Spotlights

Geologist (and INSTAAR) Robert S. Anderson and astrophysicist Fran Bagenal recognized for ‘distinguished and continuing achievements in original research’.

Rolf Kihl, a meticulous and inventive scientist who established INSTAAR’s Sedimentology Lab and ran it for decades, passed away on January 19, 2021. The INSTAAR community mourns his loss.

The Boulder Faculty Assembly has awarded INSTAAR Fellow Holly Barnard an Excellence Award for leadership and service.

Climate change - we all know that it's happening, but how do we actually know this scientifically? Bruce Vaughn studies glaciers up at the North Pole, looking at ice cores to study how our climate has changed over the Earth's history. We talk about how this is done, and also how we are now entering uncharted territory of atmospheric CO2, warming, and what we as a species can do about it.

With approval in November by the University of Colorado Board of Regents, the University of Colorado has introduced 12 newly designated distinguished professors, eight of whom are affiliated with the CU Boulder campus. INSTAAR researcher Katie Suding is among their number.

The American Geophysical Union has announced that INSTAAR postdoctoral scholar Mette Bendixen is the recipient of their 2020 Science for Solutions Award. The award follows Bendixen’s out-of-the-box work on an overlooked global challenge: the scarcity of sand resources.

A new INSTAAR-led project will engage Indigenous and Western knowledge systems to better understand abrupt permafrost change in Alaska. The National Science Foundation selected the project as part of its Navigating the New Arctic funding area, one of ten “Big Ideas” that NSF is investing in as an area of profound national challenge and opportunity. The research project brings Alaskan communities together with social and natural scientists to examine changes in permafrost thaw lake environments, including associated effects on villages in the Yukon River watershed.

Learn a bit about Dr. Julia Moriarty, a new INSTAAR scientist and an Assistant Professor in ATOC who studies processes in the coastal oceans.