News from The Mahurin Honors College

From the halls of the Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science (GAMS) to the vibrant community of the Mahurin Honors College (MHC), Mykah Carden’s journey is anything but ordinary. Freshly honored as a Goldwater Scholar, she's diving deep into the mysteries of karst and hydrology. The Goldwater scholarship is designed to foster and encourage current sophomores and juniors to pursue research careers in STEM fields. Mykah’s passion for exploring the hidden secrets of our planet's landscapes is already making waves, and she's just getting started. Join us as we explore the inspiring story of a young woman who's turning her curiosity into groundbreaking research and making a real impact in environmental science.

A local of Muhlenberg County, Mykah Carden (she/her/hers), summed up her research field in one poignant question: “where do caves come from?” Her interest in geology arose from a handful of STEM courses that were offered by her high school, but the among the limited selection of courses, it was the aquaponics class that “got me interested in hydrology and I came here looking for hydrology research and I eventually found hydrology research in the setting of a cave and that’s how I got into cave research and it kinda spiraled from there and I’m a full blown geology student.”

Mykah “had completed almost every math [course in her high school] offered and they had no accelerated or advanced classes and not a lot of opportunities to explore what I really wanted to do later in life.” But, during her time as a student in the GAMS, she completed two karst field studies courses – Cave Survey and Cartography (where she participated as a class assistant and as a student) and a karst hydrogeology course with the Crawford Hydrology Lab – opening up a new field of interest for her, leading her to survey other caves in the region, including Bell Witch Cave in Adams, Tennessee.

“Karst is a type of landscape that is underlain by a soluble bedrock which here [in Kentucky] is limestone. We’re famous for our caves and that’s a feature of a karst landscape which is sinkholes, caves, and all that. Kentucky is a textbook example of karst.” Her research focuses on how caves form, specifically hypogene cave development, which involves sulfuric acid rather than the more common carbonic acid. Hypogene caves develop from the bottom up with groundwater, a concept that has only recently gained recognition. To conduct her research, Mykah maps caves through cartography and collects groundwater and speleothem samples.

“First you must map the cave, so I do a lot of cave cartography and cave mapping and we take ground water samples and samples from speleothelms, so for a hypogene project, we would take sample of gypsum and then do isotope analysis of them to determine their source, was it sulfuric, was it carbonic, etc.” Mykah’s passion for her field is evident as she explains her research methods and future goals. No doubt her passion also caught the attention of her faculty sponsor, Dr. Pat Kambesis, who suggested that she apply for the Goldwater Award while she was still in GAMS during the 2023-2024 academic year.

She reviewed the award requirements and stepped into contact with Cory Dodds, formerly of the Office of Scholar Development. Mykah described Cory’s mentoring of her through this process as “so helpful, he put everything into words, like I would stare at the questions and I wouldn’t know how to answer them, and then he would suggest something and I realized that all the puzzle pieces of the questions and my answers fit together.”

The Goldwater application consists of a three-page essay, multiple short answer questions, and the remaining components were demographic information, along with questions about current and future career and research aspirations.

Mykah shared that she remains “inspired by my mentor, Dr. Pat Kambesis, and I really want to go into academia and become a professor because she does so many side service projects, people bring her stuff all the time like ‘I have a sinkhole in my backyard’ or ‘tell me what rock layer it’s in’ or ‘come survey it’.” She’s drawn to the opportunities to educate others, sharing that “I love interacting with the public and she showed me that you can still do that as a professor.”

In fact, a recent project she and her peers worked on involved a cave in Warren County that has not been entered into since the 1970’s, and due to expanded urban development in the area, their team was asked to map the cave and draft a series of recommendations for how the subsurface features are affected by activity on the surface.

In the upcoming 2024-2025 academic year, Mykah is also stepping into a leadership role as the incoming President of The Green River Grotto, a local chapter of the national speleological society, focused on leading “local clean ups and education about karst, public outreach in general, campus education on groundwater cleanliness, etc.” In addition to developing her leadership skills, she is “looking forward to part-time campus employment in EASS with the HydroAnalytical Lab, a commercial water quality lab housed by WKU’s Center for Human GeoEnvironmental Studies (CHNGES) or Crawford Hydrology Lab” since she hopes to build upon her Goldwater Award by applying for the Udall Award “which recognizes environmental service, and two fellowships – Cave Conservancy Foundation’s Undergraduate Fellowship in Karst Studies and National Cave and Karst Research Institutes Scholar Fellowships.”

Pursuit of these awards and relevant on-campus experiences is intentional because Mykah plans to synthesize these experiences to inform her honors thesis and to expand her knowledge as an emerging academic professional. “The best geologist is the one that has seen the most rocks” and while “I love karst, I wanna see karst – there’s others types of karst – limestone is not the only soluble bedrock – there’s salt – and you can see changes in those systems in your lifetime.” Her travel list is growing, with plans to visit New Mexico, Colorado, and beyond. With her passion and determination, Mykah Carden is well on her way to making significant contributions to the field of environmental science.