Two University of Idaho students have been selected for the 2014 Avista-Waters of the West Scholarship, an interdisciplinary scholarship program funded by Avista Utilities and offered through the UI Environmental Science and Water Resource Programs.
Abby Lute and Marcus Myrvold will each receive $2,500 for their academic success and their research in areas of environmental science. Avista originally offered the program only to electrical engineering majors, but later expanded it to include related disciplines as the Waters of the West Scholarship.
“We may see a J.D. student, we may see a master’s student,” said Paul Kimmel, Avista regional business manager for the Palouse. “The water issue is not just one profession, and we’re happy to see that kind of diversity. I think the two scholarship winners this year hit us in two areas that are of great interest and importance to us.”
Lute, a master’s student, researches extreme snowfall events in the Western United States and the snowpack variability caused by fluctuating El Niño and La Niña years — which has a significant effect on the region’s water supply.
“I didn’t want to be a performance cellist, and I like snow and mountains, so this was a way to do that,” Lute said. “You have to be able to cope with a lot of water or not enough water, so we’re trying to shed a little light on that.”
Myrvold, originally from Norway, studies the steelhead trout population in the Lapwai Creek Watershed by attaching electronic tags to young fish and monitoring them as they develop. His research has answered some questions about how the fish survive in populations of various sizes, and how water temperature, especially during hot summers, can stress the fish and cause them to lose weight.
“You really have to think carefully about which rivers you are focusing your effort,” Myrvold said about the balance between preservation of fish stocks and human demand. “I saw that my research was a good fit for (Avista’s) mission, and that’s why I applied for it.”
Kimmel, who also serves on the Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee, said the relationship between student research and Avista is important not only to the needs of the utility company, but to the water needs of the entire community. Avista’s management hopes to actively support this relationship in the future through the Waters of the West Scholarship and similar programs offered at other universities.
“We certainly pay attention to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) initiatives going on around Washington, Idaho and Oregon,” Kimmel said. “We have lots of representation serving different roles, and we hope we are not always reactive and can be proactive with our university partners.”
Daniel Durand can be reached at [email protected]