UAA announces 2024 ConocoPhillips Alaska Arctic Science and Engineering Endowment Award recipients

As the nation's only Arctic state, Alaska faces unique challenges and environmental conditions unlike anywhere else in the United States. Faculty and students at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) continue to drive research that tackles regional challenges in practical ways, such as studying the influence of ice loss on Alaska water resources, tools for permafrost detection, population dynamics in Arctic wildlife and more.

Through the ConocoPhillips Arctic Science and Engineering Endowment Awards, the university awarded more than $500,000 in support to fund exploratory research projects and promote student participation in research. The award recipients presented their research projects at an event on April 18, 2024. The event will feature keynote presentations from civil engineering professor Scott Hamel and biological sciences professor Jonathan Stecyk. Following the keynotes, a poster session of recent and past awardees will be held allowing for open conversation on project objectives, progress and findings.

"Enabled by the ConocoPhillips Arctic Science and Engineering Endowment, UAA continues to invest in projects that create the tools, techniques, data and workforce to make the Arctic thrive," said Dr. Aaron Dotson, UAA vice chancellor for research. "This year's projects seek to develop workforce skills in catalysis, understanding ice loss, stress ecology and detecting thaw-unstable permafrost. The anticipated outcomes have direct and near-term benefit to our region through the engagement of both UAA faculty and highly engaged undergraduate and graduate students."

Selected projects must promote and grow the fields of Arctic science and engineering, demonstrate a likelihood of major scientific or engineering impact and strongly connect to community and industry. Programs, research and activities inclusive of Alaska students, communities, projects and opportunities are given priority.

Created in 2008 as part of a $15 million gift from ConocoPhillips Alaska, the endowment provides annual support to Arctic science and engineering programs and research at UAA and is the largest endowment in the University of Alaska system. Including projects awarded in 2023, there have been 52 projects totaling $4,227,488 funded by the ConocoPhillips Arctic Science and Engineering endowment.

The winning projects for fiscal year 2024 include:

IPSEL1: Developing world-class students and industry workforce skills in catalysis through an International Student Exchange with the University of Lyon 1, France. (Patrick Tomco, principal investigator) The goal of IPSEL1 (International Program for Student Exchange with Lyon 1) is to lay the groundwork for a successful long-term relationship between UAA and the University of Lyon 1 Claude Bernard, France. Through student and researcher exchange opportunities across both institutes, it will broaden the experience of students and create new network opportunities for existing UAA researchers in Arctic Science and Engineering.

Influence of Arctic and Subarctic ice loss on Alaskan water resources under rapidly changing climate.
(Jordan Jenckes, principal investigator; Lee Ann Munk, co-principal investigator) Changing climate is altering the hydrology and water quality of streams and rivers across Alaska, which affects communities that rely on freshwater resources for subsistence and commercial fishing. Alaska lacks a unified dataset that combines publicly available streamflow and water quality. This project proposes to integrate underutilized datasets across many data sources to create a single database of Alaska river water chemistry and streamflow.

Non-Invasive, Cost-Effective Thaw-Unstable Permafrost Detection by Microgravimetry.
(Utpal Dutta, principal investigator; Zhaohui (Joey) Yang, co-principal investigator) Arctic and sub-Arctic Alaska is underlain by permafrost, and rising air temperature and anthropogenic activities result in widespread permafrost degradation, threatening the safe occupation of buildings and the integrity of infrastructure and coastlines. Engineering measures are available to mitigate these hazards, but these measures rely on locating the thaw-unstable permafrost features. This study will use the microgravity survey method, originally used to detect large-scale anomalies in oil explorations, for detecting thaw-unstable conditions in permafrost areas.

Stress ecology: linking mercury, individual strategies, and population dynamics in Arctic wildlife.
(Amy Bishop, principal investigator; Benjamin Barst, co-principal investigator; Lorrie Rea, co-principal investigator) Global processes concentrate mercury in Arctic ecosystems, and contaminant accumulation in marine food webs can result in adverse health effects for wildlife and humans that consume marine resources. 'Stress ecology' studies in coastal Alaska are challenging due to the remote locations, leaving a knowledge gap in the effect stressors like mercury have on coastal communities that rely on healthy marine ecosystems for subsistence or traditional resources. This project will use archived samples and reproductive data from grey seals from the north Atlantic to understand Alaskan pinniped populations.