A University of Alabama researcher will team up with at Michigan State University to study the relationship between the size of heat waves and what causes them across the United States. David Keellings is an assistant professor of geography at the University of Alabama. He was recently awarded a three-year, $340,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The goal of the grant is to develop models to help predict when and where heat waves will occur. Heat waves have become larger and more severe in the past 60 years.