Christa Kelleher ‘08, an assistant civil and environmental engineering professor and hydrologist, received $489,000 in grant funding from the National Science Foundation that will contribute to her upcoming research on stream temperatures.
Known as a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program award, or CAREER, the grant will allow Kelleher to begin research with students and begin a five-year study of Pennsylvania rivers and the Delaware River Basin.
“Our goal is to explore what drives stream temperatures in different parts of the landscape so that we get a better sense of patterns spatially and through time,” Kelleher said of her research.
A large part of Kelleher’s research will study riparian buffers — the strip of vegetation that surrounds a body of water — and she aims to look at how dams and stormwater ponds may affect these buffers.
According to Kelleher, she and her students will use stream temperature sensors in local landscapes like Bushkill Creek to measure and account for weather conditions. Her research will combine coding and fieldwork, both of which she said can be inviting to unfamiliar students.
“It’s different than handing a student a data set to analyze versus when you go out,” she explained.
Kelleher intends to unite research students and local communities to further the scale of stream temperature research.
“It’s very exciting,” Kelleher said. “There will be outreach events with local high schools and public presentations that will hopefully be in Easton to reach the broader Lehigh Valley community, then we will hopefully bring some people from outside of the Valley here to participate in the research.”
Fourteen years after graduating from Lafayette, Kelleher returned to College Hill as a professor in 2022.
“She sprinkles in things she thinks will be of interest to everyone and connects with you on a personal level,” Shana Peck ’25 said of Kelleher. Peck has taken several classes with Kelleher in her time at Lafayette.
Kelleher said she noticed local droughts as a growing consequence of changing weather patterns. Notably, the Lehigh Valley area encountered a significant drought in the latter months of 2024.
“So what does that mean for stream temperature?” she said. “Do we have good enough tree coverage around our streams in that our stream temperatures are really not that different between a drought year and non-drought year? Or are we really seeing those effects from lowered water levels in our streams?”
As Kelleher prepares to begin her research, she wants to demonstrate that the quality and functionality of local streams are fundamental to human life.
“We use our rivers for so many things,” she said. “We get our drinking water from them; we use them for replication. Even along the Bushkill, tons of fishing happens. It’s a beautiful place to be.”