Two St. Lawrence Faculty Awarded Walker Research Fellowships
Two St. Lawrence University faculty members were awarded T. Urling and Mabel Walker Research Fellowships for 2015.
Carol Cady, a geographical information systems specialist and maps librarian, was awarded $4,938 for her project, titled "Digital Agricultural Atlas of St. Lawrence County." She will partner with the St. Lawrence County Planning Office to develop the atlas, which will contain digital mapping files that will be made available to the public on an interactive website. The files will include critical information to assist the farming industry, including aerial imagery, U.S. Department of Agriculture land capability classifications on soil suitability for use as cropland and response to management, land constraints that can hinder agricultural production, municipal land use regulations and current Agricultural District boundaries. The creation of such a comprehensive overview will significantly improve the efficiency of land use in the county, and in turn, its overall economic health.
Mindy Pitre, assistant professor of anthropology, was awarded $5,095 for her study, titled "Death in St. Lawrence County: Mapping the Poorhouse Cemetery." The bioarchaeologist will map the St. Lawrence Poorhouse Cemetery, located on the Eastern bank of the Grasse River in Canton, using ground penetrating radar, GPS, GIS and 3D scanning. The results will assist with the interdisciplinary Death in St. Lawrence County project and are critical for documentation, interpretation and preservation of the cemetery, revealing invaluable insights about life in American poorhouses in the 19th and 20th centuries, and giving voice to many of the county's most vulnerable and long-forgotten residents.
Funding for this program comes from the Campaign for the T. Urling and Mabel Walker Research Fellowship Program, which is administered by the Office of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at SUNY Potsdam. Nine area professors were awarded fellowships to support research projects. They include faculty members from Clarkson University, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, SUNY Potsdam and St. Lawrence University.
Learn more about the Walker Fellowship program.
