Jun 2, 2014

College of the Environment awards first Hall Conservation Genetics Research Awards

The College of the Environment is pleased to announce Meryl Mims and Charlie Waters—both of the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences—as the first recipients of the Hall Conservation Genetics Research Award, which is made possible by a generous gift from the Benjamin and Margaret Hall Charitable Lead Trust. Meryl is doctoral candidate working on a project entitled “Conservation genetics of a Distinct Population Segment of the cryptic dryland amphibian Hyla wrightorum (the Arizona treefrog)” along with her faculty advisor Julian Olden.

Congratulations to our 2014-15 scholarship and fellowship recipients

The College of the Environment Dean’s Office is pleased to announce our 2014-2015 scholarship and fellowship awardees. Graduate and undergraduate students alike compete for multiple funds available and are able to apply them towards tuition and costs in the coming academic year. The Dean’s Office offers numerous scholarship and fellowship opportunities to match the diverse needs of our students and this year over $90,000 was awarded to a total of 23 students.

UW students restoring portal into Lake Washington’s past

Western Red Cedar Cones (photo: Walter Siegmund)

Yesler Swamp is emerging as a great example of what once was a common feature on our local landscape, thanks to efforts lead by professor Kern Ewing in the College of the Environment’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Student groups and others are working to restore the area to what it was nearly 150 years ago, a swamp dominated by western red cedar.

Marine apprenticeships give UW undergrads role in animal-ancestor breakthrough

Studetn working on the genome project (Photo: UW)

Comb jellies – and not sponges – may lay claim as the earliest ancestors of animals, according to Billie Swalla, University of Washington professor of biology an interim director of Friday Harbor Laboratories. Her contributions helped decode the genomic blueprints for 10 ctenophore – or comb jelly – species, an analysis that suggests these beautiful sea creatures form the first branch on the animal kingdom’s tree of life.

Environmental and Forest Sciences alumnus honored at White House

Scot Medbury and Chidi Duke accepting the medal on behalf of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (photo: IMLS)

President of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Scot Medbury, an alumnus of the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, met with First Lady Michelle Obama to receive the National Medal for Museum and Library Service on behalf of his organization. Medbury, whose graduate studies at UW focused on the history of the Washington Park Arboretum, oversees the botanic garden and executes its programs with a mission to “inspire people of all ages through the conservation, display, and enjoyment of plants.”

Read more at the National Museum and Library Service »