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KU Engineering professor wins NSF CAREER Award for research into wetlands’ water-quality benefits
LAWRENCE — An assistant professor of civil, environmental & architectural engineering at the University of Kansas who is studying the ability of wetlands to improve water quality by removing nitrate has won a five-year, $577,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Amy Hansen is the recipient of an NSF Early Career Development (CAREER) award for her work to understand the role of vegetation in nitrogen exchange and removal in riparian wetlands. She plans to engage KU students in the work through experiential learning in classes and to generate community engagement through collaboration with Baker Wetlands at the southern edge of Lawrence.
KU Center for East Asian Studies to host Migration Symposium
LAWRENCE — Members of the University of Kansas community and the public are invited to attend the Migration Symposium, which will take place April 5-6 at the KU. Hosted by the Center for East Asian Studies, the free event will include a keynote by Leslie Bow, author and University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of English.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Cody Howard, School of Engineering, 785-864-2936, [email protected], @kuengineering
KU Engineering professor wins NSF CAREER Award for research into wetlands’ water-quality benefits
LAWRENCE — An assistant professor of civil, environmental & architectural engineering at the University of Kansas who is studying the ability of wetlands to improve water quality by removing nitrate has won a five-year, $577,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.
Amy Hansen is the recipient of an NSF Early Career Development (CAREER) award for her work to understand the role of vegetation in nitrogen exchange and removal in riparian wetlands.
Hansen wants to clarify the conditions under which wetlands and floodplains can have a positive effect on water quality, especially when fast-moving rivers are sending nitrogen- and sediment-laden flows into the riparian acreages. The wetlands, filled with vegetation, allow such flows to slow significantly and even to pool, thus changing the chemistry of the local environment.
During periods of heavy rain, nitrogen from fertilizers runs from farm fields into streams and rivers. Such nitrate then can harm the local ecosystem and challenge the quality of water supplies.
Hansen’s previous research has shown that riparian wetlands can help improve water quality significantly. With the CAREER grant, she wants to document and specify the conditions under which such improvements are delivered, so that the information can help guide wetlands construction and management.
“This project responds to a scientific and societal need to generalize our understanding of the potential for riparian wetlands to mitigate impaired water quality under the expanding local, national and global footprint of agriculture,” Hansen said.
CAREER awards are considered among the NSF’s most prestigious. The awards are given annually to about 500 early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in both research and education. NSF expects recipients’ activities to build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research.
Hansen, who joined the KU faculty in 2018, plans for the research to extend into learning, both on campus and in the field. She plans to engage KU students in the work through experiential learning in classes such as CE 756: Wetland Hydrology and to generate community engagement through collaboration with Baker Wetlands at the southern edge of Lawrence.
Her team will gather observational data, detailing how much and how fast water flows into wetlands and how long it remains. Field experiments on wetland vegetation will measure the effect of water velocity and vegetation on rates of nitrogen transformation. Mathematical models then will be created to explain whether local-scale interactions can explain larger patterns in nitrogen removal.
The goal is to gain new information, change education and outreach and, ultimately, make a difference in water quality.
“My research has sparked a lot of interest from people who are invested in improving water quality and quantifying the ecosystem services that wetlands could provide,” Hansen said. “I hope that this new study transforms our understanding of how riparian wetlands can contribute to nitrate removal and informs new approaches that incorporate wetlands into water resource management and planning in agricultural landscapes.”
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Contact: LaGretia Copp, Center for East Asian Studies, 785-864-0307, [email protected], @KUEastAsia
KU Center for East Asian Studies to host Migration Symposium
LAWRENCE — Members of the University of Kansas community and the public are invited to attend the upcoming interdisciplinary symposium on migration organized by the KU Center for East Asian Studies. The free symposium is the culmination of its Title VI-funded, migration-themed programming, which also included a film series and guest speakers.
The Migration Symposium will take place from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. April 5 in Forum A of the Burge Union and 9 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. April 6 in the Parlors Room of the Kansas Union.
The first day of the symposium, “Art, Music, and Language through the Lens of Global Asia,” is organized around a keynote speech and faculty-led panels that address diverse issues and concerns, not limited to human migration.
Leslie Bow, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of English and Asian American Studies and Dorothy Draheim Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will deliver the keynote speech, “AI’s Race Fetish: Techno-Orientalism at the end of the American Century” at 9:30 a.m. In conjunction with the symposium and as part of the Global Asia Speaker Series on migration, Bow will also give a book talk on her recently published “Racist Love: Asian Abstraction and the Pleasure of Fantasy” at 5 p.m. April 4 in the English Room of the Kansas Union.
The second day of the symposium, “Asia in Motion: Migration, Movement, and Exchange,” is dedicated to KU graduate student presenters from history, history of art and film & media studies. The event was solely organized by Graduate Scholars in East Asian Studies (GSEAS).
“This is the first and largest academic event they have ever organized,” said GSEAS adviser Ayako Mizumura. “These young scholars did it all from proposing the symposium to implementing their vision. As a co-sponsor, CEAS is very proud of their accomplishment and excited to see the results of their hard work this week.”
Maki Kaneko, professor of the history of art and member of the CEAS migration steering committee, said the study of migration is both timely and urgent.
“Addressing the complexities of migration is crucial in our increasingly globalizing societies, necessitating both an academic investigation of its multifaceted impacts and concrete political actions,” she said. “Our symposium, which will feature not only scholars but also curators, teachers and composers, aims to shed light on the challenges and opportunities presented by migration and to emphasize the importance of crafting informed, empathic policies and practices.”
Additional information is available on the symposium website.
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