Aug. 27, 2009

An assistant professor in zoology at OSU has received a substantial grant from the National Science Foundation to examine the effects of long-term pollution on lake ecosystems and how it impacts the livelihood of organisms that inhabit them.

OSU zoologist Puni Jeyasingh and Lawrence Weider, a zoology professor at the University of Oklahoma, were awarded a $780,000 grant with OSU receiving $414,000.

The two investigators will examine how aquatic organisms cope with drastically altered environments caused by nutrient pollution. “The study will not only examine the effects of long-term pollution on aquatic ecosystems but also provide valuable information on how organisms evolve in natural environments,” Jeyasingh said.

July 24, 2009

Alex Simms, an assistant professor in the Boone Pickens School of Geology, and Regina DeWitt, assistant research professor in the physics department, have received a $199,978 grant from the National Science Foundation to continue a research project on sea level changes in Antarctica.

Next spring, Simms and two graduate students will travel to the continent to collect samples of beach deposits. 

“We will try to determine how much ice was on Antarctica during the last ice age by determining how much the continent has rebounded from the melting of the ice,” Simms said.  “This rebound is recorded in the present elevation of beach ridges that were once at the same level as the ocean but are now up to 100 feet high due to the land coming up.”