Biology

WKU University Distinguished Professor of Hydrogeology Chris Groves recently returned from Beijing, China with his wife Deana where he was honored with The China Government Friendship Award, the country’s highest award for “foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to the country’s economic and social progress.”  

Ceremonies for this 2020 honor, which had been postponed with the pandemic, were held this year now that travel to China has again reopened. Groves, who directs the Crawford Hydrology Lab within WKU’s Applied Research and Technology Program (ARTP), was one of three American awardees of 39 honored from around the world. During the trip, the group met with Premier Li Qiang and then attended a banquet with China’s President Xi Jinping celebrating China’s National Day at the Great Hall of the People on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.  

This trip marked Groves’ 41st to China since Deana and he first traveled to the beautiful city of Guilin in China’s rural Guangxi Province in 1995 and began a long collaboration with students and scientists at the government’s Institute of Karst Geology. Karst landscapes are those such as in southcentral Kentucky formed on soluble limestone bedrock where caves, sinkholes and underground rivers are common. These regions pose significant environmental changes, especially with water resources, and much of this collaboration between US and Chinese scientists has been focused on understanding and seeking solutions to these problems. Working with his Chinese colleagues, Groves has also worked to establish and nurture collaborations with karst water specialists from around the world, helping to lead a series of water-focused efforts under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In part, the award cited his efforts to develop “exchanges and cooperation with other countries.”  

This effort has created opportunities for many WKU students, faculty, and staff to work on these programs in China and elsewhere throughout the world. “A major purpose of WKU’s Applied Research and Technology Program is to engage students in real-world, applied research to help solve problems,” said Dr. Cate Webb, Associate Dean of WKU’s Ogden College of Science and Engineering and the Director of ARTP. “These opportunities sometimes open a whole new world to them.” Earlier this summer, Groves and two students participated in a water-resources training workshop at the UNESCO South China Karst World Heritage Site in Chongqing and Guangxi Provinces. While in China both students gave presentations on their research at Mammoth Cave National Park to scientists from around the world.

This fall, Groves is working with Mahurin Honors College student Evie Dukes, who also studies in WKU’s Chinese Flagship Program and interns in the Crawford Hydrology Lab, to develop an Honors thesis focused on interactions between UNESCO’s South China Karst and Mammoth Cave National Park World Heritage Sites.