Scholarships

Veterans’ Memorial Scholarship For Any Veteran or Current Member of Any Branch of the United States Armed Forces

The Veterans’ Memorials Scholarship is awarded to a graduate student at any accredited college or university who is a veteran or who is currently serving in any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.  It seeks to reward excellence in geologic achievement and has few restrictions.  The Foundation welcomes applications in all earth science-related sub-disciplines, many of which are listed on the application page. This scholarship was created in memory of geologists who served in the Armed Forces and have sacrificed time and life to preserve freedom in our country.  It has been supported primarily by World War II veterans who are member of RMAG and their families.

The 2023 Veteran’s Memorial Scholarship was awarded to:

Patricia Standring, Ph.D. candidate, Geology, University of Texas, Austin

Patricia Standring, Ph.D. candidate, Geology, University of Texas, Austin

Patty’s dissertation topic is “Ocean circulation changes in the western Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico during the Eocene-Oligocene transition.” Patty’s work is under the direction of Dr. Chris Lowery. She plans to use foraminiferal population and geochemical analyses to reconstruct deep-water flow, surface water circulation changes and foraminiferal turnover. She will be working with existing sediment cores collected by the Deep Sea Drilling Project and the Ocean Drilling Project from a number of drill sites. She will analyze oxygen isotope ratios which will help provide paleoenvironmental data for both deep and shallow water environments. X-ray fluorescence scanning of sediment cores will reveal abundance of major, minor, and trace elements that can reflect changes in oceanic processes through time.

Patty has a B.S. in Geological Sciences from the University of Texas, Austin, and an A.A. in Persian-Afghan from the Defense Language Institute. She is a veteran of the United States Air Force. The Foundation Trustees thank her for her service.

The 2022 Veteran’s Memorial Scholarship was awarded to:

Wade Aubin, PhD candidate, University of Texas at Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences
“Unraveling the thermal evolution of the pyroclastic density currents from the Crater Lake climactic eruption”