KY NSF EPSCoR

07/23/2026

Thanks to WYMT and Jake Levine for visiting our Enviropods Camp in Hazard last week. Check out the coverage below!

07/14/2026

Progress.

The CLIMBS-funded, newly launched Slope Hydrologic Monitoring Network combines 24 monitoring stations across landslide-prone terrain with real-time data, advanced modeling and machine learning to better understand how hillsides respond to weather and identify when they may be approaching failure.

Read more on UK NOW from Christian Honce: https://lnkd.in/e7G39FJd
Check out LIVE data now! Refreshing every 15 minutes! https://lnkd.in/eBu3yfaj

This network is the first of its kind in the eastern United States, and provides public access to interactive maps, soil moisture data, weather overlays and slope stability information. This gives researchers, emergency managers, and communities valuable tools to help build storm resilience.

This represents the power of collaboration among universities, state agencies, local organizations, and communities to turn research into actionable solutions that help protect Kentuckians.

Kentucky Geological Survey

06/17/2026

What if the walls of a historic log cabin could tell you not just when it was built, but what the climate was like hundreds of years ago?

That’s exactly the question driving the work of University of Louisville researcher Dr. Maegen Rochner, whose fieldwork is part of Project 2: Paleo-Perspectives, one of the core research initiatives within CLIMBS. In this video, she and her team take us to Owingsville, Kentucky.

By extracting small core samples from the logs of an early 1800s cabin, her team is able to “read” tree rings—natural records that capture year-by-year snapshots of temperature, rainfall, and drought going back centuries. Because old-growth forests are now rare in Kentucky, these preserved historic structures are invaluable. Each log is essentially a climate archive hiding in plain sight.

In the video, you’ll see exactly how the samples are collected in the field, why certain logs are chosen over others, and how researchers use the patterns inside the wood to reconstruct Kentucky’s environmental past. Produced by Avi Judd.

Check out the full video on our YouTube page! https://lnkd.in/gcXcQ4Ry

06/01/2026

Bear witness to some great news! Our Lily Cornett Woods hazard station has passed inspection!✔️

04/28/2026

The CLIMBS Learning Hub is where science gets its boots muddy.

Led by Dr. Jen O'Keefe of Morehead State University, along with Amy S. Collick and UK's Jimmy Fox, CLIMBS faculty and students from across Kentucky gathered in Rowan County last summer for an interdisciplinary field day at the Sphagnum Swamp, extracting core samples and learning how to use them to reconstruct the climate record of this unique wetland habitat.

From sub-sampling and soil science, to palynology processing, microscopy, and climate reconstruction, participants experienced the full arc of paleoclimate research hands-on, in the field, and in collaboration with peers from institutions across the Commonwealth.

The CLIMBS Learning Hub connects students and faculty across disciplines and institutions to build research skills, and a shared network as we build storm resilience in Kentucky.

Video by Aviana Judd.

03/13/2026

📌Apply to the Learning Hub today!

The Learning Hub Scholars program is a PAID collaborative 10-month training program (August to May) that trains undergraduate student researchers in the fields of geoscience, engineering and biology.

Learning Hub Scholars, in collaboration with their mentors, develop project objectives and scientific hypotheses, conduct research experiments and field data collection, and present findings at the annual Learning Hub Conference. Students across the state participate in monthly instructor-led virtual hangouts to develop “soft skills” needed for career success, followed by technical sessions to develop science and engineering skills.

ELIGIBILITY: Must be enrolled in a Kentucky college or university. Applications accepted for this year and future years of the program.

APPLY: Email a one-page resume and a 200-word maximum statement of interest to one of the Learning Hub instructors listening in this post. The deadline is April 1, 2026.

03/02/2026

Since the surface only tells part of the story, teamed up with Morehead State University and Screening Eagle Technologies for a couple hands-on days of resistivity and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) training and research.

We were at Big Bone Lick State Historic Site to work on KY NSF EPSCoR CLIMBS Project 2, Paleo-Perspectives, which aims to investigate the sediment layer for insights into Kentucky's flooding history.

It’s collaborations like this, academia, state survey, and industry, that pushes our understanding forward while giving students real-world experience with cutting-edge tools.

Big thanks to our partners for helping us see what we can’t see.

Full video: https://youtu.be/oBTcH9cvrIc

Article: https://kynsfepscor.uky.edu/digging-smarter-how-screening-eagle-and-climbs-are-building-kentuckys-paleoclimate-record/

02/26/2026

🏠What do log cabins have to do with hazard resilience? 

Last week dendrologist Dr. Meagan Rochner and her team of students went to Owingsville, Kentucky to take core samples from the beams of a historic log cabin. Stay tuned for learning how the data retrieved from these samples not only dates the age of the cabin, but contributes to CLIMBS Project 2: Paleo-Perspectives.

02/19/2026

02/18/2026

Northern Kentucky is CLIMBing 🌊🔬

This summer at , five undergraduate researchers traded the classroom for the field—living and working at the and diving headfirst into real-world watershed science under the leadership of Chris Lorentz.

Here’s what they explored:
• Aarianna Bess – Tracking E. coli + coliform shifts in streams (dry vs. wet weather)
• Jessica Larka – Assessing stream health in Gunpowder Creek (Boone County)
• Isaiah Voet – Testing heavy metal filtration in native vs. invasive mussels
• Emerson Amy – Studying how predator visibility affects fathead minnow reproduction
• Bailee Stidham – Measuring road salt impacts on duckweed growth
 
This work is part of the CLIMBS Learning Hub, which is an eight-institution collaboration connecting faculty, grad mentors, and undergrads across Kentucky to strengthen research skills, build networks, and advance climate resilience for communities statewide.
As Professor Lorentz shared, the real impact wasn’t just in the data, but in the transformation. Students grew as scientists, collaborators, and leaders while contributing to solutions that matter.
 
🔗 Read more at the link in bio!
ClimateResilience