Students Receive UW Center for Global Studies Fellowship and Scholarship

The University of Wyoming Center for Global Studies has awarded the 2016 David and Jade Walsh Graduate Fellowship, and Nielson Awards.

The 2016 David and Jade Walsh Graduate Fellowship in Global Studies recipient is Guy Litt, from Lancaster, Ohio. Litt is a hydrology Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering.

The $10,000 fellowship supports a student completing a thesis or dissertation project focused on internationally-oriented topics related to energy security and international security, international environment, natural resources or natural development.  

Litt’s Ph.D. dissertation project, titled “Hydrometric and Hydrochemical Runoff Characterization and Modeling Across Multiple Land Covers in Panama,” evaluates how Panama Canal operations, which depend entirely on secure freshwater supplies to its reservoirs, are sensitive to land management decisions. 

Beginning in spring 2016, Litt will work with a team of hydrologists, geochemists and geophysicists to quantify water supplied from different tropical land covers. These investigations are significant because the Panama Canal finalizes expansion in 2016, and managing its seasonally scarce water resources becomes more critical to the canal’s function.   

The Center for Global Studies-School of Energy Resources Nielson Awards support one $10,000 graduate fellowship and one $5,000 undergraduate scholarship for students whose coursework, research and career goals focus on developing human resources and the know-how required to solve critical energy and natural resource challenges faced by society.  

The 2016 Nielson Graduate Excellence Fellowship recipient is Emily Beagle, from Sheridan. Beagle is a mechanical engineering Ph.D. candidate.  

Beagle’s Ph.D. dissertation project, titled “A Comparative Analysis between the EU and the United States of the Feasibility of Co-Firing Woody Biomass in Existing Coal Fired Power Plants from a Technical, Economic and Policy Perspective,” examines various ways to use biomass for energy applications.  

In her work, she will investigate what biomass and co-firing policies are in place in the European Union and the United States. Beagle will analyze their effectiveness and evaluate what the United States can learn from the European countries that already possess co-firing plants.

The 2015-16 Nielson Undergraduate Scholarship recipient is Barbara Jean Bender from Lake Forest, Calif. Bender is a senior in rangeland ecology and watershed management, and environment and natural resources. She is pursuing minors in Spanish and the UW Honors Program.

Funded by the Nielson Undergraduate Scholarship, Bender has worked on sustainability, energy and resource management challenges and innovative solutions. She studies natural resource management issues.

Bender has traveled to India and various ranches in Wyoming. Additionally, she has traveled from coast to coast to attend Society for Range Management conferences with fellow students and professionals. 

In January, she will travel to Tierra del Fuego, Chile, to study how ranchers handle rangeland management challenges.

The Nielson Graduate Excellence Fellowship and Nielson Undergraduate Scholarship represent a partnership between the Center for Global Studies and the School of Energy Resources to promote interdisciplinary academic and research programs in a broad range of disciplines across UW. 

The Center for Global Studies advances UW’s efforts in internationally-focused research to find solutions to complex global problems. 

For more information, contact Jean Garrison, director of the Center for Global Studies, at (307) 766-6119 or email garrison@uwyo.edu.