ANNOUNCEMENTS & KUDOS

We are excited to welcome Sarah Converse as our newest faculty member! Sarah joined us mid-March as an associate professor and unit leader for the Washington Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, a position funded by the U.S. Geological Survey. Sarah’s home department with be with us in SEFS, and she will share a joint appointment with the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. Her office is in Anderson 123A, and you can email her at sconver@uw.edu. Please join us in welcoming Sarah, and we will have a longer introduction for her in the next issue!

From there, we’ll launch into some great kudos for SEFS doctoral student Korena Mafune, who was recently awarded a $750 William C. Denison Mentor Travel Award from the Mycological Society of America to present her research at the 2017 conference in Athens, Ga., July 16-19. Also, the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) accepted Korena’s abstract to give an oral presentation in Freiburg on September 18 to 22. Nice work!

Kudos to Professor Sharon Doty, who was invited to join an interdisciplinary team coming together for a College of Engineering initiative to create a Space Policy and Research Center on campus. Check out some of the other faculty involved in this evolving enterprise!

We also have kudos to junior ESRM major Jessica Alice O'Hanlon, who spent a day volunteering at the Northwest Environmental Forum on Wednesday, March 29. (Kudos, as well, to Sarah Thomas, who put in countless hours behind the scenes to pull off the forum!)

On the events front, tomorrow, April 11, the Seattle Public Library invites you to a talk featuring author and Seattle Times environmental reporter Lynda Mapes about her forthcoming book, Witness Tree. Her talk will be held at the Central Library at 7 p.m.

On April 18, Professor Erik Nilsen from Virginia Tech will be in town conducting research on rhododendrons at the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden in Federal Way for one of his research projects on the physiological ecology of rhododendron species. He will be giving a public seminar at UW on Tuesday, April 18, at 2 p.m. in Hitchcock 312: “Thermonastic leaf movements in Rhododendron: Patterns, functional significance and possible causes.”

Then, on April 29 Professor Sally Brown will be one of four panelists—including former Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn!—at a Teach it Forward event, “Confronting Climate Change.” The panel will be held at the Impact Hub (220 2nd Avenue South) starting at 1 p.m., with a networking reception to follow at 2:30 p.m. Learn more and register to join this great event!

Also, don’t forget that another Student Brown Bag Lunch is coming up this Wednesday, April 12, from noon to 1 p.m. in the Forest Club Room. Bring your lunch and come hang out with fellow students (staff and faculty also invited), and this time we promise to provide some treats!

DIVERSITY TOPICS

On Wednesday, May 3, the College of the Environment is hosting “Meet, Greet, Teach: An informal conversation on interdisciplinary approaches to teaching,” from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in Fishery Sciences 203. The theme this spring is “Expanding the Universe, Braiding the Path: Can non-Western ways play a role in expanding science education? How might we weave together multiple starting points to create a greater, integrated whole?” Among the four speakers will be Professor Ernesto Alvarado, and you can RSVP for free online (by May 2).

The next meeting of the UW Chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) will take place this Tuesday, April 11, from 5 to 6 p.m. in HUB room 334 (food will be provided). The topic for this month's meeting is: “Imposter Syndrome: what is it and how to defeat it.” SACNAS is open to all students and offers a support network, leadership development, mentorship and outreach opportunities for anyone interested in supporting underrepresented minorities in science. For more information, contact sacnas@uw.edu or check out their Facebook page (UW SACNAS Chapter).

COMMITTEE NOTES

Nothing new to report this week.

SEMINAR SCHEDULES

Wildlife Seminar: Mondays, 3:30-4:50 p.m., Kane 130

ESRM 429 Seminar: Tuesdays, 8:30-9:20 a.m., AND 223

SEFS Seminar Series: On hiatus until Autumn 2017

PUBLICATIONS

While on sabbatical last year, Professor Aaron Wirsing joined with SEFS Affiliate Assistant Professor Thomas Newsome and other Australian colleagues to write an essay addressing the possibility that wolves might once again be embarking on the path to domestication because of their increasing reliance on human food in many areas. The essay, published on April 5 in Bioscience ("Making a New Dog?"), explores the many possible consequences of human proximity for wolves, as well as other large carnivores—including Australia's dingo—which might also include increased conflict and disruption of ecological roles. The article has already garnered some media attention, including a write-up in Science, "Are some wolves being ‘redomesticated’ into dogs?"

SEFS IN THE PRESS

On March 29, EurekAlert ran a nice story, “Reusable carbon nanotubes could be the water filter of the future, says RIT study,” about a new paper published in Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology. Professor Anthony Dichiara is a co-author on that paper, “Emerging investigators series: highly effective adsorption of organic aromatic molecules from aqueous environments by electronically sorted single-walled carbon nanotubes.”

ALUMNI UPDATES

SEFS alumnus Ryan Haugo (’06, M.S.; ’10, Ph.D.), senior forest ecologist at The Nature Conservancy, was quoted in a Seattle Times story on April 3, “Thinning of forests aims to reduce fire risk in Central Cascades.”