WKU News

Six faculty from the WKU Department of Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences (EEAS) in the WKU Ogden College of Science & Engineering were awarded a three-year, $1.1 million federal grant from the National Science Foundation Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NSF EPSCoR). The project, titled Experiential Learning and Workforce Training in the Atmospheric, Environmental, and Disaster Sciences, will allow NSF graduate fellows to contribute to research alongside WKU faculty, advancing the holistic understanding of the Earth system and resilience in the face of physical hazards.

The NSF EPSCoR Graduate Fellowship Program (EGFP) exists to support institutions in EPSCoR jurisdictions, such as WKU, by providing funding for graduate fellowships to students who were given the distinction of NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Honorable Mention. This award to WKU will provide financial support for seven fellows, annually, from 2027-2030 to enroll in EEAS graduate programs and contribute to transformative community- and industry-responsive research while participating in a robust and supportive environment for gaining critical professional development skills for their careers.

“I am incredibly proud of the faculty team behind this award and the opportunities they are creating for our students” Dr. Leslie North, Department Chair for EEAS, said. “This funding not only provides financial support for our graduate students and continues to strengthen our programs but also gives students the chance to build their professional skills while contributing to research that addresses challenges facing Kentucky and communities beyond it.”

Graduate fellows and faculty mentors will undertake research that will improve knowledge in how dynamical interactions between atmospheric scales influence high-impact weather in observational and modeled environments, how environments have varied or changed in the geologic past, how water resources are impacted by cyclicity, and how contemporary computational strategies, such as artificial intelligence, can aid communities in preparedness for physical and cascading hazards. The team’s efforts will complement and enhance the current NSF EPSCoR RII – Track 1 award, CLIMBS, where WKU researchers, in collaboration with seven other Kentucky institutions, work to enhance resilience in the Commonwealth to physical hazards.

Dr. Zachary Suriano, Principal Investigator and coordinator of the EEAS Geoscience graduate program, acknowledged how impactful this award will be. “This EGFP award will enhance the efforts of WKU EEAS in becoming a national leader in applied research-to-operations student experiences while training the next generation of the STEM workforce. Through this award, our department is primed to experience meaningful transformation in its research and graduate culture that should be sustained well beyond the life cycle of the award.”

The vision is that the award will help establish a pipeline of WKU undergraduate students who will go on to apply for and receive NSF GRFP awards.

The award will support two graduate programs in EEAS, the Geoscience M.S. program and the new Disaster Science M.S. program.

"The new Disaster Science undergraduate and graduate programs have naturally emerged from students with an array of interdisciplinary education backgrounds who seek to advance their knowledge and skillsets as a means to address the perpetual state of disaster response across places like Kentucky and elsewhere,” Dr. Josh Durkee, Director of the Disaster Science Operations Center, WKU’s University Meteorologist, and a co-PI on the award, said. “WKU leads the front with providing students innovative opportunities to address the growing demand for disaster science training and with this EGFP award, our team is excited to cement the path forward as a nationally reputable program and university to conduct such work."

Six faculty members from WKU EEAS are contributing to the project:

• Dr. Giliane Rasbold, Assistant Professor and Director of the Paleo² Laboratory, is supporting graduate fellows conducting research in the environmental sciences
• Dr. Manmeet Singh, Assistant Professor and Director of the DSOC AI Research Laboratory, is supporting graduate fellows conducting research in the disaster sciences.
• Dr. Jerry Brotzge, Professor, Kentucky State Climatologist, and Director of the Kentucky Climate Center, is supporting graduate fellows conducting research in the atmospheric sciences.
• Dr. Josh Durkee, Professor, University Meteorologist, and Director of the Disaster Science Operations Center, is supporting graduate fellows conducting research in the disaster sciences.
• Dr. Jason Polk, Professor and Director of the Center for Human GeoEnvironmental Studies and HydroAnalytical Laboratory, is supporting graduate fellows conducting research in the environmental sciences.
• Dr. Zachary Suriano, Associate Professor, Kentucky Assistant State Climatologist, and Director of the Climate Research Laboratory, serves as the PI for the project, coordinating team efforts and supporting graduate fellows conducting research in the atmospheric sciences.