Student Research Grants Awarded for 2025
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 2025 Colorado Scientific Society Memorial Funds Committee was: Jeff Pigati (Chair, 2024 President), Susan Slomski (2024–2026 Councilor), Kassandra Lindsey (2023–2025 Councilor), Nate Rogers (2024–2026 Councilor), and Michael Frothingham (2023–2025 Councilor).
A total of $15,000 was awarded to thirty four recipients at ten different institutions. (This was almost twice as many applications as we usually get.) Everyone got $400, and the two “best of” proposals received an extra $500.
2025 Colorado Scientific Society Student Research Grant Awardees
Ceyhan Akyol, MS candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Compressional Tectonics and Fracture Patterns of Redtail Area, Denver Basin
Alexandra Arimes, MS candidate at University of Kansas: The Kiowa-Skull Creek Deltaic Shoreline of the Western Interior Seaway: Investigating the Role of Sea Level Changes and Autogenic Processes
Rachel Bernstein, MS candidate at Colorado State University: Investigating U.S. Southwestern Hydroclimate and Response to Past Warming: Using Carbonate Clumped Isotope Thermometry to Reconstruct Neogene Southwestern Temperatures
Lauren Bettinger, MS candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Origin of Dolomite in the Upper Three Forks Formation, Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota
Lindsey Blehm, MS candidate at Colorado State University: Effects of floodplain organic matter on soil geochemistry and plant density
Zoe Bowers, MS candidate at Colorado State University: Sedimentology & Geochronology of the Upper Cretaceous Lachman Crags (Beta) Member of the Santa Marta Formation on James Ross Island, Antarctica
Haley Brumberger, PhD candidate at University of Colorado Boulder: Integrating Sedimentology and Geochemistry to Reconstruct the Paleoenvironment of a Historic Two Medicine Formation Site
Dylan Davis, MS candidate at Colorado State University: Seasonal channel adjustment in a coupled eolian-fluvial system, North Sand Creek, Colorado
Mateo Diaz, MS candidate at Loma Linda University: Spatial and Temporal Evolution through Field Observations, Petrography, Structures, Geochemistry, and Geochronology of the Box Springs Plutonic Complex, Riverside, California
Logan Erichsen, MS candidate at Kansas State University: Trace element and fluid inclusion constraints on the formation of Beryllium-rich gem aquamarines from Mt. Antero, CO (USA)
Caden Evans, MS candidate at University of Utah: Linking Rock Mass Characterization to the Spatial Distribution of Deep- seated Gravitational Slope Deformation in the Sawatch Range, Colorado
Ashley Ford, PhD candidate at Colorado State University: Subsurface Dynamics of Microplastics in the Land of Headwaters
Best proposal by a PhD student
Dylan Frawley, MS candidate at Colorado State University: Timing and Kinematic Constraints of Polyphase Contraction in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, Colorado
Luke Gezovich, PhD candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Quantifying Stratal Geometries: Evidence for a Fluvial Fan Origin of the Jezero Landform Compared to Fluvial Deposits in the Rocky Mountains
Dorian Gursky, PhD candidate at Colorado School of Mines: High-precision dating, correlation and provenance of Maastrichian volcanic tuffs (bentonites) in the Western Interior Basin
Andrew Hindall, MS candidate at Kansas State University: Link between melt inclusions in lower crustal xenoliths and silicic magmatism of the Chirichahua Mtns, AZ
Isabel Hopkins, MS candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Outcrop and petrographic analysis of the Permian Lyons Sandstone, Morrison, Colorado: understanding diagenesis and oxygen isotope variation for reservoir characterization
Marat Ibagarov, PhD candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Architecture and Fracture characterization of ancient debris-dominated carbonate slope deposits: Case study of the Permian Rader mass-transport deposit (MTD), Guadalupe Mountains, West Texas?
Samantha Malavarca, PhD candidate at Colorado State University: Magmatism and Early Rift Deformation in the Northern Rio Grande Rift, Cotton Creek, CO
Christopher Matson, PhD candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Organic matter deposition and preservation during Ocean Anoxic Event 2 in the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway
Maya McDonough, MS candidate at University of Colorado Boulder: Deciphering rock glacier contributions to streamflow using hydrochemistry and radiocarbon ages
Best proposal by a MS student
Megan Melgren, MS candidate at Kansas State University: Geochemistry of Off-Axis Snake River Plain Basalts and Implications for the Areal Extent of Yellowstone Hotspot Volcanism
Maggie Moss, PhD candidate at Colorado State University: Basaltic Magmatism in the Yellowstone Plateau Volcanic Field: a spatial and temporal study of basaltic plumbing systems
Zaid Nadhim, PhD candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Facies and architectural variability and relationship with mechanical stratigraphy of a submarine fan on a Mississippian Doña Ana Member, Lake Valley Formation, Sacramento Mountains, New Mexico carbonate ramp
Molly O’Halloran, PhD candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Deciphering the record of fluvial response to climate change: lessons from the geologic record
Andrew Oligmueller, PhD candidate at University of Tennessee: Impact of the Paleogene-Neogene climate transition on soil ecosystems if the midcontinent: evidence from continental ichnofossils of the White River and Pawnee Creek formations
Owen Richardson, MS candidate at Colorado State University: Monitoring Geomorphic Responses to Stream Restoration in Semiarid Shortgrass Prairie Streams from Reach- to Catchment-Scales
Jacob Sims, PhD candidate at University of Colorado Boulder: U-Pb Dating of Titanite to Constrain Timing of Metasomatic Alteration in Colorado Plateau Lower Crustal Xenoliths
Andrew Sirois, MS candidate at University of Colorado Anschutz: Sequestration of Heavy Metals and Carbon in Iron Fen Sediments
Adaeze Ugwu, PhD candidate at University of Wyoming: Fugitive Dust: Understanding its origin and impact on Yellowstone’s System
Zane Wasicko, Undergraduate candidate at Western Colorado University: Taylor Park Rock Glaciers: Exploring Geospatial Controls on Distribution and Headwall Influence
Tyler Wickland, PhD candidate at University of Colorado Boulder: Plumbing the depths of the northern Colorado Plateau with crustal xenoliths hosted in laccoliths, southeastern Utah, USA
Rachel Williams, PhD candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Mechanical stratigraphy of Permian-aged mixed carbonate toe-of-slope deposits, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas, USA
Mitch Wolfe, MS candidate at Colorado School of Mines: Advancing the Legacy of the Central Asiatic Expeditions: Applying Modern Geochronology to Refine the PETM Boundary Relative to the Paleogene Stratigraphy in the Naran Bulak Formation, Gobi Desert
