The Farouk El-Baz Student Research Grant will enable her to pursue her investigation of relative rates of fossilization of dinosaur and Pleistocene mammal bones and how these vary between different environments.
Keenan will carry out the bulk of her field work in the Badlands of Montana, with possible further work in Texas, to collect material for analysis and lab work in the UK.
The award and funds will be presented to her at the next annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Portland, Oregon this October.