Environmental Studies Professor Receives Grant from NSF

Dr. Michael S. Fenster

Environmental Studies Associate Professor Michael S. Fenster, Ph.D., has been awarded a $181, 525 grant from the National Science Foundation.

Through his project, titled "MRI: Acquisition of Side-scan Sonar, Seismic Reflection Profiling, and Differential Global Positioning Systems in Support of Coastal and Shallow Marine Research and Teaching Activities," Fenster will conduct coastal, marine and estuarine research. His goals include developing scientific ways of predicting barrier island dynamics based on sediment supply, storms, tides, tidal inlets, waves, sea-level fluctuations and inherited geologic controls.

The NSF grant will allow the purchase of side-scan sonar and seismic reflection equipment, which will facilitate the collection of data and the development and testing of new models. It will also provide a state-of-the-art geophysical system to be used aboard the Miss Jane, a 22-foot-long Privateer boat donated to the environmental studies program by Mrs. Jane Iden, wife of the late Dr. Robert W. Iden ’50.

Fenster, who began teaching at Randolph-Macon College in 1999, earned a B.S. and M.S. at the University of Mississippi and a Ph.D. at Boston University. He conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Virginia. Fenster currently serves as the director of the college’s environmental studies program.