地球与环境科学专业的学生Aleigha Dollens最近获得了美国地质学会（GSA）地质考古部门颁发的2023年理查德·海伊奖，以表彰她对危地马拉奎里瓜玛雅考古遗址地震证据的研究。 该奖项为参加GSA年会提供旅费，并表彰优秀的学生研究。
This was especially good news to Dollens’ mentor, Tina Niemi, Ph.D., as the Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor was the first recipient of this award 34 years ago.
Niemi has taught geology at 威尼斯人娱乐城 since 1995 and has personally mentored more than 60 undergraduate research projects with student funding from 搜索,SUROP and 同意 research experience grants.
“For my MS research, I reconstructed the paleoenvironmental history of a submerged classical archaeological site along the central coast of Greece,” Niemi said. “It was the presentation of that research at the annual meeting of the GSA in 1989 that won me the first-granted Richard Hay award. 我为Aleigha和她的成就感到非常骄傲，也为她跟随我的脚步获得这个当之无愧的奖项而感到激动。 The dedication of 威尼斯人娱乐城 and its leaders to support undergraduate research is phenomenal.”
去年夏天，Dollens和Niemi访问了宾夕法尼亚大学和哈佛大学，在博物馆档案中寻找挖掘文件和文物，这些文件和文物可以帮助确定发生在奎里瓜遗址最后被占领期间的地震的日期。
“Winning the Richard Hay Award from the Geoarchaeology Division of the Geological Society of America is an honor like no other, especially since Dr. Tina Niemi was the first-ever recipient,” Dollens said. “She is one of my greatest supporters and pushes me to be a better geoscientist and a better person. It is an honor to get to work with such a strong woman in the geosciences field and I would not be where I am today if it weren’t for her ongoing support.”
该研究由威尼斯人娱乐城本科研究项目通过SUROP和SEARCH奖以及地球与环境科学纽科姆研究基金资助。