CLIMBS STUDENT PARTICIPANTS
CLIMBS students are an essential component of building climate resilience in some of Kentucky’s key industries–manufacturing, data analytics, agriculture, energy transition, and engineering. They will become the science and engineering workforce that will allow these key industries to flourish and build momentum in the state economy.
Name
Photo
Institution
Project
Research focus
Sanskar Adhikari
Western Kentucky University
Project 1
Assessing hydroclimatic variability and extremes
Iftar Alam
Univ. of Kentucky
Project 6
Transportation engineering
Maggie Alden
Morehead State University
Project 2
Holocene paleoclimate and sedimentary records at Big Bone Lick, Ky.
Batool Alomari
Univ. of Kentucky
Project 5
Predicting climate-driven hillslope hydro-mechanical response
Joseph Ammons
Univ. of Kentucky
Education & Outreach: Learning Hub
The use of carbon isotopes to understand the relation between flow regimes and benthic paraphyton (primary benthic algae) influence on sediment
Emerson Amy
Univ. of Dayton
Education & Outreach: Learning Hub
How predation effects fecundity in fish and a bioassessment of the Ohio River
Ali Araji
Univ. of Kentucky
Project 3
Utilizing passive seismology through the deployment of low-cost broadband seismometers in the Jackson Purchase Area of Western KY, and developing the tools to determine the spatiotemporal extent of groundwater recovery
Max Bell
Univ. of Louisville
Project 2
Utilizing dendrochronology to examine past climates, enabling better understanding of how the climate is changing and what future changes might look like
Trevor Bramblett
Univ. of Louisville
Project 1
Ranking and classification of snowstorms that have occurred in Kentucky since 1960 using GIS and analysis
Brannan Campbell
Eastern Kentucky University
Project 3
Nutrient content in the water catchment at EKU’s Meadowbrook Farm
Luciano Cardone
Univ. of Kentucky
Project 2
Kentucky River Basin flooding over the past 150 years from historical and geological perspectives
Boneng Chen
Univ. of Kentucky
Project 5
Rainfall-induced landslides
Mackenzie Choffel
Univ. of Kentucky
Project 2
We evaluate how flood response (flood height and timing) may change in the near future (2030-2050) due to climatic preconditions such as sea surface temperature and soil moisture.
Mary Covell
Univ. of Kentucky
Project 2
Big Bone Lick
Wyatt Crutcher
Western Kentucky University
Project 7
Assessing hazards and identifying higher risk regions within Kentucky
Justin Delph
Morehead State University
Project 2
History of floods through soil
Ian Earley
Univ. of Louisville
Project 1
Building, modifying and deploying EXtreme PREcipitation Surface Stations (EXPRESS) to gather data on extreme precipitation along with other meteorological phenomena
Scott Furlong
Univ. of Kentucky
Project 3
Safeguarding Kentucky’s water supply
Alexis Fugatt
Western Kentucky University
Project 1
Documenting variability in Kentucky snowfall phenology and hydrologic influence
Isaac Grimm
Univ. of Louisville
Project 2
Exploring blue light reflectance for strengthening paleoclimate models using tree rings
Harmony Guercio
Western Kentucky University
Projects 1 and 7
Describing the climatology of snowfall event frequency, timing, and intensity in the Ohio River Basin
Emelia Harris
Univ. of Kentucky
Project 3
Precipitation trends in Kentucky
Mir Ali Hosseini
Univ. of Louisville
Project 4
Rainfall-induced soil infiltration and runoff investigation
Claire Houk
Univ. of Kentucky
Education & Outreach: Learning Hub
Sediment transport
Nicholas Johnson
Univ. of Louisville
Project 4
Franklin Kondum
Univ. of Louisville
Project 4
Improving flood prediction in headwater streams by combining hydrologic hysteresis analysis with physics-informed machine learning models
Ben Lampton
Univ. of Louisville
Project 1
The spatial and numerical distribution of severe wind gusts in Kentucky
Arlex Marin Ramirez
Univ. of Louisville
Project 4
Modelling flash floods in Appalachian headwaters
Nicole Marks
Univ. of Kentucky
Project 6
Using anthropological research methods to gain a deeper understanding of the culture and communities, and local networks that create and sustain community resiliency
Adam McKinney
Morehead State University
Project 4
Matthew Menig
Western Kentucky University
Project 1
Quantifying snowstorms within Kentucky
Emma Miller
Morehead State University
Project 2
Examining soil and soil textures
Devin Moore
Northern Kentucky University
Education & Outreach: Learning Hub
Erosion and Macroinvertebrates
Lorenzo Moreno
Western Kentucky University
Project 4
Modeling future stormwater runoff in karst environments using climate data
River Morfitt
Northern Kentucky University
Education & Outreach: Learning Hub
Examining macroinvertebrates and urban stream syndrome, erosion, eDNA
Nusrat Munia
Univ. of Kentucky
Project 7
Developing multimodal AI systems for crisis informatics, with the goal of improving disaster detection, damage assessment, and response. I integrate diverse data sources such as social media text, images, and geospatial information to build models that can analyze crises in real time.
Nana Pinkrah
Western Kentucky University
Project 1
Conducting high resolution model simulations of high-impact meteorological events
Jalyn Radford
Western Kentucky University
Project 1
Evaluating model configurations for representing weather conditions in Appalachia
Ryan Ramsey
Univ. of Kentucky
Project 5
Marianna Ritchie
Morehead State University
Project 2
Paleo perspectives using palynology to establish a base line to predict flooding events
Connor Romines
Univ. of Kentucky
Project 4
Sinkhole and groundwater transport, soil composition & effects on groundwater flow
Zayed bin Saif
Univ. of Kentucky
Project 3
Water budget modelling for Kentucky’s watersheds
Josh Sherman
Univ. of Louisville
Project 1
Building a climatology via NEXRAD Radar to understand extreme precipitation events that have occurred in Kentucky over the last 30 years
Amelia Slaton
Murray State University
Project 4
The most recent flooding in Hazard, KY, how flooding effects the people of Hazard, what is causing the flooding/ the geographical factors that affect flooding, and how to mitigate this flooding
Hannah Sprinkle
Morehead State University
Project 2
Establishing a Kentucky climate baseline using paleoclimate and palynology to predict flooding events and improve climate resiliency
Kyle Spurlock
Univ. of Louisville
Bailee Stidham
Thomas More University
Education & Outreach: Learning Hub
Heightened salinity levels effects on duckweed growth
Siavash Taherinavid
Univ. of Kentucky
Project 6
Resiliency of highway transportation infrastructure in Kentucky
Anju Thapa
Univ. of Louisville
Project 4
Christopher Tuwor
Western Kentucky University
Project 1
Assessing how the weather systems responsible for extreme precipitation in the Mid-South US are changing over time
Benjamin Woodson
Western Kentucky University
Project 7
Understanding how weather impacts fatalities directly and indirectly in Kentucky
Zane Yates
Murray State University
Project 7
Comparing the FEMA flood insurance rate map of Kentucky counties against the April 2025 flood
Linuode Ye
Univ. of Louisville
Project 4
Transportation and human behavior
Nicholas Zrelak
Western Kentucky University
Project 7
Using past weather data to better understand future risk assessment for each region of Kentucky