Three lauded as KBS 2025 Employees of the Year

The W.K. Kellogg Biological Station community honored three staff members as the 2025 Employees of the Year during a Dec. 5, 2025, town hall meeting. The honors included two full-time employees and one part-time employee.

Honorees

Sven Bohm

Sven is the information manager for the KBS Long-Term Ecological Research program. Some comments from his nomination:

• “His innovation, dedication, and collaborative spirit make him an outstanding representative of MSU and KBS. His contributions have improved efficiency, ensured compliance, and empowered researchers across multiple programs.”
• “His skill set is broad and his knowledge is deep.”
• “Much of his work goes unsung, because it consists of maintaining the less visible parts of the LTER’s infrastructure, but if he wasn’t so good at his job everyone else would feel it every day.”
• “He has integrity and honesty and humility like no other I’ve worked with in all my days.”

Tyler Linderoth

Tyler is a bioinformatics research specialist and consultant in the Fitzpatrick Lab. Some of his nominators’ comments:

• “He thinks deeply about science and gives extremely thoughtful and helpful feedback to collaborators, improving their work immensely.”
• “He has helped open doors for me to new research fields and career paths.”
• “Tyler constantly lifts up the people around him, whether through providing technical and quantitative training to those he mentors, while also brightening the mood of any room with his unique humor and genuine kindness.”

Brenden Kokx

Brenden is the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary’s avian caretaker. Some of his nominators said:

• “Brenden started as a Sanctuary employee in 2020 but was here as an intern (2017) and even a teen volunteer in his past!”
• “With his dedicated care, our birds are living the best lives that they can!”
• “Brenden’s willingness to jump in leading programs, working on gross projects like cleaning out basements, and puzzling out bird pen repairs is so appreciated!”

Join us in congratulating Sven, Tyler and Brenden!