2008 Sterling L. (Bud) Burks Award for Outstanding Staff Environmental Research

Dr. Eliot Atekwana, Associate Professor of Geology, received his MS in Geology from Howard University in 1987 and his Ph.D. in Hydrogeology from Western Michigan University in 1996.  Dr. Atekwana specializes in aqueous and isotope geochemistry, which he applies to remediation of acid-mine drainage and other types of water contamination.

He is listed as the PI or co-PI on 13 research grants, amounting to $1.5 million, since 1999.  Since joining the OSU faculty in 2006, Dr. Atekwana has won two grants from the National Science Foundation.  The first is entitled Research Opportunities in Neotectonics of Incipient Continental Rift Zones for US Undergraduate and Graduate Geosciences Students in Botswana and Zambia for $150,000 and the second is entitled Acquisition of a Field Emission Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope to Enhance Research and Teaching at OSU for $605,000.

Dr. Atekwana has also authored or coauthored 23 articles in peer-reviewed national and international scientific journals.  He has also written 8 technical reports and field trip guides and has presented his research at 55 national and international conferences.