UIndy students present at national geological conference

Three University of Indianapolis students will be presenting research at the 2018 Annual Meeting of The Geological Society of America, taking place November 4-7 at the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis. Approximately 6,000 scientists are expected to attend.

Vanessa Bump ‘19, a double major in environmental science and earth-space science, has been working on her research for the last two years. She’ll be presenting “Investigating Scoria Cone Morphology Via GPR Imaging in Crater Flat Volcanic Field” at the conference.

Stephanie Burdsall ‘19, an earth space science and environmental science major, conducted research through the senior capstone class about ways to increase human interaction with the natural environment. She partnered with biology professor Roger Sweets to create a virtual, educational “tree walk” of the UIndy campus, and hopes it will be open to the public by the end of 2019.

Sarah Ruehl ‘20, an environmental science and sustainability double major with an earth-space science and biology minor, has been working on independent research for a few semesters. That included writing a realistic fiction paper about what would happen if an EF3 tornado hit the UIndy campus. She’ll be presenting “The EF3 Meets UIndy” at the conference.

Leah Courtland, assistant professor in the physics & earth space science department, was the faculty advisor for all three research projects.