Virtual reality — commonly referred to as VR — is the stuff of video games, right? Don your VR headset, gloves and bodysuit and *whoosh*, you’re transported into an alternate landscape. VR makes the imagined world feel real.

Truth be told, VR isn’t limited to just gamers. Numerous applications for the technology are in use, like in military, sports and educational settings, and many new applications are still emerging. At the UW College of the Environment, several scientists are using VR to transport users into environments connected to their work. Whether aimed at supplementing teaching material, assisting in decision-making or simply highlighting the WOW-factor around cool research, VR can be a powerful tool in communicating science.

Here are just two examples.

Bringing the Alaska Salmon Program to your doorstep

The long-running Alaska Salmon Program uses several remote research camps as home-base, a hub to do their groundbreaking work on ecosystem dynamics and sustainable resource management. The camps are nestled in the larger Wood River watershed in southwest Alaska, surrounded by unparalleled beauty and an ecosystem bursting with life.

But not everyone can go there. It’s remote, rustic and serves primarily as support for research. Yet it’s a major draw to students wishing to get their feet wet in the field, and is a visible testament to the power of UW research capacity. It’s a place scientists want to share with others. VR gave them the opportunity to do so, and the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS) partnered with Waterlust, a video and apparel company whose mission is to educate people and support conservation, to create an experience that would transport people into the Alaskan wilds.

How does it work? The user puts on the headset and is immediately taken to Alaska, experiencing what a day-in-the-life of a researcher is like. The 360-degree camera offers a truly immersive experience, allowing the user to look in every direction. Fish are everywhere, bright red in color, gathering in large groups preparing to swim upstream to spawn. Some are tagged, telling the user that UW researchers are there collecting data. The camera even takes us underwater, showing us what life is like as a sockeye salmon.

“It’s been fantastic so far, and we’re getting to a new audience of people who have never done VR before. They love it,” says Dan DiNicola, SAFS communications specialist. “Once we had the finished product, we were able to submit it to film festivals, share it on YouTube, it’s now at the Pacific Science Center and has been used at the Seattle Aquarium for outreach events. It’s a great way to show folks the work that UW is doing on salmon.”

DiNicola and SAFS researchers are exploring the possibility of expanding its use and bringing it into the classroom. “We’re thinking about how we might use this in a research capacity, or in observation training like how to corral fish and count them accurately,” he says. “SAFS has now purchased its own 360-degree camera because the possibilities are endless.”

Check out the 360-degree video of the Alaska Salmon Program operating in the field.

Visualizing sea level rise in a 2050 Puget Sound

The Climate Impacts Group has been at the forefront of helping communities plan for the effects of climate change for decades. As part of the Washington Coastal Resilience Project, it helped produce new sea level rise projections for 171 locations along Washington’s coast, with the intent of helping coastal communities and decision makers understand and prepare for the future risks of sea level rise. But to help people really picture what sea level rise could mean for our coasts, the group  teamed up with Tableau, Seattle Public Utilities and the Seattle Public Library to create a virtual reality experience to bring that future to life, and secured funding through an EarthLab Innovation Grant.

“The VR component is meant to communicate about sea level rise specifically in South Seattle” says Heidi Roop, lead investigator on the project. “Seattle Public Utilities is making significant infrastructure investments in the area and are using climate science to guide those investments. We’ve teamed up with them to create data visualizations and a VR experience of future sea level rise to help communicate about sea level rise and why using climate science to inform decisions now is so important.”

The goal of the project is not to only inform decision makers, but to inform the local community as well, Roop says. “We aim to use VR to show how communities can be involved in decisions that impact the future of their communities. Ultimately, this project will show the range of possible futures that climate change may bring to the region and connect that directly to the places and spaces people care about in their communities like green spaces, community centers and businesses.”

Recently, the Seattle Public Library joined the project team, bringing with them new perspectives, skills developing VR experiences and pathways to reach different communities. The library is already using VR to visualize the pre- and post-development landscapes and waterways of the Duwamish River, creating a surrounding exhibit with maps and artifacts from the Library’s collections. Their work covers the past and the present — now this partnership with the Climate Impacts Group introduces a future perspective to the story of the Duwamish watershed.

“We can serve new people because of the partnership with the Library. The Library is trusted in the community and brings valuable expertise to our team,” says Roop. “And they are challenging us to think about how to present the information and communicate it more effectively because of their experiences and knowledge of the cultural history of the region. There is no doubt that their partnership has enriched this project.”

Roop and her partners continue to work on the rollout of the VR experience and will soon be seeking community input into the design. At the end of the day, the project is about enabling people to make smart decisions about things that matter to them, while inspiring and empowering residents in planning for the future of their coastlines and communities.

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Mitch Elend/University of Washington

The most common organism in the oceans, and possibly on the entire planet, is a family of single-celled marine bacteria called SAR11. These drifting organisms look like tiny jelly beans and have evolved to outcompete other bacteria for scarce resources in the oceans.

We now know that this group of organisms thrives despite — or perhaps because of — the ability to host viruses in their DNA. A study published in May in Nature Microbiology could lead to new understanding of viral survival strategies.

University of Washington oceanographers discovered that the bacteria that dominate seawater, known as Pelagibacter or SAR11, hosts a unique virus. The virus is of a type that spends most of its time dormant in the host’s DNA but occasionally erupts to infect other cells, potentially carrying some of its host’s genetic material along with it.

“Many bacteria have viruses that exist in their genomes. But people had not found them in the ocean’s most abundant organisms,” said co-lead author Robert Morris, a UW associate professor of oceanography. “We suspect it’s probably common, or more common than we thought — we just had never seen it.”

This virus’ two-pronged survival strategy differs from similar ones found in other organisms. The virus lurks in the host’s DNA and gets copied as cells divide, but for reasons still poorly understood, it also replicates and is released from other cells.

Co-lead author Kelsy Cain collected samples off the coast of Oregon during a July 2017 research cruise. She diluted the seawater several times and then used a sulfur-containing substance to grow the samples in the lab — a difficult process, for organisms that prefer to exist in seawater.

“When we went to grow the NP2 control culture, lo and behold, there was another virus. It was surprising how you couldn’t get away from a virus,” said Cain, who graduated in 2019 with a UW bachelor’s in oceanography and now works in a UW research lab.

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Dean Lisa J. Graumlich will step down as dean of the College of the Environment at the end of this academic year, June 30, 2021. 

As the inaugural dean of the College of the Environment, Graumlich merged two colleges and academic departments from a third college, and established a cohesive unit focused on our planet and solar system. Over the last 10 years, she has worked to build the common culture, shared aspirations and collaborative spirit alive in the college today.

“The formation of the College of the Environment was a bold move on the part of UW and as an alum, I was thrilled to take on the task of making it a success,” says Graumlich. “The most rewarding moments over the past decade have come from working together with talented leaders across the College to build its outstanding capacity and reputation for authentic, meaningful collaboration. Today, we see the powerful impact of the work that our students, faculty and staff have on the health of the environment and our communities. It’s been both gratifying and humbling to help create such an outstanding institution.”

Graumlich came to the UW with a reputation for building partnerships across disciplines while also connecting with decision- and policy-makers, and it remains a hallmark of her deanship.  She reached out to deans across UW campuses to create EarthLab, which bridges the academic world and the public, private and nonprofit sectors to identify the places where life on Earth is at greatest risk and co-create solutions, converting knowledge to action. Her work also includes the creation of a science communication program; notable investments in diversity, equity and inclusion; and environmental justice initiatives.

Simultaneously, Graumlich positioned the UW for leadership in emerging interdisciplinary scholarship that addresses global grand challenges, setting the example for forging partnerships and sharing resources with deans across campus. She partnered with faculty and leadership on a number of initiatives including the Future of Ice (polar regions), Freshwater Initiative (with the College of Engineering) and the Washington State Ocean Acidification Center.

Graumlich has held numerous leadership positions during her time at the UW, including serving on the board of the prestigious American Geophysical Union, and as a member of the boards of the Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle Aquarium, The Bullitt Foundation and Forterra. She led the University’s Environmental Stewardship Committee for four years and was chair of the Board of Deans and Chancellors from 2013-2015. 

As a scholar, Graumlich uses tree-ring data to understand long-term trends in climate, focusing on the mountains of western North America. Her career has spanned postdoctoral work at the University of Minnesota and positions with the University of California, Los Angeles; University of Arizona; Columbia University; and Montana State University. While on the faculty at Arizona from 1988 to 1999, she served as director of the Institute for Study of the Planet Earth. From 1999 to 2006 at Montana State University, she served as director of its Big Sky Institute.

“I would like to thank Lisa for her leadership as the first dean of the College of the Environment,” said UW Provost Mark Richards. Through her partnerships and work with students, faculty, staff and the community, Lisa has laid excellent groundwork for even more exciting progress in the years ahead. I wish Lisa well in her next chapter.”

After June 30 2021, Graumlich plans to focus her time and energy on community-engaged scholarship examining impacts of climate change on our most vulnerable populations. In the coming months, Richards will launch a search for a new dean for the College of the Environment.

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University of Washington

Over the next few weeks, undergraduate and graduate students, their families, friends and colleagues will gather virtually for commencement to celebrate the class of 2020. In appreciation of our graduating students’ contributions to the UW community, the College of the Environment will join UW Recycling and the Campus Sustainability Fund by making a gift to Precious Plastics, a project to support efforts to mitigate plastic waste on campus. The gift is based on recommendations from our Student Advisory Council and the votes of graduating students.

The funding will help students build and sustain a DIY plastics recycling workshop in the Maple Hall Area 01 Maker Space, including 4 machines that shred, melt, compress and mold used plastic into usable products like 3D printing filament and construction materials. The project also provides research opportunities in sustainability, engineering, waste management policy, industrial design, communications and business development, and brings together students, Registered Student Organizations, and departments in creating positive impacts on UW’s plastics life cycle.

Our students are the next generation of leaders in environmental science and decision-making, and we make this contribution in support of their commitment to the sustainability and well-being of our community and planet.

Congratulations, class of 2020!

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UW School of Oceanography Professor LuAnne Thompson and graduate student Hillary Scannell are conducting one of five projects from around the world to receive the Microsoft-Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF) Innovation grant this month for their proposal to use artificial intelligence to better understand the planet and solve pressing environmental issues. The grants will support a range of projects, spanning the cutting-edge use of technology to monitor human-wildlife conflict in Tanzania to tracking dangerous marine heatwaves and predicting drinking water shortages in underserved communities.

The AI for Earth Innovation grants program supports applicants in creating and implementing open-source machine-learning models, algorithms and datasets that directly tackle environmental challenges the world faces today in the areas of biodiversity loss, climate change, and water security.

Thompson, Scannell and collaborators will track and predict marine heatwaves. As the planet’s climate continues to warm, the ocean is absorbing and storing excess heat, resulting in extreme events called marine heatwaves that cause coral bleaching, fish population decline and the mortality of marine life. This project will use AI to track marine heatwaves and aid scientists in better understanding their impacts and, ultimately, develop methods to predict how heatwaves will evolve, informing disaster and emergency responders who can help mitigate the effects of future events.

Of the 135 applications submitted, LDF and Microsoft chose five projects that markedly demonstrate work that will lead to the implementation of innovative AI models that address critical environmental issues, can rapidly scale and will create lasting impact beyond the grant period. Proposals could request up to $100,000 for support over one year. This year’s winners will receive a total of nearly $450,000 to implement their solutions.

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School of Oceanography Assistant Professor Jodi Young is studying one of the most essential components of Antarctic ecosystems: sea ice algae. This algae supports the bottom of the food chains in polar regions, and if it were to suddenly disappear, dependent ecosystems could collapse. For two Oceanography graduate students, the chance to work with Young and collect sea ice algae data in one of the most remote and visually stunning regions on the planet was a twice in a lifetime experience. Yes — Hannah Dawson and Susan Rundell, graduate students who each focus on oceanography and astrobiology, have made the challenging expedition to Antarctica twice over the past two years. The rigors required to make the trip down to the Palmer Station research hub on the Western Antarctic Peninsula are extensive, but laced with anticipation.

“Physically going was exhausting, but exciting,” Dawson said, describing the logistics of bringing lab equipment from Seattle down to Chile, and having to pass detailed medical screenings before hopping on the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer and crossing the harrowing Drake Passage.

“It can get pretty rough. It’s some of the roughest seas in the world and it’s about a four to five day passage across from South America to the peninsula,” Dawson added. “Usually for about two or three days it gets pretty rough. They even recommend you taco yourself in your bunk.”

Once at the station, the field work and data analysis could actually begin. A typical cycle involved Dawson and Rundell conducting field work in the morning and analyzing those samples for the rest of the day. The next day they would clean and organize, and prepare for another day of field work and data analysis. Dawson and Rundell were lowered off the side of a boat in a basket to access their field sites, reaching spots inaccessible by foot or small Kodiak boats.

Although researchers frequently use satellites to study sea ice in polar regions, it  limits the kind of information they can collect. Satellites can see the extent of sea ice as it expands and contracts over the course of a year and even identify levels of chlorophyll in the waters near sea ice. But a lot of sea ice algae lives underneath the thick layers of ice, blocked from view. With polar regions experiencing faster climatic warming than anywhere else on the planet, it’s more important than ever to track the status of sea ice algae.

“This area is rapidly changing and warming, but one of the things we don’t have a good handle on is what’s happening in the sea ice algae community because satellites can’t see through the ice,” said Young. “You’ve got to actually physically get out there and get samples.”

The professional and personal development opportunities that arise from conducting field work in Antarctica are numerous. Whether scooping up water to analyze phytoplankton or drilling cores into the sea ice to access the algae underneath, each day presented challenges and obstacles that required innovation, creativity and problem solving — essential skills in such remote settings.

“I think it’s really fun having to kind of come up with creative solutions to our everyday research problems, because with sea ice work in particular and polar work in isolated places, there are some really well-founded methods and fancy pieces of equipment we can use,” Rundell said. “But there’s also a whole different side to that like ‘Figure it out, make it yourself and be creative.’”

The opportunity also provided Dawson and Rundell with other professional development skills in other ways.

“I feel like it was just a really good experience to learn about not only the science and the amazing field work, but a lot of what goes on behind the scenes and logistics and planning and kind of getting a sneak into what it’s like to get a grant and then what you do once you get it,” Dawson said.

Professional development aside, getting to see the beauty of Antarctica was a joy and experience that Dawson and Rundell both found hard to describe, and a journey that both students were grateful to have taken.

“For me, it almost feels like you’re on a different planet. It’s just so foreign and untouched, and you don’t see the influence of people anywhere,” Dawson said. “It’s really cool, just insane landscapes, animals and ice and beautiful things every single day.”

The journey, the research, the breathtaking views, the professional development and more were not only made possible by Young’s research project, but also by the less visible marine techs and Palmer Station veterans.

“I think that just mentioning how many amazing people we’ve got to work with both of these years, with people at Palmer Station who go back year after year and have created a really strong community there as well as all the amazing Marine techs on the ship we were on,” Rundell said. “It takes a really special type of person to keep doing that really hard work here after a year and they do such a fantastic job and make all of the science possible.”

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