Claudia Lewis awarded Fulbright grant for study in Spain

Contact: Kay Roybal, k_roybal@lanl.gov, (505) 665-0582

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., Dec. 4, 2000 -- Claudia J. Lewis, a technical staff member in the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory's Geology and Geochemistry group has been awarded a second Fulbright grant to continue her study of the structural geology and tectonics of a particular area of the Spanish Pyrenees. The study will be done in collaboration with colleagues at Desert Research Institute, Las Vegas, Nev., and the Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain.

Lewis received a Fulbright Student Grant to study tectonic processes in the Pyrenees at the Universidad de Barcelona in 1994-1995. The current project is an extension of that earlier project, addressing fundamental questions about how mountainous topography evolves following plate-tectonic, continental collisions, and how river systems respond to post-tectonic processes.

"The Spanish Pyrenees and the adjacent Ebro Basin comprise an outstanding locality for isolating processes that drive rock-uplift in mountain ranges created by plate tectonic collisions, but where active compression and crustal thickening have ceased," Lewis said. "The results of this project will form a foundation for many future studies of landscape evolution, soil forming processes, archaeology, and impacts of tectonics and climate change on the continents. The results will also be applicable to questions of landscape stability and potential contaminant transport at existing and proposed hazardous waste repositories, both in Spain and in the United States."

Lewis, who received her doctorate in Geology from Harvard University, joined the Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow in 1996. In addition to her ongoing work in Spain, she participates in the Laboratory's Seismic Hazards Program and various 3D geological modeling efforts near to home (the Española Basin) and far away (the Tibetan plateau.) She also serves on the Laboratory's Women's Diversity Working Group and served this past year on the Fellows Selection Committee.

A strong proponent of women in science, Lewis herself was discouraged by inadequate high school science and math from pursuing a major in Geology as an undergraduate. She opted instead for American Studies.

"It wasn't until after college, when I was working at a small, independent wood energy research lab in Santa Fe that I discovered I could do science," she said. "I took evening courses in college Algebra, Calculus, Physical Geology and Chemistry at Santa Fe Community College and UNM/Los Alamos. After that, I knew I was ready to get the geology degree I always wanted."

Lewis, who is fluent in Spanish, will spend two months next spring and again in 2002 doing research at the Universidad de Zaragoza as a Fulbright Senior Scholar.