UA geosciences raises $500,000 to fund doctoral fellowships

The University of Arkansas Department of Geosciences has raised $500,000 to fund doctoral fellowships, meeting a fundraising match challenge grant from the Walton Family Foundation.

Research is a core component of the geosciences doctoral program, Christopher Liner, the Storm Endowed Chair of Petroleum Geology and chair of the geosciences department, said in a UA press release.

The doctoral program, the only one of its kind in the state, was founded in 2012.

“Meeting this match will allow us to further enhance our research and degree programs,” Liner said, according to the release. “Geosciences research requires rigorous observation, quantitative analysis and modeling in order to yield scientific results that are acceptable for publication in first-rate, internationally ranked journals.”

The geosciences doctoral program is designed for students preparing to work within academics, industry or government and focuses primarily on research of basin evolution and analysis, in addition to crustal and mantle composition, tectonic evolution, dynamic geomorphology, groundwater dynamics, paleoclimatology and geoinformatics, according to a UA press release.

Since the department’s external advisory board was formed 10 years ago, it has received $3.2 million in cash donations and pledges and $12 million in software and equipment, Liner said.

“A big thank you goes out to the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation, incredibly generous donors like Maurice Storm, and everyone who has helped make the Department of Geosciences what is today,” Clayton Davis, advisory board chairman, said in the release. “You have all truly made our degrees even more valuable. Your work will have a positive, transformational impact on our alma mater for decades to come, keeping the Department of Geosciences a strong and vibrant program with a bright future.”

The department is located within the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.