, SC.

Adrian has been prominent in campus organizations, serving as chair of the student chapter of the Society for American Foresters, as social chairman of FOREM, the Nicholas School social organization, and as a representative on the Graduate and Professional Student Council (affectionately known as “Gypsy”), among others. He is also an avid athlete who once biked from San Diego to St. Augustine, Florida, with friends and who completed the “pack test” requirement for the Fire Ecology course by walking three miles carrying a 45-pound backpack in 34 minutes.

Update 2003 -

In summer 2003, Adrian stayed in Durham to do research on damage from the December 2002 ice storm; his work was funded by a grant from the U.S. Forest Service. What he's learned indicates that “middle-aged” trees are the most vulnerable to breakage; younger ones are flexible and bend back into place while older ones are strong enough to withstand the assault by ice. The density of the tree stand is also a factor. Now in his last semester at the Nicholas School, Adrian is continuing to perform statistical analyses on his ice storm tree data, which he will write up for his Master’s Project.

While working on that, he is also thinking about his future, investigating jobs in the Forest Service or other federal agencies. But he is also seriously considering a PhD in forest entomology. His interest in the subject grew out of a class he took at Duke with Coleman Doggett, who has encouraged his interest in further graduate studies. But it also harkens back to his childhood in central Virginia, when the budding naturalist liked to show his collection of dead bugs to his parents’ guests.

One of the appeals of a graduate degree in entomology is that it is very applied and doesn't limit Adrian to an academic career. However, as a T.A. in a tree identification course during his first year, Adrian discovered that he liked teaching, so he doesn't rule out the university environment. “I’d like to get a job advising people on pest management and also be an adjunct professor somewhere,” he says. “Because I’m in a professional degree program, I really have appreciated having some professors who have worked outside of a university setting.”

Update 2005 -

Adrian is now in a Ph.D. program at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, studying forest entomology with Dr. Fred Hain. He plans to create a computer model to predict the movement of new exotic invasive insects, using GIS to establish how they “hitchhike” with timber or ornamental trees being transported on highways, waterways, and railroads. This research would aid forest managers in heading off the spread of new exotic pests. In his coursework, he is starting a new discipline with entomology but is ahead of his cohort in forestry, GIS and statistics because of his Nicholas School degree. He was a teaching assistant for introductory biology during his first semester, “a really neat opportunity because I discovered a love for teaching.”

After receiving his Ph.D., which he anticipates accomplishing in 3.5 years, he hopes to work for a National Forest in California or another western state. “I want to live in a Blue state,” says Adrian. He may go into teaching eventually, but he believes that spending time working in the field will give him a wider perspective as an instructor.

Hindsight -

To Adrian, the value of the Nicholas School experience was not just the coursework but his involvement with various student groups that helped build a professional network he will continue to call upon, whether it’s for help with a GIS problem or for job-searching advice. “When I am ready for employment, I will call my friends in the Forest Service and find out who to talk to.” He also valued the hands-on opportunities, such as working for Duke Forest and taking courses that involved fieldwork. Working now at a state university, he also appreciates in retrospect the facilities and technology that were available to him more readily at Duke.

To view the video, choose from the formats listed after each caption:

1. Adrian Duehl explains the value of getting “out in the field".
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2. He describes what it is like to live in Durham, NC.
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3. He talks about the importance of having a facility like the Duke Forest available.
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4. He says the Nicholas School’s Office of Career Services is there to help you.
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