Summer 2021 REU alum and project lead Ronan Wallace has been awarded a Fulbright Research/Study Grant 2024-25 to Nepal for his research project Floods of Lubra. For his Fulbright, he plans to return to Mustang to document flooding impacts through photogrammetric modeling and ethnographic interviewing in communities affected by flooding. As Himalayan flooding grows more acute each year due to the climate crisis, Ronan believes that a lack of documentation of these impacts may result in inadequate adaptation strategies and perpetuate limits in relief funding. By contextualizing 3D models of flood damages and vulnerable heritage structures with first-hand communal experience, he will compile reports for informing local policy, requesting relief aid, and preserving cultural heritage.

Establishing his undergraduate research with E4E in 2022, Ronan funded his work through the Jan Serie Research Fellowship from Macalester College and the Alice Rowan Swanson Fellowship from the School For International Training. He has since published his work Relocating Lubra Village and Visualizing Himalayan Flood Damages with Remote Sensing in the Journal of Critical Global Issues, along with presentations at the Human Development Conference at the University of Notre Dame and the Sustainable AI Conference at the University of Bonn in Germany. He thanks his mentors, friends and family for their unwavering support and is ecstatic to see where this opportunity takes him.