Please note that our Department has an exceptional presence in the last issue of GSA Today (http://www.geosociety.org/gsatoday/archive/26/7/flip/i1052-5173-26-7/#p=30). Graduate students from DGS won four GSA graduate research awards this year.
Peng Shang (Ph. D) and Alex Nicosia (Ph.D) were winners in their respective research fields. Peng proposed to conduct research to improve understanding of hydrological controls of dissolved organic matter in stream networks, whereas Alex plans to use funding received from this grant to offset expenses for stable oxygen and carbon measurements of Queen Conch shells from Turks and Caicos. She says “these values will assist in the development of an age proxy for this economically important species of gastropod“.
In addition, two of Dr. Delores Robinson’s students (Gourab Bhaattacharya, Ph.D. and Elizabeth Olree, MS), received recognition by the GSA Southeastern Section for “exceptionally high merit in conception and presentation” for their graduate research proposals. Gourab works on on the exhumation of the sedimentary basin along the Indus-Yarlung Suture Zone in NW India. He uses low-T thermochronometers as primary tools in his research. The goal is to understand the post-burial basin tectonics in the suture zone following India-Asia collision. For her MS project Liz is working on a thermokinematic model for the Himalayas in Nepal using computer models and low-T thermochronometers. The goal is to link cooling history to exhumation and to understand the relationship between the cooling ages of rocks at the surface and the history of faulting/exhumation.
Congratulations Alex, Elizabeth, Gourab and Peng, we are very proud of you!