Sean Kosinski, a graduate research assistant at the Desert Research Institute, and M.S. degree candidate in hydrologic sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno, has been awarded DRI's 1999 George Burke Maxey Fellowship. The $10,000 one-year fellowship allows a UNR or UNLV hydrology graduate student to pursue a research topic of his or her choice, under the supervision of a scientist from DRI's hydrologic sciences division.

Kosinski was awarded the fellowship on the basis of his research proposal entitled "Evaluation of Tracer Transport Solutions for Fractured Media," involving the development of new techniques for tracking groundwater pollutants.

The fellowship was established by an endowment from Elizabeth West Stout, a long-time DRI supporter, in honor of the late Dr. George Burke Maxey, who developed DRI's hydrologic sciences group into an internationally recognized program.

Left to right: Sierra Pacific Resources President and Chief Operating Officer Malyn K. Malquist, Julie Allen, Dr. Stephen G. Wells, and Dr. Glenn Miller, Director of the University of Nevada, Reno's Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering.

Julie Allen, a graduate research assistant at the Desert Research Institute, and a student in the Environmental Science and Health graduate program at the University of Nevada, Reno, is the 1999 recipient of the Sierra Pacific Power Company Fellowship. Providing a one-year award of $14,000 from Sierra Pacific Power Company, the fellowship also includes an office at DRI, and use of the Institute's computer and laboratory facilities.

Allen, a Carson City native interested in toxicology in aquatic ecosystems, is the sixth UNR graduate student to receive the award from Sierra Pacific. In addition to her class work last fall, Allen concentrated on learning field and analytical techniques to prepare for a research trip to Antarctica. Under the direction of Dr. Chris Fritsen, a systems microbiologist in DRI's Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Allen is currently using her newfound skills during a field session in Antarctica.

Allen's future plans include involvement with the research and restoration of polluted aquatic ecosystems, and she is considering pursuing a Ph.D. degree following completion of her M.S. program. She earned an undergraduate degree at UNR in Environmental Sciences in May 1999.

For further information on the Sierra Pacific Fellowship, please visit DRI's web site at http://www.dri.edu/GradPrograms/Fellowships/SPPCo.html. Application materials should be mailed to DRI by May 1, 2000.

The Desert Research Institute has awarded the 1999 Jonathan O. Davis Scholarship in Quaternary Sciences to Sheryl Fontaine, a Ph.D. candidate in Geology and Neotectonics at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). Fontaine received the award for her dissertation research on the Walker Lane Belt, an important seismic zone in western Nevada.

In addition, UNR M.S. student Leah Bonstead received a stipend for her field research on an archaeological site in the Harney Basin of east-central Oregon.

The family, colleagues, and friends of Jonathan O. Davis, a prominent DRI geologist and geoarchaeologist who died in 1990, established an endowment that provides a $2,000 annual national scholarship and a stipend for UNR students.

The national scholarship, administered by DRI, is open to students enrolled in a graduate program at any university in the United States. Applicants must be pursuing research with a geologic component or that demonstrates a strong reliance on geological techniques. For additional information see DRI's web site at http://www.dri.edu/FactSheets/Jonathan Davis.html.

Left to right: Dr. Kendrick Taylor, Jr., Countess Angela Dandini, and Dr. Stephen G. Wells at the 1999 Dandini Medal ceremony.

The 1999 Alessandro Dandini Medal of Science has been awarded to Dr. Kendrick Taylor, Jr., a Desert Research Institute scientist whose work has prompted a fundamental rethinking of the nature and pace of the process of global climate change. The Dandini Medal is the Institute's highest annual recognition for scientific accomplishment by a member of its research faculty.

Taylor received the minted bronze medallion and $1,000 prize from Countess Angela Dandini, the award's sponsor and widow of the medal's namesake, in formal ceremonies at DRI on December 7. Taylor, who has been with the Institute since 1983, is a geophysicist and research professor in DRI's Division of Hydrologic Sciences.

Taylor startled the scientific world a decade ago with his conclusions from a study of 100,000 years of climate change recorded in a 1.8-mile-deep ice core from the Greenland Ice Sheet. His findings indicated that climate conditions could swing from glacial-those causing ice ages-to interglacial-such as we are experiencing now-in less than a decade. The findings shattered commonly held assumptions of steady, incremental changes in climate in a process requiring thousands of years. As a result of that work, the National Science Foundation selected Taylor chief scientist for the West Antarctic Ice Shelf Core project in 1996. This major project involves dozens of scientific organizations, and about a hundred scientists and technicians, on a difficult, complex ice core drilling project on the southern continent. The project is widely recognized as a crucial step toward defining the variability of climate change.

Countess Dandini established the Dandini Medal award in 1992 following the death of her husband, a scientist, industrialist, and inventor who was special assistant to the DRI president in the 1970s. In that capacity, Count Dandini succeeded in obtaining the 470-acre site in north Reno now housing DRI and Truckee Meadows Community College. The site was subsequently named Dandini Research Park in recognition of his contributions.

Left to right: Dr. Stephen G. Wells, Paquita Zuidema, and Sue Wagner.

Paquita Zuidema of the University of Colorado at Boulder is the recipient of the Desert Research Institute's 1999 Peter B. Wagner Memorial Award for Women in Atmospheric Sciences.

The $1,000 award was established by former Nevada Lt. Governor Sue Wagner in memory of her husband, Dr. Peter Wagner, a DRI scientist who died in the 1980 crash of a DRI research aircraft. The purpose of the award is to encourage women graduate students in the atmospheric sciences. The selection for the competitive award is based on submission of a scientific paper.

Zuidema's paper was an analysis of tropical cloud formations using data from a major global atmospheric study conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She is the second recipient of the Wagner Memorial Award, following Jennifer Barnett of the University of Utah in 1998.

To be eligible for the award, applicants must be pursuing an M.S. or Ph.D. in a program of atmospheric sciences, or a related field, and must submit a paper based on original research directly related to the identification, clarification, and/or resolution of an atmospheric/climate problem. See the DRI web site at http://www.dri.edu/Admin/wagner.html for additional information. The deadline for applications is June 15, 2000.