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October 21, 2013, Vol. 46, #6       SEFS  |  Offshoots  |  Facebook  |  Support SEFS  |  College of the Environment

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One Heck of a Ride

Back in Seattle for his final quarter at SEFS, Ross Kirshenbaum spent the last year in Nicaragua as part of a study abroad internship. “It was a dream job,” he says. “Half the time I was in rural Nicaragua working with farmers, making compost, planting, sowing, weeding—very physical, manual work. The other half, I was in the office in Managua, developing partnerships with other organizations teaching organic agriculture, and developing a curriculum with an agronomist to organize workshops with farmers.” Read more about Kirshenbaum’s experience abroad, and see if you get inspired to take a similar plunge!

BLOG BITS

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Professor Moskal Delivers Keynote Address at Conference in Beijing

In addition to her talk for the 2013 SilviLaser conference, “LiDAR for the Measurement and Monitoring of Forest Ecosystem Services,” Professor Moskal was invited to address a group of students and faculty at the University of Geosciences.

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"Tree of the Week" Sprouts Again!

In case you haven't noticed, the "Tree of the Week" display in Anderson Hall (and out by the bus stop) is back in business! For nearly two months now, SEFS graduate student Shannon Armitage has been cycling in a different tree species to feature each Monday. Stop by and check it out!

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SEFS Seminar Series: Week 4

Increasing albedo through leaf pubescence has long been recognized as an effective morphological adaptation for plants in hot and dry environments. Will breeding crops for high albedo be an effective adaptation strategy for climate change? Find out tomorrow with Professor Soo-Hyung Kim!

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Pileated Woodpeckers in Suburban Seattle?

This past Friday, October 18, SEFS graduate student Jorge Tomasevic gave the second talk—“A New Neighbor on the Block: Pileated Woodpeckers in Seattle’s Suburban Areas”—as part of the new speaker series, “Evening Talks at ONRC.”

UPCOMING EVENTS


Oct. 21, 2013:

Wildlife Science Seminar, 3:30-4:20 p.m., Bagley Hall, Room 131

Oct. 22, 2013:

SEFS Seminar Series, 3:30-4:20 p.m., AND 223

Oct. 24, 2013:

A Dead Elk Halloween Party, 5 p.m., Forest Club Room

Oct. 30, 2013:

Harvest Pine Luck, 6-8:30 p.m., Forest Club Room

 

GET INVOLVED

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ANNOUNCEMENTS & KUDOS

Kudos to Lisa Nordlund for coordinating the ESRM Major/Minor/Capstone event last Thursday! Thanks also to ESRM major Ross Kirshenbaum and Professor Gordon Bradley, who each gave presentations, and to Kaila Turner, who helped organize and design presentations. We gave a good show to prospective students thanks to all of their hard work!

As part of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, the Office of the Chief Information Security Officer at UW is offering free online courses to help you stay safe and savvy on the Web!

In case you missed it, a few days ago Michelle Trudeau sent out some excellent news on the enrollment front! In addition to our student body growing more diverse, our total undergraduate numbers are up 4.6 percent to 412 students this fall—the highest we’ve seen in the past two decades. Minors and graduate student enrollment are slightly down, but we’re still up 11 percent in student credit hours over last autumn—so nice work, everyone!

On October 17, Professor Elaine Oneil was one of five panelists for an education event hosted by AIA Seattle, “Resources and Methods for Building Sustainably with Wood.” Oneil talked about the carbon life cycle of wood and current research on materials that provide carbon sequestration.

PUBLICATIONS

Professor Fernando Resende contributed to a new article coming out in Fuel, “Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis of aspen lignin via Py-GC/MS.” The topic should sound familiar if you attended his great SEFS Seminar talk two weeks ago!

SEFS IN THE PRESS

Professor Sally Brown was quoted in a piece at Science Codex, “Urban Soil Quality and Compost,” published on October 14.

You might have seen Professor Sarah Reichard’s name in the news, as well, in a story on ThurstonTalk.com, “When Will Bad Fall Storms Hit? Just Ask the Trees.”

ALUMNI UPDATES

Julie Combs, who earned her Ph.D. from SEFS, and Mu-Ning Wang, a current Ph.D. student here, recently appeared on public television in Taiwan. Combs says they did lots of editing and left out some great information, but plenty of good stuff made it in, and you can pick up the action a little after the one minute mark. Very cool!