Abby Williams ’12 and Aaron Hiday ’13 won the Best Poster Award at National Meeting

Abby Williams '12 and Aaron Hiday '13 won the Austin A. Sartin Best Student Poster Award at the 2011 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN. Their poster, titled "Assessment of diel cycling in agricultural stream in south-central Michigan- a focus on turbidity", was part of the undergraduate research session sponsored by Sigma Gamma Epsilon, a national earth sciences honorary society. Abby is a senior geology major from Stillwater, MN, just east of the Twin Cities.  She participated in FURSCA in summer 2010 and 2011. This was Abby’s second presentation at a professional meeting, having presented research results from the summer 2010 research project with co-author Zane Havens ’12  at the Northeast-North Central section meeting of the Geological Society America in Pittsburgh, PA in March 2011. Abby plans to write up her work as part of a senior thesis. Aaron Hiday  is a junior geology major from Burlington, MI. Aaron worked with Abby during the 2011 FURSCA summer research program. In addition to FURSCA support, Aaron and Abby received financial support for their research from the Lawrence Taylor Undergraduate Geology Research Fund and the Albion College Geology Alumni Fund.  

Dr. Thom Wilch, Professor and Chair of the Department of Geological Sciences mentored Aaron and Abby.  Wilch and his students have been working on stream hydrology of local rivers for the past 10 years.   “This is a fantastic honor for Abby and Aaron.   They were in competition with undergraduates from across the country and there were many impressive student projects.  The judges commented on how well Aaron and Abby presented their research and addressed questions from the judges.”