3 WKU Graduate Students Present Research In Slovenia

June 16, 2008

Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University geoscience graduate students Brian Ham, Julie Schenck-Brown and Mark Tracy are in the Central European country of Slovenia this week presenting research at the 16th International Karstological School Workshop on Karst Sediments.

Ham (from Nashville, Tenn.), Schenck-Brown (from Gurley, Ala.) and Tracy (from Cobleskill, N.Y.) are working on master’s degrees in geoscience at WKU. Their master’s theses involve research on karst landscapes like those of south central Kentucky where caves and underground rivers are common, and within which water-related environmental problems are common.

The international conference is sponsored each year by the Slovenia Karst Research Institute in Postojna, one of the world’s premier locations for such research.

“Scientists around the world consider Slovenia to be the classic home of karst landscapes, and some of the earliest major scientific research about them took place there,” said Chris Groves, director of WKU’s Hoffman Environmental Research Institute and Tracy’s research advisor. “Even the term karst itself has roots in the Slovenian language.”

Travel was made possible by grants received by the students from the European Commission’s 6th Framework Programme for Research and Development.

The three students will give presentations on current research during the week, in between a busy schedule of lectures from an international collection of scientists and several field excursions.

Because of the strong common interests between WKU, the Slovenian karst research group and the Mammoth Cave International Center for Science and Learning, an active cooperative relationship is evolving.

This trip follows a visit by Dr. Martin Knez to WKU in 2007 and by 14 WKU students and faculty who visited the Slovenia Research Institute earlier this June as part of a study abroad trip to the Eastern Mediterranean region led by Geography and Geology Department Head Dr. David Keeling.

“These students have a wonderful opportunity to present their research in one of the most spectacular karst areas on the planet,” Dr. Keeling said. “A key goal of the Hoffman Institute and of the department is to engage students in communities other than their own, and this visit to Slovenia continues the tradition of supporting students to participate in conferences and field research around the world.”
               
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For information, contact Hoffman Institute at (270) 745-3961.