KY NSF EPSCoR

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A National Science Foundation (NSF) Program created to build a strong science and technology researc

The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) has partnered with Kentucky’s state government, academic institutions and industries since 1986 to build a strong science and technology (S&T) research infrastructure within the state. The program has directly supported 1,900 Commonwealth researchers in the last ten years and creates about 50 new S&T jobs each year. Our supported participants represent academic institutions across the entire state, including both of the Commonwealth’s research universities, as well as regional, private and community/technical colleges.

10/06/2026

At Super Collider, this year’s poster session featured 40 research posters, giving students the opportunity to share their work, discuss their findings, and connect with researchers and partners from across Kentucky.

Congratulations to this year’s poster award winners:

🏆 Shahriar Mardpour — University of Louisville, Civil & Environmental Engineering (PhD)

🏆 Ian Earley — University of Louisville, Civil & Environmental Engineering (Master’s)

🏆 Ava Reed — Morehead State University (Undergraduate)

We also want to thank every student who presented and helped make the poster session a highlight of this year’s Super Collider. Your research, conversations, and contributions continue to move CLIMBS forward.

Congratulations to all of our presenters!

10/02/2026

Year three of connecting research, ideas, and people at the annual Super Collider event.

This year’s Super Collider welcomed 140 guests and featured 40 research posters, continuing the event’s growth as a space for researchers, students, and partners from eight college institutions across Kentucky to share their work and make new connections.

This year also brought new opportunities through invited speakers, including Kentucky Emergency Management Director Eric Gibson and Dr. Ning Lu of the Colorado School of Mines, an internationally recognized researcher whose work explores soil mechanics, hydrology, and challenges such as precipitation-induced landslides.

Beyond the presentations and posters, Super Collider gave attendees opportunities to network, exchange ideas, and build connections across projects.

Thank you to everyone who presented, attended, and helped make this year’s event possible!

09/03/2026

KY NSF EPSCoR and CLIMBS would like to welcome Logan Hrindich to the team as our new Education, Outreach, and Communication intern! Colton is a senior at the University of Kentucky and is majoring in Environmental and Sustainability Studies with a minor in Public Policy.

Says Logan,

"I'm looking forward to collaborating with universities across Kentucky to continue advancing the research and action behind the CLIMBS program. With my background in energy, I hope to explore how energy burden influences climate-resilient communities and better understand the steps needed to address these challenges."

09/02/2026

KY NSF EPSCoR and CLIMBS would like to welcome Colton Rudd to the team as our new Education, Outreach, and Communication intern! Colton is a sophomore at the University of Kentucky and is a double major in Agriculture Education & Advocacy, and Communications.

Says Colton,

“With this internship, I’m most looking forward to strengthening my communications skills, developing new skills, and helping share the important work of CLIMBS. The project's mission feels especially personal and meaningful to me as someone from Eastern Kentucky, where my own community and others around the region have been directly affected by flooding and other natural hazards."

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.

Address

2624 Research Park Drive
Lexington, KY
40511

Telephone

+18592570351

Website

http://kynsfepscor.org/

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