WKU Geoscience Graduate Student Draws
National Attention With New Book On
California Caves
July 26, 2004
Bowling Green, Ky. - Joel Despain, a Western Kentucky University geoscience graduate student from Three Rivers, Calif., has recently published a new book called "Hidden Beneath the
Mountains: Caves of Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks."
The 128-page book describes the history, science and management of caves within the mountainous national park in the California Sierras. The park contains many of California's most spectacular and significant caves, including Lilburn Cave, which, with a length of more than 30 kilometers, is the most extensive cave system in the western United States.
The park's caves also include enchanting displays of rare and unusual mineral formations, which are highlighted in many of the book's beautiful color photographs.
"This accomplishment and the high regard that Joel has earned nationally among cave scientists and federal land managers highlights the level of student that WKU's karst science programs are able to attract," according to Chris Groves, Despain's graduate research adviser and the director of WKU's Hoffman Environmental Research Institute.
Despain, who is employed by the National Park Service as the cave specialist for Sequoia National Park, has completed his WKU graduate coursework as part of a specially designed master's degree program for full-time scientists and land managers in the National Park Service.
He traveled to southwest China in 2001 as part of the Hoffman Institute's China science program and has led cave science expeditions to both Indonesia and Malaysia during the time he has been a WKU student.
In 2001, Despain was awarded the Cave Research Foundation's $3,500 Karst Research Fellowship for his graduate thesis research, which examines interactions between karst geochemistry and atmospheric carbon dioxide in a high mountain karst area of Sequoia National Park. He has completed fieldwork and will defend his research in Fall 2004.
"Joel's accomplishments are indicative of the quality of graduate students that are attracted to WKU's geoscience program," said Geography and Geology Department Head David Keeling. "His research is making a valuable contribution to our understanding of how the interaction between climate and caves works. Cutting-edge research such as Joel's is fast becoming a hallmark of the Hoffman Institute and of the geoscience program at WKU."
For more information, contact David Keeling at (270) 745-4555. 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.
