The Desert Research Institute has awarded the $12,000 George B. Maxey Fellowship to Graduate Research Assistant Mark B. Green who plans to use the fellowship to study nitrogen and phosphorous limitation of periphyton-microorganisms such as algae that grow on underwater surfaces-in the Truckee River watershed. Green, who is working toward his M.S. in hydrology/hydrogeology at the University of Nevada, Reno, sees his research as applicable to watershed-level nutrient dynamics everywhere. Green completed his undergraduate education at Minnesota State University in May 2000.
Maxey, a renowned hydrogeologist, was an early and prominent director of DRI's Water Resources Center who established the first Ph.D. program in Nevada's higher education system. He and his wife, Jane, also provided considerable extracurricular support and guidance for the hydrology and hydrogeology graduate students. The Maxey Building at DRI's Northern Nevada Science Center in Reno is named in Dr. Maxey's memory.
The fellowship was established by Elizabeth "Betty" West Stout, a paleontologist who is a longtime supporter of DRI and a friend of the late Maxey's. Mrs. Stout has underwritten numerous research and fund-raising activities, and the Institute's conference center in the Northern Nevada Science Center in Reno is named in her honor.
A nonprofit, statewide division of the University and Community College System of Nevada, DRI pursues a full-time program of basic and applied environmental research on a local, national, and international scale. Nearly 400 full- and part-time scientists, technicians, and support staff conduct some 150 research projects at DRI annually. More than 87 percent of DRI's annual $33 million operating budget consists of research grants and contracts obtained by its scientists. The balance is received from the state of Nevada for administrative costs.