Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University geography professor Nick Crawford will receive a national award for his 25 years of educational accomplishments at the Center for Cave and Karst Studies.

Dr. Crawford, who founded the center in 1979, is the Karst Waters Institute's recipient of the 2005 Award for Achievement in Karst Studies.

The Karst Waters Institute (KWI) is a national organization headquartered in Charles Town, W.Va., whose mission is to improve the fundamental understanding of karst water systems through sound scientific research and the education of professionals and the public. The group will honor Dr. Crawford on March 5 at the Hamilton Valley Research Center near Cave City.

"More than a thousand students from around the country, including many of today's top practicing karst scientists, have taken courses in the WKU Karst Field Studies Program that Dr. Crawford founded and has directed since 1980," according to Dr. Carol Wicks of the University of Missouri at Columbia, one of the nation's leading karst hydrogeologists and president of the Karst Waters Institute.

The Karst Field Studies Program offers specialty undergraduate and graduate courses in various technical karst study areas each summer in collaboration with Mammoth Cave National Park.

Dr. Crawford and the Center for Cave and Karst Studies also have employed many undergraduate and graduate students in karst field and laboratory work as an integrated part of their educational programs. As a result many of the center's students are employed as respected karst scientists in academia, federal and state government positions, and the environmental consulting industry.

The Center for Cave and Karst Studies is part of WKU's Applied Research and Technology Program in the Ogden College of Science and Engineering.

The KWI Board of Directors will hold its 2005 annual meeting in Bowling Green. The banquet honoring Dr. Crawford, hosted by WKU's Hoffman Institute and the Cave Research Foundation, will begin at 6:30 p.m. March 5, at the Hamilton Valley Research Center near Cave City, the national headquarters of the Cave Research Foundation.

For banquet tickets or other information, contact Elizabeth Medley at WKU's Hoffman Environmental Research Institute at (270) 745-5201 or at crf@wku.edu.

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Chris Groves at (270) 745-5974.