Foundation announces academic awards for 2008
By Al Ossinger
The Colorado Mountain Club Foundation awards several
research fellowships annualy and has announced that Liesl Peterson is the winner
of the first Kurt Gerstle Award, while Brenda Porter has received the Neal B.
Kindig Award.
Liesl Peterson
Peterson is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Ecology
and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Under the
direction of Professors Robert Guralnick and Chris Ray, her research topic was
“Testing climate-related Models of Range contraction for the American Pika.”
Brenda Porter
Brenda Porter Porter received the Kindig award for “Study of Student
Outcomes of the Colorado Mountain Club’s Youth Education Program.” Porter is a
masters degree candidate at Regis University. Her research director is
Professor Sharon Heinlen. Porter has been director of Education at the Colorado
Mountain Club for ten years.
In addition to these two awards, the CMCF also gave grants
to Janic Brashney, a doctoral student in the Department of Geological Sciences
at CU, with a study of Dust Deposition in Alpine Lakes. Others receiving grants included James
Bromberg of Colorado State University’s Bioagricultural Science and Pest
Management Department for a study on the distribution of cheatgrass in Rocky
Mountain National park; to Clancy Brown, a student at Hobart and William Smith
Colleges, Geneva, New York, for a study of Nuisance Algal Blooms in Alpine
Streams; to Grace Carter; and to Kendra Morliengo-Bredlau.
The CMC Foundation awards program was instituted in 1982
through the efforts of Dr. Kurt Gerstle. Applications this year were reviewed
by Thomas Cope, Sam Guyton, and All Ossinger (chair). Further information is
available on the CMC website.