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About the Scholarship
The Nelson Institute Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison offers an annual Reid Bryson Scholarship to honor the life and legacy of our founder, Professor Reid Bryson. The scholarship rewards exemplary students whose research mirrors the innovative and interdisciplinary studies of Professor Bryson, involving either fundamental climate and meteorological processes or topics that connect climate, people, and the environment. In 2013 we awarded two scholarships: a $1,000 award for the top graduate student research project and a $750 award for the top undergraduate student research project.
This year’s winner of the graduate scholarship was Katie Holman of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and CCR. Her poster, “Influence of the background state on Rossby wave propagation into the Great Lakes basin based on reanalysis data and model simulations”, was based on her doctoral research. Her project finds that precipitation over the Lake Superior basin is correlated year-round with transient Rossby waves emanating from Pacific Ocean source regions. This year's winner of the undergraduate scholarship was Cora Betsinger for her poster, “Proteomics, Mass Spectrometry, and the Changing Biosphere of Ancient Troy”. A double major in Biochemistry and Genetics, Cora presented a fascinating interdisciplinary study on how the lives of ancient Trojans were impacted by the changing geomorphology of the region as affected by climate change, based on analysis of chemical residue from ancient pottery fragments. Center for Climatic Research Associate Scientist Michael Notaro and Assistant Scientists Val Bennington and Feng He served as judges.
Professor Reid Bryson (1920-2008) was the founder of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Meteorology and Center for Climatic Research and was the first director of the Institute for Environmental Studies (now the Nelson Institute). Dr. Bryson was one of the pioneers of modern climatology and among the first to explore the influence of climate on humans and human culture. He gained fame for his studies of past and future climate, the relationships between climate and the biosphere, and the interaction of climate and human societies. A polymath, Bryson's scholarly interests ranged from studies of archaeology and geography to geology and limnology, and he tied them together through an abiding interest in weather and climate.
Applicants for the Reid Bryson Scholarship must either be a registered undergraduate or graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, from any department or center. The research should either address (1) fundamental climatic and meteorological processes or (2) environmental issues at the interface of climate, people, and the environment. Professor Bryson's research was highly interdisciplinary, so students from across the sciences and humanities are encouraged to apply. We will post updated information on next year’s Bryson scholarship in early 2014.
The Reid Bryson Scholarship is an Ideas to Excellence event. Ideas to Excellence, held for a month each spring, showcases the academic and creative work of our undergraduate students.
Multiple venues will house events - including exhibitions, poster sessions, presentations and performances - that celebrate excellence in student work.
For more information: http://learning.wisc.edu/ideas/
