At the time of this GIAR award (May, 2011), Rebecca Lauer was a doctoral candidate at Ohio State University in the field of Biology, pursing a D.V.M.
Rebecca received her GIAR for a project to track and rescue injured snakes from snake charmers in Nepal. Rebecca discussed (with the snake charmers) the possibility of setting up a venom collection lab as an alternative livelihood for them, and one that would be better for the welfare of the snakes. Currently, Nepal does not have its own venom collection lab and gets its anti-venom from India.