Alaska graduate honored for dissertation on Siberian lakes

On Dec. 7 University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate Dr. Katey Walter received the nation’s most prestigious honor for doctoral dissertations by the Council of Graduate Schools at the organization’s 46th annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

The council makes two awards each year to recognize recent doctoral recipients who have already made notable contributions to their fields.

The council’s 473 member institutions represent nearly all of the major research universities in the United States and Canada, each of which can nominate only one dissertation in each of two categories.

Walter will receive the 2006 award in mathematics, physical sciences, and engineering for her dissertation titled Methane Emissions and Biogeochemistry of North Siberian Thermokarst Lakes.

Improve climate model accuracy

Walter’s results suggest an important positive feedback to global warming and are expected to improve the accuracy of climate models.

One chapter of Walter’s dissertation has already been published in Nature.

Originally from Reno, Nevada, Walter had the opportunity to live in Russia for a year at the age of 16. After “falling in love with the language” she made a point to make it back to the country as often as possible, continuing to do work in sciences and in hospitals. A scholarship from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the opportunity to work with Terry Chapin, professor of ecology, brought Walter to UAF after entertaining offers from Cornell and Princeton. “I wanted a strong mentor, and his projects in Russia seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to continue visiting the country,” Walter said.

Walter will continue her work as an International Polar Year postdoctoral fellow in biogeochemistry at the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

—Amy Spittler