Hannah Friedrich (BA ’16) was awarded a 2015 Honors Senior Thesis Summer Research Grant for her work in Mali’s Inland Niger Delta.

The bourgou pasture plains of the Inland Niger Delta declined significantly in extent from 1968 to 2000 due to poor floods and heavy human pressure. Freidrich’s research will focus on the dynamic relationship of bourgou with human land uses from the early 1980s to present within the Lake Débo lacustrine area, lying at the northern edge of the Inland Niger Delta of Mali. The main aim is to answer to what extent have bourgou plains recovered over the past fifteen years of improved flooding and what has been the effect of human land use on this recovery?​

The Honors Senior Thesis Summer Research Grants enable students to undertake more demanding and extensive senior thesis research projects than might otherwise be possible. Besides recognition of an excellent thesis proposal, grant recipients are awarded a cash stipend of up to $3000 to cover research-related expenses. All students who receive an Honors Senior Thesis Summer Research Grant have their thesis bound and placed in the Washburn Observatory library.