Thanks to a $46,300 award from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Earth Sciences – Instrumentation and Facilities program, Michael Zaleha, associate professor of geology, will increase geology and marine science students’ understanding of sediment transport in innovative ways.

Zaleha’s funded proposal titled “Acquisition of an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler and Gauging Station to Study Processes and Deposits Associated with the Evolution of Gravel Point Bars, Mad River, Ohio,” will allow geology students working on their senior research experience as well as students in upper-level courses to work with leading-edge instrumentation that professional sedimentologists use as they study stream systems.

The acoustic doppler cur rent profiler allows students to measure the velocity of water and sediment as a Doppler shift, the apparent change in frequency of sound between a signal being both transmitted and received by the instrument as it bounces off moving sediment. The technology is also employed by marine scientists in estuary, coastal and offshore marine settings. By applying the technology to stream sedimentology, Wittenberg will now be among only a handful of U.S. schools conducting such research.