Julia Parrish was honored as a Champion of Change by the White House for her dedication to increasing public engagement in science and science literacy.  See Julia talk about the importance of citizen scientists to the work of the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST; she begins speaking at 11 minutes); you can also read more about COASST and its beginnings on the Champions of Change blog. 

Read more about Robert Fleagle on the Seattle Times website, or below as remembered by two former students and colleagues, Bob Brown and Nick Bond. From Bob Brown, Research Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Sciences I met Bob in 1966, when half his life was over; the learning half? He was involved in the new Geophysics graduate program and I became the first student in this PhD program. 

As announced in yesterday’s “Conversation on Science Communication”, the College of the Environment will be hosting a 2-day science communication training event for college faculty. Held on October 16-18, this intensive retreat will provide the opportunity to meet and work with 3-4 leading science and environmental journalists from around the country, and with nationally-recognized communication trainer Nancy Baron. Eighteen to twenty-two faculty will attend this training, a compressed version of the Leopold Leadership Program that will provide critical insights into the power of making your science accessible to wider audiences, the culture of traditional and social media, and message development and delivery in a variety of formats. 

Dan Jaffe, atmospheric science professor with UW-Bothell and adjunct professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, started a crowdfunding campaign to raise money so that he could research whether coal dust may be harmful to our health. Seattle Times wrote a story about it, and within a day the project was funded — to the tune of over $18,000. Read more about Jaffe’s project and how it broke records for crowdfunding in this Seattle Times follow-up story .