Graduate Students Receive Geological Society of America’s Medlin Award
Michelle Chrpa and Samuel Neely make Department of Geology and Geophysics history, as this is the first time that both Antoinette Lierman Medlin Research Awards have been awarded to students in the same department.
Nov 25, 2019
Michelle Chrpa and Samuel H. Neely, Ph.D. students in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, recently received the Antoinette Lierman Medlin Research Award from the Geological Society of America (GSA) Division of Energy Geology. Chrpa received the award for analytical research and Neely for field work.
The national GSA Foundation awards provide monetary support and recognition to full-time graduate students in energy science and are funded by an endowment to GSA.
This is the first time that both Medlin Awards have gone to students in the same department.
Michelle Chrpa’s research focuses on the origin of Late Pennsylvanian coal balls, which are carbonate concretions formed in coal swamps that record ancient communities in stunning detail. She will use the award to fund analyses made on the Electron Microprobe at the Texas A&M Materials Characterization Facility.
Samuel H. Neely’s research focuses on modern peat accumulation and decomposition rates in tropical and subtropical mangrove wetlands, which are sites of carbon sequestration along tropical coastlines and depositional analogs to ancient Carboniferous wetlands.
Dr. Anne Raymond, professor of geology and geophysics, serves as the faculty advisor for both students.
By Ali Snell
