Coastal Science Assistantship Program (CSAP)
Background | Protocol | Requirements | Benefits | Priority Research Areas | Application | Selected Proposals | Student Bios | Contact
Selected Proposals
2026 Selected Proposals
- Ros Visser, LSU – The Decadal Sustainability of the West Bay Sediment Diversion from Source to Sink
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Milena Alejandra González Puentes, Tulane University– Multi-Scale LiDAR Assessment of Aquatic Vegetation Geometry of Hydrodynamic and Morphodynamic Modeling in the Lower Mississippi River
- Alaya Zeaira Quinn, LSU – Quantifying Wetland Accretion and Change in Response to Storms through Statistical Analysis and Modeling
2025 Selected Proposals
- Madeline Foster-Martinez, UNO – What Comes Next? Tracking Wetland Transitions across the Louisiana Coast
- Cassandra Glaspie, John White, LSU – A Comparative Assessment of Sediment Characteristics and Benthic Infaunal Communities along the Northeast and Southwest Regions of the Lake Pontchartrain Estuary
- Carol Wilson, LSU – Linking Hydroperiod to Surface Elevation Change, Vertical Accretion and Subsidence (Shallow and Deep) in Louisiana’s Active and Deteriorating Deltaic Marshes
- Robyn Zerebecki, ULL – Investigating How Tidal Inundation and Plant Composition Influence Black Mangrove Growth and Survival to Inform Coastal Restoration
2024 Selected Proposals
- Sabarethinam Kameshwar, LSU — Coastal Master Plan’s Effect on Hurricane Safety of Aboveground Storage Tanks in Louisiana
- Megan La Peyre, LSU — Development of a Suitability Index Tool for Coastal Louisiana to Inform Site Selection for Oyster Based Living Shorelines that Both Enhance Estuarine Oyster Metapopulations and Promote Shoreline Stabilization
- Bingqing Liu, ULL — Revealing Phytoplankton Biodiversity in Louisiana Estuaries: A Hyperspectral Exploration with Field, Laboratory and Satellite Data Powered by Spectral Mixture Analysis
- John R. White, LSU — The Relative Contribution of Plant Uptake vs Denitrification of Nitrate in Water Quality Improvement from Sediment River Diversion Operations
2023 Selected Proposals
- Thomas Douthat, LSU – Flooding, Migration and the Coastal Master Plan: Linking Small Areas and Regional Dynamics to Big Events, Long-term Stressors and Planning Processes
- Lei Wang, LSU – Cloud-based Implementation and Dissemination Tool for Long-term River Diversion and Land Restoration Assessment near the Mid-Barataria Basin in South Louisiana
- Jonathan M. Willis, Nicholls – Elucidating the Successional Trajectories of Louisiana Barrier Island Vegetation Communities through Data Mining
2022 Selected Proposals
- Madeline Foster-Martinez, UNO – How do Physical Properties of Vegetation Modify the In-situ Flow and Sediment Regime?
- Sabarethinam Kameshwar, LSU – Hurricane Vulnerability of Aboveground Storage Tanks in Coastal Louisiana
- Paul Leberg, ULL – Assessing Resiliency of Coastal Seabird Communities Following Coastal Restoration and Hurricane Disturbance
- Jay Wang, LaTech – Development of Design Criteria for the use of Articulating Concrete Mats and Geosynthetic Separator Fabric as Protective Features for Earthen Containment Dikes Exposed to Localized Wave Forces
2021 Selected Proposals
- Navid Jafari, LSU — Quantifying Geotechnical Properties and Processes in the Fort St. Phillip Crevasse Complex: Implications to Sediment Diversions
- Ehab Meselhe, Tulane — Quantifying Sediment Retention and Morphologic Evolution in the Fort St. Phillip Crevasse Complex: Implications to Sediment Diversions
- Brian Roberts, LUMCON — Can Ribbed Mussels Augment Coastal Restoration Projects in a World of Rising Seas?
- John R. White, LSU — The Effect of “Freshening” by Sediment Diversion Flow on the Porewater Salinity, Nutrient Availability and Water Quality Improvement Functions of Barataria Bay Marsh Soil
2020 Selected Proposals
- Mead Allison, Tulane — Sedimentary aspects of land-building in the Fort St. Phillip Crevasse Complex
- Giulio Mariotti, LSU — Mud settling velocity in Barataria Bay: A crucial (yet neglected) parameter for marsh evolution
- Tracy Quirk, LSU — Factors influencing subsurface wetland dynamics in coastal Louisiana: Implications for wetland response to sea-level rise and restoration
- Carol Wilson, LSU — Time-varying rates of organic and inorganic mass accumulation in Louisiana marshes and relation to sea-level change
2019 Selected Proposals
- Karen Luttrell, LSU — Quantifying variability in subsidence patterns related to seasonal surface loads across coastal Louisiana
- Marla Nelson, UNO — Planning for Population Loss in Coastal Louisiana
- Jay X. Wang, LaTech — Development of a standardized (American Society for Testing and Materials, ASTM), repeatable, and consistent geotechnical laboratory testing procedure for the Low Stress Consolidation Test for the Marsh Fill
- Kehui Xu, LSU — Quantifying Erosional Process in Sediment Diversion Receiving Basins
2018 Selected Proposals
- Ioannis Y. Georgiou, UNO — Water and Sediment Fluxes in Restored and Unrestored Marsh Shorelines
- Navid H. Jafari, LSU — Comprehensive Sediment Balance of Marsh Creation Projects: From Hydraulic Dredging to Self-weight Consolidation
- John White, LSU — Determining Pre-project Wetland Soil and Estuarine Sediment Physical Properties and Phosphorus Cycling in the area of Influence of the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion
2016 Selected Proposals
- Ioannis Y. Georgiou, UNO — Coupled Barrier Island and Shoreface Dynamics: A comprehensive understanding of coast-wide response to transgression
- Malay Ghose-Hajra, UNO — Development of a comprehensive engineering design tool to predict and evaluate long term performance of Louisiana coastal restoration and protection projects
- Navid H. Jafari, LSU — Predicting Subsurface Settlement of Marsh Creation Projects and Flood Protection Infrastructure in Coastal Louisiana
- Torbjörn Törnqvist, Tulane — Understanding Mississippi Delta subsidence by integrating continuous coring with geodetic methods
2015 Selected Proposals
- Mark Hester, ULL — Factors that determine patterns of wetland plant species zonation and productivity following sediment diversions
- Alexander Kolker, LUMCON — Subsidence patterns and processes in coastal Louisiana: A comprehensive approach
- Jay X. Wang, Louisiana Tech University — Soil binding ability of natural vegetation Spartina alterniflora established on dredged soils in Louisiana coastal area
- Y. Jun Xu, LSU — Determining sediment accretion and availability in the lowermost Mississippi River
2014 Selected Proposals
- Megan La Peyre, LSU — Water Filtration Capacity of Oyster Reefs in Coastal Louisiana
- Paul Leberg, ULL — Evaluation of Maximum Entropy Models for Assessing the Restoration Scenarios Influence on Coastal Wildlife Populations
- John R. White, LSU — Mechanisms for Persistent Oiling Stress on Coastal Marshes from the BP Oil Spill Event: Potential Impacts to Coastal Marsh Sustainability and Ecological Function
- Kehui Xu and Victor Rivera-Monroy, LSU — Sediment-Plant Interaction Studies to Benefit Coastal Protection and Restoration of Louisiana