Spotlights

PhD student Millie Spencer is 1 of 5 Fulbright awardees from CU Boulder. She will use her award to expand her work with Mapuche-Pehuenche communities in Chile: mapping glaciers, gathering oral histories of glacier retreat and hydrological change, and illuminating water insecurity.

Incoming PhD student Katie Gannon (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) has garnered this year’s Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship. She will investigate greenhouse gas emissions from seasonally ice-covered lakes, working with advisor Bella Oleksy.

Five questions and answers with Michael Dyonisius, a postdoc with INSTAAR’s Laboratory for AMS Radiocarbon Preparation and Research, a keen investigator of greenhouse gas fluxes, and an occasional ukulele-playing indie pop fan. Read on to learn about Michael’s work, inspirations, and life.

As a student assistant in INSTAAR's front office, Joe has been a beacon: his creative problem-solving and hard work are matched only by his kindness and generosity of spirit. Turns out his degree program (Leeds School of Business) was equally impressed.

INSTAAR is pleased to announce that incoming PhD student Katie Gannon is this year’s recipient of the Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship. Gannon will work with advisor Bella Oleksy to explore murky questions around greenhouse gas emissions from seasonally ice-covered lakes.

When she is in Antarctica, Cassandra Brooks (INSTAAR & ENVS) normally works to expand the frontiers of human knowledge. This month, she returned from a trip not focused on scientific research but on expanding the horizons of eco-tourists.

CU Boulder postdoctoral researcher Peyton Thomas, who fuses running with a commitment to environmental causes, to compete in U.S. Olympic women’s marathon trials in February.

Keith Musselman (INSTAAR & Geography) is one 16 CU Boulder faculty members selected by the Research and Innovation Office as their 2024 RIO Faculty Fellows cohort. The program supports faculty in achieving their research/innovation goals and promotes collaboration, all through tailored training, experiential learning and leadership development opportunities. Musselman and his cohort will kick off 2024 with an intensive three-day retreat in January, followed by several more focused retreats and a variety of informal networking activities.

Scott Taylor (INSTAAR Fellow, EBIO Associate Professor, MRS Director) gave a short TED-style talk at the Boulder Dairy Arts Center on October 18, 2023 as part of the 2023 Faculty Fellows program for CU Boulder's Research & Innovation Office (RIO). In his talk, Scott tells the story of his personal journey to a deeper understanding of his work as a scientist and his own place in the world.

The Journal of Ecology has announced Katharine Suding as their Eminent Ecologist award recipient for 2023. Awards are given to those considered hugely influential within their fields of research and to have made outstanding contributions not just to Journal of Ecology, but to ecology in general. For the award, Suding assembled a virtual journal issue, wrote a blog post, and was interviewed.