KU News Release

Six students receive funding to study climate change at KU

LAWRENCE — Six doctoral students will arrive at the University of Kansas this fall with $30,000 fellowships to be funded by the National Science Foundation’s Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program.

The new students will join five IGERT trainees selected last fall to participate in KU’s groundbreaking program known as C-CHANGE (Climate Change, Humans and Nature in the Global Environment). In addition, one doctoral student will join the group as an IGERT associate. Trainees and associates share the designation of fellows in the C-CHANGE program.

The 11 students are among the 24 doctoral students expected to complete the C-CHANGE curriculum through 2013. As fellows, these students will earn special certification on their doctoral degrees.

A $3 million NSF grant funds KU’s innovative interdisciplinary program to develop expertise and leadership in science, engineering and policy to meet the challenges of climate change.

KU received the grant in 2008. It was the first IGERT grant awarded in the state of Kansas.

The C-CHANGE program is a collaboration of three KU research centers: the Institute for Policy and Social Research, Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets and Biodiversity Institute; and a partnership with Haskell Indian Nations University’s Haskell Environmental Research Studies Center in Lawrence. The C-CHANGE program also partners with the National Autonomous University of Mexico Instituto de Biologia and the University of Copenhagen Centre for Ice and Climate.

The first five trainees named last fall are continuing this semester: Alvin J. Bonilla, geology, Boqueron, Puerto Rico; Trisha Lyn Jackson, geography, Sterling; Ann Jeannette Kern, sociology, Lawrence; Alexis Suzzanne Reed, ecology and evolutionary biology, Great Bend; and Linda Marie Williams, public administration, Gardner.

KU’s newest fellows are listed below by hometown, degree program, parents’ names, other schools attended and fellowship.

DOUGLAS COUNTY
From Lawrence 66044
Ferdouz V. Cochran, doctoral student in geography; bachelor’s degree from KU; Manhattan High School; fall 2009 C-CHANGE trainee

Rebecca Jeanne Crosthwait, doctoral student in anthropology; master’s degree from KU; bachelor’s degree from Point Loma Nazarene College in California; fall 2009 C-CHANGE trainee

Jodi Lorraine Gentry, doctoral student in environmental engineering; master’s degree in environmental engineering from KU; bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University; fall 2009 C-CHANGE trainee

LYON COUNTY
From Emporia 66801
Adam David Sundberg, doctoral student in history; bachelor’s degree from Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo.; fall 2009 C-CHANGE trainee

RENO COUNTY
From Hutchinson 67502
Laci Manette Gerhart, doctoral student in ecology and evolutionary biology, daughter of Bruce and Denise Gerhart; bachelor’s degree from KU; Hutchinson High School; fall 2009 C-CHANGE trainee

ILLINOIS
From Downers Grove 60515
Hannah L. Owens, doctoral student in ecology and evolutionary biology, daughter of Ken and Emily Owens; master’s degree from KU; bachelor’s degrees from KU; Community High School District 99 North High School; fall 2009 C-CHANGE trainee

GERMANY
From Hannover
Julia Brandes, doctoral student in economics and master’s student in East Asian languages and cultures, daughter of Ingrid Brandes; bachelor’s degree from Eberhard-Karls University in Tuebingen; C-CHANGE associate

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