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Ashley Barton and Donny Loughry Graduate Student Spotlight Back to "Doing" Science by Guy Spriggs
photos by Richie Wireman


Earth & environmental graduate students Ashley Barton and Donny Loughry took separate but similar paths to their graduate education at the University of Kentucky.

Both are natives of West Virginia. Both completed undergraduate degrees in education and have experience as teachers. Both had an interest in science and nature from a young age, and both relished the opportunity to be interviewed outside on a sunny day.

Most importantly, however, both Barton and Loughry decided that graduate study in UK’s Earth and Environmental Science (EES) Department was the right outlet for the their passion for science.

So
Ganesh Tripathi

Graduate Student Spotlight

by Jessica Fisher
photos by Shaun Ring

Most people in Kentucky associate the relationship between the state’s water and its limestone geology with world-famous bourbon and strong competitive thoroughbreds.

For Ganesh Tripathi, a graduate student in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Kentucky, it was his interest in groundwater systems, and how limestone affects such systems, that brought him to Lexington, Ky., from Nepal in 2007.

So, besides unique groundwater systems, top-rated horses and the best bourbon in the world, just what is so great about limestone? As Tripathi’s research indicates, it is not always as picturesque as the Kentucky landscape may suggest.

Tripathi first became fascinated with karst groundwater systems after receiving a master’s

Earth & Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Trevor Strosnider
by Sarah Vos

For work this summer, Trevor Strosnider, a junior majoring in geology, donned a hard hat and descended into a Nevada gold mine. He identified rocks and fault lines, measured how far mining tunnels had been extended and used that information to help the Newmont Mining Corporation find gold.

Before he left for Nevada, Strosnider had no idea what he would be doing at the mine. He learned of the internship after a representative from Newmont, one of the world’s largest gold producers, made a presentation at UK. A professor encouraged him to apply, even though Strosnider didn’t think he was qualified. He had studied geology at UK, but did not specialize in gold mining and mineral extraction.

But a few weeks later the offer came: $20 an hour, 40 hours a week, to work in the company’s

 

Susan (Camenisch) Eriksson started her studies at UK as a music major, with a focus on piano. But when she took an honors section of geology during her junior year, she was hooked.

“After one exam, I went up to the TA and said, I love this, I love, this, I love this!” she recalls. “I was so excited. I said I wished I had found geology as a freshman.”

Eventually, her UK professors—particularly Dr. Bill Blackburn—helped Eriksson make the switch to majoring in geology as a junior, and she was able to graduate with just one extra semester of

 

Was it destiny or some predisposition that led John Yozwiak to the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences? Or maybe it simply was a matter of finding a great opportunity.

Yozwiak, whose grandfather was the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Youngstown State University, was born in Binghamton, N.Y., but found himself relocated with his family to Lexington, Ky., when he was six.

Upon graduating from Lexington Catholic High School in 1990, Yozwiak, who comes from a long line of college graduates, knew that college was certainly the next step. He used his experiences from visiting friends at UK as well as his desire to stay close to home in choosing his collegiate destination.

“My family has always valued education. Therefore, attending college was very important to me,” Yozwiak said. “In part, I decided to attend the University of