News Release
November 12, 2008

UW master’s students receive Rhoads Scholarship for water research

Master’s students in zoology and physiology and civil and architectural engineering at the University of Wyoming have received the Willard C. and Elaine N. Rhoads Scholarship for Graduate Studies in Water Resources.

K.J. Reddy, associate director of academics, School of Energy Resources, said those receiving $2,000 scholarships were Anna Senecal and Oubeid Aziz. Reddy is also a professor in the Department of Renewable Resources in the College of Agriculture.

Senecal, a native of Ventura, Calif., received bachelor’s degrees in wildlife, fish and conservation biology, and nature and culture from the University of California, Davis. She was admitted to UW in 2007. Her research project focuses on assessing the potential effects of coal-bed methane effluent water on the summer low-flow habitat for native fish of the Powder River. Her adviser is Professor Wayne Hubert, leader of the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.

Aziz was born in Chouani Hambou in the Comoros Islands, which are in the Indian Ocean between the northwest corner of Madagascar and the east coast of Africa. He obtained his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering through a U.S. Agency for International Development fellowship. His work in Wyoming is finding relationships between Pacific Ocean climate variability and western United States snowfall. “This research will allow better predictions for snow water equivalent, which is an important source of runoff, and will help water managers with forecasts and water allocation,” he said.

His adviser is Glen Tootle, whom he met while working in the Comoros Islands. Tootle is an adjunct professor with the UW Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering. He is now an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Tennessee.

The Willard C. and Elaine N. Rhoads Scholarship for Graduate Studies in Water Resources was established to honor Willard Rhoads, a strong proponent for water research at UW and a long-time member of the Wyoming Water Development Commission. Funds for the Rhoads Scholarship were donated to UW by Mrs. Rhoads and her family and friends, with some matching funds provided by the university. Two scholarships to master’s students are awarded annually for use in furthering research on Wyoming’s water resources.

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Contact: Steven L. Miller, Senior Editor
Phone: (307) 766-6342
E-mail: slmiller@uwyo.edu
Archived News Site http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/UWAG/news.asp

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