Alabama Water Institute Brock Parker, AWI Senior Editor/Writer

Dr. Cory Armstrong is the chair for the Department of Journalism and Creative Media in The University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences. Her areas of research include media diversity, influences on media content and media messages concerning severe weather.

She was recently awarded a $15,000 grant to partner with the National Weather Service office in Memphis, Tennessee, to study how effective tornadic-related weather information is on the public.

Dr. Carla Atkinson from The University of Alabama's Department of Biological Sciences discusses the importance of freshwater mussels, intermittent streams and her recent awards and grants to continue her research on both.

Dr. Mark Elliott discusses a new grant from Columbia University to begin researching more affordable and healthier wastewater solutions in Alabama's Black Belt region. The project is a collaborative effort from several universities and organizations.

Dr. Mojdeh Rasoulzadeh is in the Department of Mathematics at The University of Alabama. Her research involves flow and transport modeling in highly heterogeneous subsurface formations. She also studies analytical solutions and numerical simulation of hydro-mechanical-chemical processes in porous media, as well as groundwater flow modeling in karst aquifers.

The topic for her talk is hydrodynamic driven dissolution in carbonate formation and how it applies to the creation of sinkholes.

Dr. Glenn Tootle from The University of Alabama's College of Engineering discusses his recent Fulbright Scholar Grant and researching paleohydrology at home and abroad as a civil engineer.

Dr. David Weston, senior staff scientist from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, spoke at the AWI Symposium in December 2019. The topic for his presentation focuses on implications on a plant-microbiome system influencing peatland carbon and nitrogen cycling.