Underground Research for Resources
Exploring Karst Regions for Resources
WKU distinguished Professor Chris Groves of Geography, an internationally renowned expert in hydrogeology and water resources, is
reaching thousands of people in need around the globe. His efforts can have the potential to affect millions more than those he works with directly.
Groves is presently working on a new trilateral agreement of cooperation for cave and water quality research between the governments of Barbados, WKU, and China. Through the agreement, the significance of better water conservation is being identified. He collaborated with WKU’s Institute for Combustion Science and Environmental Technology to secure one of the U.S.’s first federal grants for research in China for ground water solutions. Groves has worked in rural southwest China with the Institute for Karst Geology of the Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources to help improve water access and quality in the polluted region as part of a U.S. Agency for International Development environmental health grant. He worked to secure funding for the installation of 105 water purification systems that provided safe drinking water to 27,178 residents of China’s government-run Social Welfare Institutes.
Jason Polk, Chris’s colleague at the WKU Hoffman Environmental Research Institute says, “Chris is a role model anyone would strive to be like.” 
His desire for teaching and educating his students is evident no matter how much work Groves is doing. Involving WKU students in research is just as important to him as his own work. Constantly, Groves is active and busy in any endeavor placed in front of him. Not only is he engaging students at WKU, but he is also placing them in remote villages in China’s karst regions to help provide clean water for the villages for the first time. He makes it a point to incorporate a sense of adventure and service into the learning he brings to his students, whether in Mammoth Cave or China.
To see the WKU Spirit Article click here.
