Research Grants at Lacawac
Lacawac is committed to supporting primary scientific research. Thanks to the generosity of the Watres and Moeller families, we are able to offer research grants to faculty, post-docs, graduate students and undergraduate students. The Robert Estabrook Moeller Research Fellow Award and the Isabel and Arthur Watres Student Research Award funds scholars conducting research that incorporates Lacawac's natural resources.
Applications for both opportunities are accepted on a rolling basis. Review of applications begins April 15th of each year. See below for details, previous awardees, and to apply!
Applications for both opportunities are accepted on a rolling basis. Review of applications begins April 15th of each year. See below for details, previous awardees, and to apply!
Robert Estabrook Moeller Research Fellow Award
Lacawac is now accepting applications for the 2025 R.E. Moeller Research Award
Applicants can be graduate students, post docs, or faculty. Preference will be given to scholars who are new Lacawac users or are starting new projects, and who request funding to cover Lacawac lodging, lab, and/or boat fees. Awards are up to $5,000 but are generally ~$2,500.
2024 R. E. Moeller Fellows
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David Velinsky, Professor, Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science, Drexel University
Impact of Freshwater Mussels on the Food Web Structure of Lake Lacawac: Use of Stable Isotope Systematics Dr. Velinsky obtained a BS Degree from the Florida Institute of Technology in Oceanography with a minor in Chemistry and was awarded his PhD degree from Old Dominion University in Chemical Oceanography. Dr Velinsky has been studying the movement and cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in estuarine and freshwater environments in the mid-Atlantic region and uses methods of stable isotope biogeochemistry to understand environmental change over time with modern and historic samples. A focus of his work are aspects of water quality and wetland ecosystem services relative to climate impacts in the Delaware and Barnegat Bays. He is a member of the Advisory Committee on Climate Change and the Toxics Advisory Committee at the Delaware River Basin Commission and a member of the Science Advisory Board for the State of New Jersey. Alexandra Bros, Pocono Lake Ecological Observatory Network
Regular Monitoring of a Highly Recreational Northeastern PA Lake Shows Low, Yet Persistent Toxicity in the Presence of Harmful Algal Bloom Visual Cues With three field seasons on lakes in the Pocono Mountains through PLEON, Alex has expertise in Pocono lake limnology, community science program maintenance and execution, and water quality monitoring in PLEON freshwater lakes. She is interested in lake dynamics, harmful algal blooms, eutrophication, and human impacts on freshwater systems. |
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Robert Moeller, a friend to Lacawac...
Robert was born in Chicago in 1949 and grew up roaming the hills and fields of western Pennsylvania. He went to high school at Shadyside Academy in Fox Chapel PA and did his undergraduate work at Dartmouth College. He earned his PhD from Cornell University in Aquatic Ecology, followed by postdoctoral work in Paleolimnology at the University of Minnesota and in Aquatic Ecology at Michigan State. His career involved positions at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Lehigh University, and most recently Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Many years of his life were dedicated to work on Lake Lacawac and other lakes in the Poconos of northeastern Pennsylvania.
From his earliest childhood Robert spent each day in active pursuit of knowledge. His unquenchable and wide ranging curiosity about matters from reptiles and bugs to fossils and rocketry as a child, through nature, history, music, culture, politics, literature, languages, and geography made asking him a question its own reward. It is the intention of the Robert Estabrook Moeller Memorial Fund to support promising young scholars in limnology with bright, inquisitive minds who will perpetuate this search for knowledge. Robert’s generosity extended to his establishing an endowed fund which will support Robert Estabrook Moeller Research Fellow awards to college and university students and faculty to do limnological research on Lake Lacawac and other Pocono region lakes. |
Previous Recipients 2022/23 Dr. Sarah Princiotta Biological Drivers of Cyanobacteria Blooms 2021 April Howden, Liverpool John Moores University Understanding the retreat of the North American Ice Sheet Addie Zeisler, Miami University of Ohio UV or Not UV: Behavioral responses of pumpkinseed sunfish to UV radiation 2020 Roger Thomas, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Freshwater Mussel Survey of Shallow-water Habitats within Lake Lacawac Dr. Jessica Moon, Murray State University Assessing Watershed Health in Response to Deer Browsing and Recovery from Acid Rain in a Hardwood Forest, Northeastern Pennsylvania 2019 Dr. Jessica Moon, Murray State University Long-term deer herbivory effect carbon pools and fluxes in a temperate forest. Lauren Adkins Knose, Miami University of Ohio Investigating algal responses, including community assembly and toxin presence, to changes in nutrient, light and temperature difference, accelerated by increasing dissolved organic matter (DOM). 2018 Dr. Alyson Thibodeau, Dickinson College Investigation of Lead Isotopes as Chronostratigraphic Markers for Lake Sediments in Northeastern Pennsylvania Dr. James R. Dearworth, Jr. , Lafayette College Ecophysiological Evidence for the Ability of red-eared slider Turtles to Adapt to Hypoxic Environments 2017 Dr. Elise Heiss, King's College Nitorgen Cycling in Lake Lacawac: Investigating Environmental Controls on Water Column Nitrification Rachel Pilla, Miami University in Ohio Mapping the Metabolic Landscape for Threatened Zooplankton Taxa in Lakes 2016 Dr. Christopher Dempsey, Gannon University The role of photochemical reactions and microbial degradation in the oxidation of dissolved organic carbon in Lake Lacawac 2015 Jennifer Brentrup, Miami University of Ohio A comparison of the fate of terrestrial dissolved organic matter in temperate vs. sub-tropical lakes 2014 Dr. Robyn Smyth, Bard Center for Environmental Policy Understanding changes in lake thermal structure: preliminary physical analysis of Lakes Lacawac and Giles |
Isabel and Arthur Watres Student Research Award
Lacawac is now accepting applications for the 2024 Isabel and Arthur Watres Student Research Award
Applicants can be undergraduate students at any stage of their degree program. Students must be advised by a faulty member, graduate student, or post-doc. Preference will be given to scholars who are new Lacawac users or are starting new projects, and who request funding to cover Lacawac lodging, lab, and/or boat fees. Awards are up to $500 but are generally ~$250.
2020 A. Watres Student Research Fellows
Benjamin Harris, Bard College
Advisor: Robyn Smyth, Bard College
Assessing phytoplankton of the surface and deep chlorophyll maxima of Lake Lacawac
Lacawac Sanctuary exists because of L. Arthur Watres and his mother Isabel Reyburn Watres. The Watres family owned the land the Sanctuary now occupies since 1913. Both Arthur and Isabel were dedicated conservationists and formed the Lacawac Sanctuary Foundation in 1966. They wanted Lacawac to be a “living laboratory” where scientists could conduct research and train the next generation. To further this vision, Lacawac Sanctuary offers financial support for undergraduate research in the form of the Isabel & Arthur Watres Student Research Fund. |
Previous Recipients
2020 Doan Nguyen, Miami University of Ohio Visualizing high-frequency data at Lacawac through interactive web application Jakub Zegar, Drexel University Revisiting Lacawac Sanctuary's herpetofaunal biodiversity, with particular focus on salamanders (Urodela) 2019 Mikaela Martiros, Bard College Assessing the DOM contribution of surface inflows into Lake Lacawac during summer storm events Mitchell Campbell, University of South Florida Survey at Lacawac Sanctuary: To help define the ecology of the red-eared slider turtles, Trachemys scripta elegans 2016 Ariek Norford, Franklin and Marshall College Changes in dissolved organic matter and impacts on dissolved oxygen and zooplankton Sarah Magyan, Gannon University The role of photochemical reactions and microbial degradation in the oxidation of terrestrially dervied dissolved organic carbon in temperate lakes 2015 Taylor Leach, Miami University of Ohio Living in a multidimensional world: Exploring the mechanisms that link vertical and horizontal habitat selection of zooplankton using acoustic techniques Tiffany Chin, Dickinson College Seasonal changes in the algal community of Lake Lacawac 2012 Jeffrey Babb, Miami University of Ohio 2007 Adam Heinze, Temple University Characterizing the mixotrophy of Dinobryon |
