The Cushman Foundation for Foraminiferal Research, Inc., was founded in 1950 by a group of dedicated foraminiferal researchers to ensure the continued publication of the Contributions from the Cushman Laboratory for Foraminiferal Research, which was started in 1925 by Joseph A. Cushman. The stated purpose of the Foundation is “to promote research on foraminifera and allied organisms”.
The Joseph A. Cushman Award for Student Research supports Master’s and Doctoral Student research projects dealing with the systematics, biostratigraphy, paleoecology, and ecology of fossil or living foraminifera.
This year Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences Ph.D Student Jennifer Walker of the Sea Level Research lab won the award for her work “Reconstructing late Holocene sea-level in the Chesapeake Bay area using salt-marsh foraminifera”
Jennifer’s research focuses on the reconstruction of Holocene sea level changes along the U.S. Atlantic coast using forams and sedimentary indicators. The goal of this research is to improve understanding of past sea level to better predict how sea level rise into the future will affect coastal systems and coastal communities.