Bernier '02 awarded Labouisse Prize for dedication to conservation biology

Hiking between two national parks in Belize last spring on a research fellowship, Liz Bernier '02 witnessed a logger illegally cutting down trees.

She reported it, and the Belize government sent a copy of her report to the logging company. After the incident, Bernier was advised to discontinue her field research because it risked her personal safety.

This experience was just one example of Bernier's dedication to conservation biology.

Bernier, an ecology and evolutionary biology major, has won the Henry Richardson Labouisse '26 Prize to research organic farming in Peru.

The Labouisse Prize is awarded annually to a University senior who plans to pursue an independent project serving the public good for the year after graduation.

Even before coming to Princeton, Bernier was interested in environmental issues.

This interest translated into a scientific calling when she took FRS 116: Sustainable Industrial Development in the Human Environment with former professor Richard Golden GS '54.

Bernier remembers being inspired by Golden's demands for hard evidence.

"I would keep coming up with all these ideas and saying, 'What do you guys think?' and he'd keep saying, 'Show me the data,' " she said. "So I finally figured out, maybe I want to collect the data. That kind of confirmed it for me."

Bernier plans to spend her fellowship year researching organic farming in remote indigenous villages in Peru and working with the Andean farming communities to promote sustainable agriculture.

With the remainder of her award, she plans to donate a portion in hope that the gift will inspire further deeds for the community.

"I'm going to set aside some of [the grant] for a cause," Bernier said. "Hopefully it will have a snowball effect."

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Just as she will reserve some of her fellowship money for other philanthropic efforts, Bernier approaches her project with what one of her professors describes as a remarkably thoughtful attitude.

"She's just all around a very sensitive and perceptive person," said Henry Horn, an ecology and evolutionary professor. "She's one of those people who thinks a lot about everything."

In describing her plans for her fellowship year in Peru, Bernier emphasizes the open-ended nature of her project.

She will first interview the local farmers to find out their specific needs and then use this information to guide the research, she said.

Bernier said one of her most important goals is to become part of the community and learn from the farmers who she will be helping.

"It's sort of presumptuous to think that I could come down to a new community and just impose my values without regard to local culture and history and traditions," she said. "I have something to offer, but I have something to learn as well."

These goals are especially relevant for Bernier after her month last year in Belize.

During that month, one of the Peace Corps volunteers who had been admired for his dedication to the local community was dismissed by his host family, she said, because he appeared arrogant to many of the villagers.

Horn said Bernier will easily connect with the community because of her modesty.

"She has a remarkable range of talents she won't talk to other people about," he said. In academics, she's taking classes in disparate subjects and is engaged in environmental activism and the minority community.

But Bernier "does not make a big deal of it," he said.

"Yet she does a stellar job in all of these things," Horn said. "I'm always finding out new stuff about her."