2017 Harriet Evelyn Wallace Scholarship Winners Announced: Clarice Perryman and Zena Cardman

Clarice Perryman, University of New Hampshire - M.S., expected May 2018, studies biogeochemistry at the University of New Hampshire’s Department of Earth Science. She investigates carbon dynamics of peatlands and wetlands, specifically studying geochemical controls of methane oxidation in thawing permafrost. She will be conducting field research at Stordalen Mire, a permafrost peatland in Abisko, Sweden, this summer to continue her research. Results from her research will help further validate biogeochemical models of peatland and wetland systems to ultimately produce more accurate model predictions of total carbon emissions.

Zena Cardman, Pennsylvania State University - Ph.D., expected December 2018, studies how microbial activity and environmental geochemistry influence each other in Pennsylvania State University’s Department of Geosciences. Her primary research project is on Manantial del Toro: a submerged cave in the Dominican Republic, and home to huge biofilms that hang like living orange Jell-O stalactites. She is analyzing metagenomic data to identify potentially novel links between the nitrogen and iron cycles in this cave, with a special interest in ammonium oxidation and iron reduction in low-oxygen and variable oxygen settings. She hopes her research will offer insights into what microbial metabolic strategies were viable during oxygenation on early Earth.

The Wallace Scholarship is celebrating its fifth year supporting women geoscientists in graduate school. The original bequest was given from Harriet Evelyn Wallace, who was one of the founding members of the Geoscience Information Society (GSIS), a national organization and AGI Member Society that facilitates the exchange of information in the geosciences. The scholarship is awarded to the top applicants who most exemplify strong likelihoods of successful transitions from graduate school into the geoscience workforce.