April 25, 2024
K-State geography major wins Undergraduate Student Poster Award at national conference
Jessie McClellan, senior in geography, won the Undergraduate Student Poster Award from the Geomorphology Specialty Group at the recent American Association of Geographers national conference in Honolulu, Hawaii.
McClellan's winning poster, "Fluctuating Flames: Illuminating Fire Patterns through Charcoal Stream Sediment," synthesizes the results of the undergraduate research project she has been working on for the 2023-2024 academic year under the supervision of Abigail Langston, assistant professor of geography.
McClellan's research on analyzing charcoal abundance in sediments from Kings Creek at Konza Prairie was supported by the Division of Biology's Konza Prairie NSF LTER. The charcoal found in modern stream sediments is a valuable proxy for prehistorical fire events and helps to illuminate the dynamic relationship between fire regime and stream morphology.
McClellan will graduate with honors in May and will attend the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in the fall to pursue her master’s degree.