Student Research Grants Awarded for 2023
Every year, the Colorado Scientific Society’s supports the next generation of scientists by awarding grants through its Memorial Funds Grant Program. The Society maintains six funds established through generous gifts from members and friends. The six funds are the Ogden Tweto Fund, the Steven Oriel Fund, the Edwin Eckel Fund, the Bill Pierce Fund, the George Snyder Fund, and the Bruce Bryant Fund. Interest accrued during each year is awarded to senior undergraduates and graduate students through a competitive application process. The principal balances remain untouched assuring continuation of the program.
The 2023 Colorado Scientific Society Memorial Funds Committee was: Edward Sterne (chair, 2022 President), Cal Ruleman (2023 President), James Paces (Treasurer, 2020 President), Kassandra Lindsey (2023–2025 Councilor)
Nineteen proposals were received from BS, MS, and PhD students at eleven different institutions.
A total of $14,341 was awarded to nineteen recipients at amounts ranging from $300 to $1,000.
2023 Colorado Scientific Society Student Research Grant Awardees
Santosh Adhikari, PhD candidate at University of Mississippi: Petrographic, geochemical and Lu-Hf isotopic analysis of Archean granites in the Bighorn Mountain, WY: implications for provenance and magmatic evolution
Victoria Arnold, MS candidate at Colorado State University: Environmental Impacts of the 1978 Sunnyside Mining Disaster
Marc Center, MS candidate at University of Kansas: Constraining the Absolute Timing of Brittle Deformation in the Rocky Mountain Front Range, CO, Using LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating of Carbonate Veins
Nicholas Ferry, PhD candidate at University of Kansas: Late Triassic Source-to-Sink Sediment Routing of the Chinle Formation, Colorado Plateau, USA
Luke Gesovich, PhD candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Distinguishing deltas from fluvial fans on Planetary Bodies
Samantha Khatri, PhD candidate at University of Georgia: The relationship of aggradation and fluvial architecture: a test in the Maastrichtian Hell Creek Formation of Montana and South Dakota
Benjamin Magnin, PhD candidate at Colorado School of Mines: A new mafic-ultramafic complex in the Wet Mountains, Colorado and its potential relationship to Cambrian failed continental rifting
Will McCraine, Undergraduate at University of Oklahoma: Tracing the origins of the Ogallala
Brianna McMaster-Smith, MS candidate at Northern Arizona University: One lake or two? Using geochemistry to test whether Fossil Lake and Lake Gosiute were independent entities
Maximiliano Miguez, MS candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Multi-scale analysis of carbonate mass-transport deposits, Apache Mountains, Texas
Molly O’Halloran, PhD candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Reading the record of fluvial response to climate change in the Uinta Basin, Utah
James Shirey, MS candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Reexamining the orogenic history of the Colorado front range via metamorphic structural analysis, geochronology, and geochemistry: The Southern half of the Grays Peak 7.5’ Quadrangle
Jaqueline Silviria, PhD candidate at University of Washington Seattle: The rise of ungulate mammals after the extinction of dinosaurs: The perspective from the Constenius Locality, Williston Basin, Montana
Jacob Slawson, PhD candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Changes in hydroclimate during the Early Paleogene hyperthermals in the Uinta Basin, UT
Patrick Sullivan, PhD candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Origin and Stratigraphy of Enigmatic Sandstones of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway: The Late Turonian Wall Creek-Turner System, Powder River Basin, WY
Thomas Valenzuela, MS candidate at New Mexico State University: Constraining stratigraphic relationships and depositional history of latest Paleocene-early Eocene synorogenic strata in the southeastern San Juan Basin, northwest New Mexico
Jack Willard, MS candidate at Utah State University: Testing Patterns of Deformation from the Yellowstone Hotspot along the Gallatin River, SW Montana
Miriam Wolfley, Undergraduate at University of Wyoming: Composition and Detrital Zircon Ages of Wyoming Sand Dunes
Mel Zhang, PhD candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Constraining the Weathering Contribution of Tree-Captured Wind in Earth’s Critical Zone
