The Department of Geology is very pleased to announce that doctoral student Hannah Veldhuizen has been awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate research fellowship!  Her research focuses on developing new geochemical methods that can be used to unravel the complex behavior of elements that are toxins in the modern environment and also hold information regarding past Earth environments in the rock record.  Specifically, she is working to improve understanding of how the stable isotopes of antimony record geochemical processes.  Hannah’s research advisor, Prof. Tom Johnson, was overjoyed: “I’m really happy this came through for Hannah!  She is carrying on my research group’s tradition of breaking new ground in isotope geochemistry and has done a fabulous job navigating the challenges of the painstaking measurements and experiments.”  Hannah plans to pursue a research career related to environmental geochemistry and contaminant remediation.

Within the past several years, five other graduate students (Jon Golla, Nicole Fernandez-Franzen, Julia Cisneros, Robby Goldman, and Jack Albright) were also selected among thousands of applicants for NSF fellowships.  Continued success reflects the very talented students who’ve been recruited into the Department of Geology graduate program, and extra efforts by department faculty and the Graduate College encouraging students to apply and helping them write strong applications.