Earlier this spring, Senator Patrick Leahy announced a five-year collaborative grant between Castleton and the University of Vermont, along with other Vermont institutions, at the ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain. The Basin Resilience to Extreme Events (BREE) grant is part of the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, a section of the National Science Foundation built to increase research and excitement in U.S. states that are generally underfunded by the NSF.
Professors Andrew Vermilyea and Rich Clark will serve as collaborators on the project for Castleton, joined by select students that will use grant funds to examine the resiliency of the Lake Champlain Basin to extreme weather events.
“I am playing a role in the natural sciences sector, while Rich Clark, along with the Castleton Polling Institute, are critical to the social and political realm,” said Vermilyea, adding that Castleton’s award totals nearly $288,000 over the next five years. “Students will be involved in all aspects of the grant and will have the opportunity to collaborate with graduate students and faculty at UVM.”
Over the years science-based grants have created countless outside of the classroom learning opportunities and experiences for Castleton students and faculty members. Those involved have the ability to explore career options, make professional connections and apply their classroom teachings to real world examples.
Various members of the Natural Sciences and Political Science departments will work hand in hand on the project to analyze how extreme weather events influence water quality and study the feedback mechanisms between government, residential decisions, agriculture, and water quality.
“The idea is to have current science influence policy to protect the waters of the Lake Champlain Basin. As a group we try to model the entire system, so variables can be tweaked and the impact on water quality can be observed,” explained Vermilyea.
Vermilyea hopes that research grants such as the BREE will open Castleton up to future grants and will continue to help establish the University as a worthy social, political, and natural science research institution.