Building SciComm skills through lessons from Washington’s coast

The coast of Washington is a remote and wild place, where waves bash the rocky shoreline, whales meander just offshore and tidepools teem with eye-popping displays of life. That wildness is precisely what Zoe van Duivenbode relished about her time as a marine educator stationed at Kalaloch Beach, working for Olympic National Park. She spent her days exploring the coast, taking detailed notes and painting the seascapes in front of her, thinking about ways she could connect the lessons of the sea to visiting tourists on their summer vacation.

Mar 5, 2019

Walking the SciComm walk with P. Sean McDonald

You can’t help but notice that P. Sean McDonald, lecturer in the College’s Program on the Environment, places a high value on science communication. Not only does he continuously try to build new communication skills for himself, but he encourages his students to do so as well through his course on environmental communication each winter. He even goes so far as emceeing monthly science events at local breweries.

Dec 19, 2018

College of the Environment

EarthLab launches first-ever Innovation Grants

EarthLab at the University of Washington envisions a world where nature and people thrive. To that end, EarthLab has launched an Innovation Grants program to provide funding for projects that are risky, new ideas with a high potential for impact and the ability to motivate change. Through this program, EarthLab hopes to increase capacity across the UW for innovations in the application of transdisciplinary scholarship, deepen engagement with diverse community partners (e.g.,

Getting a handle on the role of parasites in our modern world

Mention the word “parasite”, and Chelsea Wood’s face lights up. She may be one of the few people on Earth who think so fondly of them. But it makes sense — Wood is a marine ecologist and her entire lab focuses on parasites and the role they play in nature. Turns out, it’s an important one — and one that may be changing over time.

Dec 10, 2018

Awards and Honors

College scientists honored at 2018 AGU annual conference

Joel Thornton, Allan Devol and Harold Tobin are each being recognized at the 2018 annual conference of the American Geophysical Union, the world’s largest earth and space society. Each year, the Union take the opportunity to recognize outstanding scientists in their field. Thornton, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, received the Ascent Award from the AGU’s Atmospheric Sciences Section.