Join us for ice cream sundaes as we bid farewell to the 2017-2018 academic year and honor this year’s College of the Environment award winners! UW Environment’s fourth annual Spring Celebration will be held at the Fishery Sciences Building at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 15, 2018. This event is for friends, colleagues and peers across all departments at the College and provides an opportunity to recognize a few of our incredible faculty, students and staff.
After the College’s Executive Committee serves up ice cream and attendees mingle, Dean Lisa J. Graumlich will introduce each awardee and recognize their achievements. Chosen through a College-wide nomination process, awardees were recognized by their colleagues for making unique, inspiring and meaningful contributions to our community during the academic year.
Exceptional Mentoring of Undergraduates
Chelsea L. Wood, assistant professor, Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
From Chelsea’s nominator(s):
- A recent recipient of the 2018 UW Distinguished Teaching Award, the Sloan Fellowship, a UW Innovation Award and an ESA Early Career Fellow, Chelsea’s nominators say her success in cultivating undergraduate students stems from her treating them like people first and academics second.
- “When she asks her students how they’re doing, they know she genuinely cares.”
Joshua Krissansen-Totton
Graduate Dean’s Medalist
Joshua Krissansen-Totton, graduate student, Earth and Space Sciences and Andre Perkins, graduate student, Atmospheric Sciences
From Joshua’s nominator(s):
- “In a recent paper published in Nature Communications, Josh examined the link between the long-term climate for the Earth and geologic carbon cycle.
- “Josh has published eight papers as a graduate student, and on six of those he was the first author indicating that the great bulk of the work reported was his own.”
Andre Perkins
From Andre’s nominator(s):
- “Andre’s research shows that it should be possible to approximate the behavior of climate models by representing them in compact form, essentially capturing their behavior over the short term using an empirical forecast model. His work shows definitively that this method not only works, but significantly improves the skill of the method. Published in 2017, this single paper moves the field of paleoclimate data assimilation forward by leaps and bounds.”
- “Andre he has hosted more than 1,000 high school students visiting the department in the past two years.”
Jacob Hendrickson
Undergraduate Dean’s Medalist
Jacob Hendrickson, undergraduate student, Atmospheric Sciences
From Jacob’s nominator(s):
- “A McNair Scholar, Jacob has been actively involved in the department through his research and his participation in the student American Meteorological Society Club among other groups.”
- “Jacob is a positive force within the department. He has the doggedness of a good scientist and the humility of a good teacher. The world needs more scientists like him, and the department is fortunate to have him.”
Isadora Jimenez Hidalgo
Outstanding Commitment to Diversity
Isadora Jimenez-Hidalgo, staff, Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
From Isadora’s nominator(s):
- “This spring, Isadora also found a new SAFS outreach program called Students Explore Aquatic Sciences (SEAS). It focuses on raising awareness for how our department and its research areas among local teachers and youth outreach programs. Diversity and equity is a central tenet of the SEAS outreach program, as well.”
- “The impacts of Isadora’s myriad volunteer efforts are incalculable.”
Outstanding Community Impact (Staff/Faculty)
Nives Dolšak, professor, Marine and Environmental Affairs
From Nives’ nominator(s):
- “Nives has achieved exceptional success in reaching large, diverse audiences with her writing.”
- “By examining politics related to environmental policy choices, Nives and her co-author Aseem Prakash work to identify possibilities for building environmental coalitions to serve as counterpoints to anti-environmental policies.”
Tyler Valentine
Outstanding Community Impact (Student)
Tyler J. Valentine, undergraduate student, Earth and Space Sciences
From Tyler’s nominator(s):
- “Tyler demonstrates perseverance and initiative, finding innovative solutions to problems he encounters both in and outside of academia.”
- “In addition to working with UW’s Advanced Propulsion Lab and UW CubeSat team, Tyler is a Washington NASA Space Grant scholar who helped spearhead the creation of a new student organization called Scholars Pursuing Academic Celestial Exploration (SPACE).”
Outstanding Researcher
David C. Catling, professor, Earth and Space Sciences
From David’s nominator(s):
- “David Catling’s peer-reviewed publications have surpassed 120 and have been accruing at a rate of 8-10 per year. His Google Scholar citations exceed 7,500 and his active grants exceed $2.7 million — $1 million of which is from the Simmons Foundation for work on the origin of life. His past grants exceed $15 million.”
- “David is a global leader in the fields of astrobiology, planetary science and early-atmosphere chemistry. “
Outstanding Teaching
Elizabeth E. Wheat, lecturer, Program on the Environment
From Elizabeth’s nominator(s):
- “Beth inspires all of the faculty at Program on the Environment and sparks innovation across our curriculum. “
- “In addition to her role as a faculty member at UW, Beth runs an organic farm on Whidbey Island. She invites students out to her farm and supports their learning on the UW Farm, providing as many opportunities as possible for experience-based learning.”
Distinguished Staff Member
Erica M. Coleman, academic advisor, Atmospheric Sciences
From Erica’s nominator(s):
- “Erica goes above and beyond to provide extraordinary mentorship in service of Atmospheric Sciences’ students.”
- “Erica plays an essential role in bringing students into the department. She has improved the recruitment process — especially for groups from underrepresented backgrounds.”
Distinguished Staff Member, WorkDay
For 2017-2018, the College is also recognizing staff members from across UW Environment’s departments and units who helped with the transition to the WorkDay payroll and HR system. Those being recognized include:
- Wanjiku Gitahi, Jennifer Weiss, Atmospheric Sciences
- Megan Russell, College of the Environment
- Kathy Gabriel, Eunice Yang, Earth and Space Sciences
- Kathleen Cowell, Aimee Urata, Friday Harbor Labs
- Merle Jones, Deborah Malarek, JISAO
- Lien Lai, Su Tipple, Kittie Tucker, Oceanography
- Kathleen Effert, Karen Irwin, Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
- Eileen Herman, Trinh Vo, Washington Sea Grant
- Leta Truong Kao, Environmental and Forest. Sciences
- Jackie Chapman, Suanty Kaghan, Marine and Environmental Affairs
