Lois Stacy Taylor is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science (BESS) at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture. Her research is interdisciplinary, combining course work from the BESS and the Entomology and Plant Pathology departments. The GRF-STEM award provided the resources necessary to perform a long-term, high-resolution study of the human decomposition process, investigating the simultaneous effects of soil chemistry, microbial interactions, and responses of other soil biota, says Lois. Without the financial resources that the GRF award provided, a combined study of this size and scope simply would not have been possible. As a result of current findings in this ongoing study, three further research projects have been proposed, one of which is a national collaboration.