A student in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences has been awarded the 2016 Central New York Association of Professional Geologists (CNYAPG) grant for student research.

Emily Baker, a geology graduate student working in Associate Professor Laura Lautz’s lab, was positioned first among several candidates for the honor and was presented with $1,000 to assist in the presentation and continuation of her international water quality research.

Just in her first year of graduate studies at Syracuse, Baker has shown significant progress in her research -- living and working in the remote mountain areas of Peru at over 15,000 feet in elevation to collect the necessary data. Her resulting effort titled, “Infrared Imaging and Modeling of Proglacial Stream Temperature in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru”, was what caught the eye of the CNYAPG grant committee, as well has her faculty sponsor, Professor Lautz.

“Emily is working on a really challenging project that has required her to engage in very challenging field work,” explains Lautz, whose hydrogeology research centers on water quality and movement through watersheds. “She is very deserving of this award, which recognizers her significant research accomplishments so early in her academic career.”

Earning her undergraduate geology degree at Mount Holyoke College, Baker is looking forward to pursuing her Ph.D. at Syracuse University, with a focus on a future career in hydrologic research.

Additionally she is also a member of the National Science Foundation Research Traineeship Education Model Program on Water-Energy Research (EMPOWER). Co-founded by nine Syracuse University interdisciplinary faculty members, including Lautz, EMPOWER prepares graduate students for professional opportunities at the nexus of water and energy.

"I am very grateful for receiving the CNYAPG grant because it will help cover some of the costs associated with my research and conference travel,” says Baker who originally hails from Ellington, Connecticut. “I look forward to continuing my research on infrared imaging and stream temperature modeling in the Lautz Lab.”

The CNYAPG Grant for Student Research was established in 2015 to provide assistance to Central New York Earth Science students for research and to help disseminate the results of that research through conference travel. To learn more about CNYAPG and the CNYAPG Grant for Student research, visit www.cnyapg.org.