The University of Delaware Water Resources Center (UDWRC) Advisory Panel has selected the following students in five colleges at UD and Delaware State University for its undergraduate and graduate research program during 2016-17, it was announced recently by Gerald J. Kauffman, center director.

These competitive undergraduate internships and graduate research assistantships are funded by the U.S. Department of Interior and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) through the Water Resources Research Act (WRRA) signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1964.

The UDWRC is one of the 54 National Institutes for Water Resources (NIWR) supported by the USGS at land grant universities in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the island territories of Guam, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.

The UDWRC is celebrating its 50th anniversary as this federally supported research center was established on campus in 1965, just a year after Johnson signed the WRRA.

Just a few weeks ago, U.S. Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) visited the office at UD to meet with students and discuss critical water resources issues in the news in Delaware and throughout the nation.

The UDWRC is based in the Delaware Geological Survey (DGS) Annex at 261 Academy Street and is part of the Institute for Public Administration in the School of Public Policy and Administration and the College of Arts and Sciences.

UDWRC student researchers

• Natalie Criscenzo, UD energy and environmental policy and public policy major. Adviser: Philip Barnes, UD Institute for Public Administration. “Overcoming Policy and Planning Barriers to Resilient and Sustainable Communities in Delaware.”

• Lauren Glinko, UD geography major. Adviser: Delphis Levia, UD Department of Geography. “Causes of Change of Irrigation in the Eastern United States.”

• Madison Gutekunst, UD environmental engineering major. Adviser: Rodrigo Vargas, UD Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. “Linking Below Ground Greenhouse Gas Concentrations with Water Chemistry in the St. Jones Estuary.”

• Benjamin Jenkins, Delaware State University natural resources-fisheries management major. Adviser: Dewayne Fox, Delaware State University Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “Estimating the Spawning Population of Atlantic Sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus) in the Delaware River.”

• Maya Kassoff, UD environmental science major. Adviser: Gerald Kauffman, School of Public Policy and Administration. “Water Quality Monitoring in the White Clay Creek National Wild and Scenic River Watershed.”

• Andrea Miller, UD environmental studies major. Adviser: Gerald Kauffman, School of Public Policy and Administration. “Water Quality Monitoring in the White Clay Creek National Wild and Scenic River Watershed.”

• Courtney Rempfer, UD environmental science major. Adviser: Rodrigo Vargas, UD Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. “Designing an Automated System to Monitor O2, CO2 and CH4 from Sediments in a Salt Marsh.”

• Ilana Schnaufer, UD chemistry and environmental science double major. Adviser: Delphis Levia, UD Department of Geography. “Variations in the Residence Time and Isotopic Signature of Stemflow along an Edge-to-interior Transect.”

• Jacob Shelton, UD environmental studies major. Adviser: Maria Pautler, UD Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. “Sustained Water Quality Monitoring of Possum Creek and Noxontown Pond, Delaware.”

• Patrick Wise, UD biological sciences and history double major. Adviser: Angelia Seyfferth, UD Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. “Variable Regulation of Silicon Transporter Gene Expression in Rice.”

• Lauren Lechner, master of science student, environmental engineering. Adviser: Pei Chiu, UD Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “Nutrient Removal from Stormwater, Wastewater, and Agricultural Runoff Using Scrap Iron and Biochar.”

• Daniel Sanchez Carretero, doctoral student, environmental engineering. Adviser: C.P. Huang, UD Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “Electrochemical Reduction of Dissolved Carbon Dioxide in Water to Hydrocarbons.”