Nazia Trina, a doctoral candidate within Texas Tech University’s Department of Landscape Architecture, has been awarded an American Society of Landscape Architects Award of Excellence – Research Category. The honor was presented late last month at the organization’s annual conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, one of the largest gatherings of landscape architects and allied professionals in the world with more than 6,000 attendees, according to the American Society of Landscape Architects website.

“Nazia Trina is an excellent graduate student - creative, hardworking, and passionate about landscape design for improving childhood environments.” said Muntazar Monsur, Trina’s faculty advisor and an assistant professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture. “Most of her visuals and graphics are hand-drawn and unique - a testament to her artistic skills and dedication.” 

Trina’s entry, titled “The Play Value of Plants: Altering parts of plants as loose art play materials in early childhood learning landscape,” represented her thesis work in completing a landscape architecture master’s degree (Summer 2023). She is now working toward a doctorate in the department. 

 As the 2023 ASLA Awards Jury noted in their review, “This research asked a clear question, produced results, and packaged the information creatively and in the spirit of the research partners. This is such a cool idea. Would be incredibly useful for LAs, schools, municipalities, students, and parents. An important and unique addition to a growing interest in nature-based learning and play.” Monsur noted that the cover of the September issue of Landscape Architecture magazine also featured an image from Trina’s project.

Before winning the ASLA Award, Trina won the 2022 CELA (Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture) Poster Award and the 2023 TTU ORI (Obesity Research Institute) Graduate Poster Award (1st Prize). She has been involved in two USDA-funded projects in Davis College as a graduate research assistant since 2021. 

CONTACT: Muntazar Monsur, Assistant Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, Texas Tech University at (806) 834-2994 or mmonsur@ttu.edu

1114NM23 / Editor’s Note: To view of digital version of Nazia Trina’s award-winning presentation, The Play Value of Plants, please click here