Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

The National Science Foundation has awarded a three-year, $219,263-grant to Amy Hessl, professor in the Department of Geology and Geography, to reconstruct the history of the Southern Annular Mode, over the last 2,000 years. Hessl and her research team will study the movement of a westerly wind belt circling Antarctica that influences Southern Hemisphere climate, carbon and heat uptake and Antarctic ice melt.

Following a successful debut at West Virginia University, TEDxWVU returns March 2 at 9 a.m. in the Gladys S. Davis Theatre in the Creative Arts Center with five speakers who will support the theme “Bridging the Gap,” challenging people to look at their similarities instead of their differences.

A field trip to Namibia to study volcanic rocks led to an unexpected discovery by West Virginia University geologists Graham Andrews and Sarah Brown. While exploring the desert country in southern Africa, they stumbled upon a peculiar land formation—flat desert scattered with hundreds of long, steep hills. They quickly realized the bumpy landscape was shaped by drumlins, a type of hill often found in places once covered in glaciers, an abnormal characteristic for desert landscapes.

Karissa Bjorkgren, a second-year student in the Master of Social Work and Master of Public Administration programs at West Virginia University, is dedicated to addressing mental health in rural communities. A native of Franklin, Bjorkgren has experienced first-hand how infrequently rural communities in West Virginia address mental health concerns. She hopes her research will help overcome this disparity.

Each student will receive a $1,000 award: $500 from the Eberly College and $500 from the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium. The recipients are Erica Chwalik, Dillion Cottrill, Ryan Culp, Brenden Glover, Janna Kleinsasser, Maxwell Reese, Simon Wirth and Olivia Young.

For more than a decade, geology students at West Virginia University have used the same advanced software used by oil and gas companies worldwide, expanding their marketability for industry jobs.

Duncan Lorimer has been named the associate dean for research in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University.

A West Virginia University physics student has created a new machine-learning model that has the potential to make searching for energy and environmental materials more efficient.

Jerrica “Ashley” Fox has been awarded a 2019 Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Fellowship to prepare for a career in the U.S. Foreign Service. Fox is the first West Virginia University alumna to win a Pickering Fellowship in at least a decade.

After more than 40 years of experience in higher education leadership within the WVU system, Gerald Lang will retire as West Virginia University Institute of Technology’s interim campus president, effective Jan. 1.