Senior Aiden Schmeling is preparing to fly solo

Hoots late into the night. Then, a ray of illumination from a flashlight. The tiny owl in the trap is gingerly picked up, taken back to the workshop and a tiny tracker band is attached to it. Then, it is set free. The night rolls on, and Aiden Schmeling continues to wait, watch, listen and then act.

His work has only just begun.

Making the most of time at Miami University is not a task for the faint of heart. Since his first year, Schmeling, a senior biology and sustainability major, has been involved in hands-on Miami initiatives in Ohio’s wilderness.

Recently, Schmeling said he has been working with Dave and Joe Russell on “bird banding” at Miami’s Hueston Woods outpost of the Avian Research and Education Institute.

He said they would go out in the spring and the fall to the outpost to catch and tag the birds to track the migrations, which the institute has been doing for more than 10 years.

“It’s a bit hard to share all the stories I have,” Schmeling said. “The simple experience of working on banding the saw-whet owls late into the night was something I loved very much and taught me to appreciate the gentler side of wilderness work.”

In addition to his research at Hueston Woods, Schemling has also been involved with other scientific organizations and projects on campus, including the Global Change Limnology Laboratory’s efforts to sample lake water and the Ecology Research Center’s investigations of watershed streams.

A typical sampling trip usually involves pulling samples of lakewater from different locations, and then testing for various chemicals, such as nitrogen or phosphorus. These initiatives have been running for more than 20 years. However, sometimes these trips can be much more thrilling than expected.

“I remember once we managed to hunt up a giant catfish larger than my arm,” Schmeling said. “That was a real challenge to keep control of while we measured him, but it shows how limnology work can be unpredictable as any field work.”

Steve Sullivan, director of the Hefner Museum of Natural History and Schmeling’s boss, said his drive and incredible wish to improve and connect with not only the academic side of his major, but its practical ways as well, was commendable.

“He would often stop by the end of the day and he would ask me a lot of questions,” Sullivan said. “He was special in that he drew information and thought from all the disciplines he was involved in, and soon he was helping around the museum, organizing exhibits, managing stock … Eventually, I came to see him as a colleague.”

Photo by Photo provided by Aiden Schmeling | The Miami Student
Aiden Schmeling, a senior biology and sustainability major, is set to graduate in May 2025.

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Schemling said he didn’t accomplish everything alone. He relied on the extensive resources and knowledge of Miami’s faculty. He learned skills that were both practical and abstract in nature, like learning to categorize a storeroom’s contents. This was something that Sullivan said he noticed when he first started working with Schmeling.

“He worked with a cohort of like-minded peers, and they are some of the most unique students I have ever met,” Sullivan said.

Schmeling said he still keeps in touch with these students – he can list a large number of people from his cohorts across the campus who all help him achieve his goals. While he understands the importance of personal dedication, he also said he appreciates the role that Miami and its students and faculty played in his accomplishments.

“[Miami] has given me the ability to volunteer and work, and I am grateful for that,” Schmeling said. “I recently got a job, earlier this year, with the Alaska Fish and Game Department, for surveys. So I appreciate the connections and the people above all, I met at [Miami].”

kwanwz@miamioh.edu