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Allan Hook, Ph.D. spent 25 years teaching evolutionary biology at ����������Ƶ. His time researching and exploring the world led to multiple bylines of published research and three species of insects — (fly), and two, solitary wasps—Solerella hooki and Pseudopolis hooki. In 2007, while at St. Edward's University, he roamed into the office of Career Manager Rosemary Guzman, where he met his future wife. After multiple dates, Hook finally won her over doing what he does best—admiring nature. 

Hook invited Guzman on a nature walk on the firefly trail at the Brackenridge Field Laboratory, where he donated some of his research collections from his time working at the University of Texas at Austin. Although Guzman did not declare herself a bug lover like Hook, she found his passion and awe of discovering nature charming. In 2009, the two married and continued to live a life they loved, exploring and helping students get the tools they needed to pursue their dreams just as Hook was able to.

Hook served on the original board for the Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve along with the Seven Founding Mothers of Wild Basin. As the founding mothers got older, Hook saw an opportunity to present the land to Provost Sr. Donna Jurick in 2009 as a future “Nature Think Tank.” This marked the beginning of the university’s partnership with Travis County to co-own and co-manage the 227 acres as a “living laboratory” and help ensure long-term sustainability of the Preserve while also enhancing academic opportunities and environmental education outreach.

What is the Hook Fellowship?

Shortly before his passing at age 59, due to pancreatic cancer, in 2013, he and his wife, Rosemary, created the Dr. Allan W. Hook Endowed Wild Basin Creative Research Fund to honor his study and admiration for nature. This fund has been providing students from any university with the space and money to conduct research and creative works at Wild Basin Preserve and the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve. Since the beginning of the fund in 2013, over 80 students have been awarded Hook Fellowships to support their research in Wild Basin or the Balcones Canyonlands Preserves. As of 2024, the total funding awarded to fellows is $131,104. 

“Over the last eleven years, we have increased our monetary awards from $1,000 fellowships to $5,000 fellowships per student plus $1,500 for supplies and $1,500 for a mentor stipend,” Guzman-Hook said.

In 2024, six students received the Hook Fellowship and are working closely with their mentors to gather and analyze data and present and publish their findings. 

Meet some of the students below and learn more about their hands-on research and fieldwork.

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Effects of Advanced Footwear Technology in Trail Running Shoes

Jordan Sanders '25, Kinesiology

Cross Country athlete and Kinesiology major Jordan Sanders ‘25 is moving her research into nature. Through the encouragement and guidance of Professor of Kinesiology Dustin Joubert, Sanders applied for and earned the Wild Basin Hook Fellowship. Sanders and Joubert are looking into advanced footwear technology, or Super Shoes, for trail running. Joubert’s well-known Running Lab, where he tests Super Shoes for road running, inspired Sanders' idea to test trail-running shoes. 

Working around her Cross Country schedule, Sanders meets research participants on Thursdays and Sundays around 7:30 AM. Participants warm up while Sanders sets up cones for the four one-mile trails where they run for about 45 minutes to an hour. They’ll switch between the control shoe, a Saucony trail shoe, and the Super Shoe, a Nike Vapor Fly with carbon fiber plates, before testing the same distance on a treadmill to see if terrain makes a difference. 

Sanders is hoping to finish with 15 or 16 runners and plans to present her findings in the Spring semester.

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Managing Invasive Species in the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve using Community Education and Incentive Programs

Grace Hosek ‘25, Environmental Science and Policy and Political Science

The Hook Fellowship gave Grace Hosek ‘25 the opportunity to engage with both of her majors and her minor. As a double major in Environmental Science and Policy and Political Science with a minor in Communication, Hosek is combining her skills to research invasive species and work with local residents to help stop the invasion of three prevalent plants in the Balcones Canyonlands. 

The Tree of Heaven, commonly known as a stinking sumac, is native to China and its flowers emit a strong odor. The Chinaberry Tree can reach up to 50 feet tall and rapidly spread as its dense thickets push out native plants. Privets, the third invasive species, are bushes and shrubs that produce numerous seeds that keep them growing. These three plants are commonly spread through waterways and animals.

Applying a bottom-up approach, Hosek started her research by speaking with residents and homeowners in the Balcones Canyonlands and discussing how these species have affected their land. Conducting surveys and focus groups, she aims to produce a better way for land managers in Travis County to engage with residents around the Balcones Canyonlands. Using skills from her freshman presentation speaking class and active listening course, Hosek can communicate the science behind these invasive species and their effects on local residents and their homes. Tying in with her Political Science major, Hosek has learned that issues surrounding policies around invasive species aren’t well managed. 

“(There are) lots of policy issues within invasive species when they are regulated or on a blacklist…” Hosek said. “The horticulture industry has a big lobbying power because they sell really well.”

Hosek has done much work diving into her environmental science major and hopes to land an internship at the Texas Capitol. Her goal is to find a career that intersects all three sectors.

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Seasonal Dynamics of Anuran Skin Microbiomes: A Longitudinal Metagenomic Study

Amelia Valencia ‘25, Pre-veterinary and Environmental Science

Ava Perry ‘25, Environmental Biology and Climate Change

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences and herpetologist Elijah Wostl brought two of his students together to achieve their research goals through the Hook Fellowship. Pre-veterinary and Environmental Science student Amelia Valencia ‘25 is preparing for a career in wildlife conservation. During her junior year, she traveled abroad to North Queensland University in Australia to study environmental science outside of Texas ecology. Here, she solidified her love for the field as she performed dissection work and studied microbiomes. Through the NEXTGEN E3 program, Ava Perry ‘25 worked with an agriculture research service in Fargo, ND researching diets for Alfalfa leafcutting bees and studying how birds survive on diets when their mothers do not feed them. Perry is pursuing her bachelor of science in Environmental Biology & Climate Change.

Under the expertise of Wostl, Valencia and Perry have analyzed the composition of microbial communities on frog and toad skin, as well as their gut microbiomes (the microorganisms that live inside an animal’s digestive tract). Since microbiomes on amphibians are permeable, it’s a great indication of their health. During the summers, Valencia and Perry would go to the lab at 7 a.m. and prepare for their field work, leaving at 5 p.m.. From 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., the two would catch frogs and toads by hand at Wild Basin and swab them with a sterile swab. With certified permission to do their testing, Valencia and Perry would cut one toe from each frog to microchip and keep them in a -80°F freezer. Using their collected data, they began sequencing RNA.

Now, they’re working on drafting their research and getting it published. They have presented their findings thus far at the Brother Lucian Blersch Science Symposium and plan to present their complete findings at Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE) in spring 2025. Their goal is to present at a microbiology conference in Atlanta in April and find new researchers to continue their work after graduation.

Measuring the Impact of European Honey Bees on Wild Bee Populations in the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve

Willa Pabst ‘25, Social Work and Human Ecology at The University of Texas at Austin

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The Hook Fellowship is open to students from any university, and this year Wild Basin welcomed Willa Pabst, a Social Work and Human Ecology senior at The University of Texas at Austin. Pabst serves as a Hive Check Instructor for UT’s Beekeeping Society and works as an undergraduate research assistant at UT’s , where she photographs microscopic images of pollen to help her supervisor, Kaysee Arrowmsith, create a pollen-recognition AI. Pabst heard of the Hook Fellowship through Jha Lab alumna and now Research Director of the Wild Basin Creative Research Center Dr. Gabriella Pardee who worked alongside Arrowsmith.

For three weeks in June, Pabst and her PI Arrowsmith collected data across three sites—Barton Creek, Bee Cave and Balcones Canyonlands Preserve—where they sampled for pollinators and observed four different transects at sampling plots. A transect is a line that cuts through land and is used for collecting data to determine the presence of a species or, in this case, wild bee populations. The square plots were home to Gaillardia pulchella, commonly known as Indian blanket or the firewheel, and to Tetraneuris scaposa, a relative of the daisy. 

“We’d take two minutes per transect using a little stopwatch and net,” Pabst said. “After it laid on a flower, we’d catch it, label what we caught it on, in which transect, and the date. We’d perform a floral survey, take it back to the lab, and put them in acetone to persevere them and prepare.”

Pabst is preparing to present her research at the UT Research Symposium and will be leaving her data at the Jha Lab for others to use. Through the fellowship, Pabst has learned that she really enjoys research and has decided to pursue her PhD to become a professor and continue research.