WKU News & Events

October 08, 2002

WKU Researchers Participate
In Mammoth Cave Conference

Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University faculty, staff and students will present research findings this week at Mammoth Cave National Park's Ninth Science Conference.

The conference, sponsored by Mammoth Cave National Park and the Cave Research Foundation, will be held at the park's training center Thursday and Friday.

The importance of this meeting is highlighted by the fact that two of the National Park Service's top science officials - Michael Soukup and Dave Shaver -- are scheduled to attend the opening day, said Dr. Chris Groves, director of WKU's Hoffman Environmental Research Institute.

Soukup, associate director of the National Park Service in Washington, D.C., is responsible for all science programs within the Park Service nationally. Shaver is director of the Park Service Geologic Resources Division in Denver.

The officials, as well as others from WKU and Mammoth Cave National Park, also will spend Wednesday at the park and WKU to learn about ongoing cooperative research programs.

"The primary goal of this conference is for scientists in the park to share research information," Dr. Groves said."But the conference also shows the impact of the park's educational programs and the collaboration between Western and Mammoth Cave National Park."

WKU researchers are involved in 13 of the science conference's 23 sessions, which include cave conservation, speleogenesis ecology, geology, education, and atmospheric and hydrologic interaction.

Making presentations will be faculty members Chris Groves, geography and geology; Albert Meier, Shivendra Sahi, Scott Grubbs, Phil Leinesch, all in biology; Cathleen Webb, chemistry; Jonathan Jernigan, mathematics; staff member Rick Fowler, biology; alumnus Bobby Carson; graduate students Patricia Kambesis of Chicago; David Ek of Atlanta; Alan Glennon of Park City; Johnny Merideth of Munfordville; Joel Despain of Three Rivers, Calif.; Michele Webber of Murfreesboro, Tenn.; and undergraduates Jerry Ovesen of Hodgenville and Nathan Talley of Jonesville.

For more information, contact Chris Groves at (270) 745-5974. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.