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DONATE TO Great Salt Lake Institute

Great Salt Lake Institute at Westminster University endeavors to connect people to Great Salt Lake through research and education.

Donating to programs is easy. First, tell us how much you would like to donate then click “Next Step.” Next use the dropdown menu to direct where you would like your tax-deductible donation to be directed. Your donations can support:

  • Hands-on Undergraduate Research: We support loads of undergraduate student researchers, their faculty mentors and the many activities they are involved with. All donations will be directed to their various projects.
  • Brine Fly Research: Monitoring of the brine fly life cycle with the changing lake levels and salinity to determine the population health.
  • Soil Microbiomes Research: Understanding the relationship between shoreline soil microbes and lake level fluctuations, and how the microbial diversity of shoreline soils is impacted by decreasing lake levels.
  • Extremophiles Research: Pigments in the north arm microbes help prevent DNA damage and salt pumps help cells get rid of the salts inside. These are secrets of life in extreme environments. Isolating haloarchaea may be useful in biotechnological applications including cloud seeding.
  • Microbialite Research: The algae and cyanobacteria power the microbialite system with the sun’s energy. Identifying the cyanobacteria that may be helping the microbial mats on the bottom of the lake recover after the microbialite mats were exposed due to the receding lake, and there for the microbe communities died off, will help us learn how microbialite resilience and recovery.

Thank you for helping us accomplish our mission. Please contact Great Salt Lake Institute if you have any questions.

Special thank you to the following donors:

  • National Science Foundation
  • NASA Utah Space Grant Consortium
  • Preston Chiaro
  • Tim D. and Janice D. Dee Foundation
  • Northrup Grumman
  • Willard L. Eccles Foundation
  • The George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation
  • Stephen G And Susan E Denkers Family Foundation