Carol Wicks

Carol Wicks is a Professor in the Department of Geology & Geophysics at Louisiana State University (LSU), holding the Frank W. and Patricia Harrison Family Professorship. She specializes in karst hydrogeology, focusing on hydrological, ecological, and geochemical interactions in cave streams and karst aquifers. Her research includes sediment transport dynamics, groundwater-surface water interactions, and the application of isotopic tracers like ⁷Be.

Education: B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Clarkson University (1980), Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia (1992). She advises multiple graduate and undergraduate students, including Ph.D. candidates Andrew Webb and Joseph Honings.

Key honors include the 2017 National Speleological Society Science Award and fellowships from the Geological Society of America (GSA), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and National Speleological Society (NSS). Her work bridges geoscience and environmental policy, as seen in her 2021 paper addressing systemic racism in academic geology departments.

Research focuses on karst systems’ vulnerability to contamination, climate change impacts, and hydrologic modeling. She collaborates on projects like the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale characterization and maintains an active Google Scholar profile (http://ow.ly/qD4J309WqLJ).