Elyse Kenyon Awarded The Environmental Science Research Award
Elyse Kenyon (Environmental Science Major; English Minor) was one of two seniors awarded the Environmental Science Research Award. This award is given to the senior Environmental Science major who, in the judgment of the Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences faculty, has done the most outstanding work in individual environmental research.
Elyse Kenyon is an undergraduate research student with Professor Iris Stewart-Frey and Lecturer Jake Dialesandro in the Water and Climate Justice Lab investigating the impact of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) on nitrate concentrations in shallow wells. She has used ArcGIS and the R programming language to assemble and clean nitrate concentration data sets and water table information from multiple sources. She has also used aerial imagery to digitize the presence of CAFOs in her study area. Elyse developed this project herself and has been an exceptional, committed, and capable team leader that has trained more junior students. Elyse has won a two-year Clare Boothe Luce undergraduate student fellowship, presented her work at local and an international conference (i.e. Kenyon et al., American Geophysical Union, 2024 ), and is the co-author on a peer-reviewed manuscript close to submission. She is creative when it comes to finding solutions to analysis. She is willing to take a deep dive into the question and data at hand, willing to revise her assumptions, ask new questions, and cross-check results. Elyse will start a Ph.D. program in hydrology at UC Davis in the fall.