Agriculture News

Gilman Ouellette, a WKU geoscience graduate student from Hawley, Pa., has been awarded a $1,000 research grant from the National Speleological Society for his project titled Paleohydrology and Climate Change in the Eastern Caribbean from Barbadian Speleothems.

WKU graduate student Gilman Ouellette in Mekkaman Cave in Barbados on one of his many cave expeditions.

NSS research grants are given to qualified individuals or teams who are members of the NSS by the time the proposal is submitted for research-support in cave-related branches of study. This includes, but is not limited to, natural sciences (cave biology, geology, paleontology and hydrology), social sciences (archaeology) and the humanities (speleological history).

Ouellette is working with Hoffman Institute faculty member Dr. Jason Polk on a project examining how records of climate change found in cave formations can help to inform regional and local water resource issues and their potential future impacts on Caribbean communities.

To date, Ouellette has been awarded $4,000 in total research grants. The Department of Geography and Geology encourages its graduate students to seek research support from a variety of professional, business and academic sources, as the cost of conducting research internationally can be quite expensive.

Contact: David Keeling, (270) 745-4555.