Dear SMEA friends, 

Each academic year at SMEA brings new energy. This autumn, we were thrilled to welcome 34 new first-year students. As is always the case, they come from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, ranging from aquatic and fishery sciences, biology, marine biology, other natural and physical sciences, chemical and biological engineering, to environmental studies, cinema and photography, ethnic studies, history, political science, sociology, and sustainable community development. With the second-year cohort of 32 students, SMEA is brimming with activities. When you have some time, read about our students here. 

This year also brought some significant financial challenges. A reduction in federal research funding, the federal government shutdown, and a cut to the UW state budget had an impact on our ability to financially support our students. Yet, because of the kind generosity of our alumni and friends like you, we were able to offer one year of funding (tuition and stipend) to three first-year students. We were also able to award partial funding to over 20 second-year students. Every second-year student who applied got modest funding support towards their tuition, research, or other costs. 

You helped us in many other ways as well. You agreed to participate in our mentorship program, you created new learning opportunities for our students by devising capstone projects, and you gave talks in our classes. Thank you! You are one of our strongest assets. Please read what our participants in the mentoring program say about their experience. Thank you very much for lending a hand in these challenging times.  

I hope you enjoyed meeting old SMEA friends and making new ones at the 2025 Biennial SMEA Community reception. Thanks to the strong support of the SMEA Director’s Council, once during their two-year studies, every SMEA student can meet face-to-face with our alumni and build a bigger professional network. If you did not make it this year, please come to the next one in two years. For now, consider reading Washed in on Tides, where David Fluharty, Professor Emeritus, summarizes what he learned about our alumni accomplishments and new career pursuits. Also, in every newsletter, we turn the spotlight on one of our alumni. This time, we share about the work and experience of Eric Dowell, a 2024 graduate. 

I am extremely proud to share the outstanding work of our faculty. Our faculty continue to be productive in their research and work with our communities. To make it easier for you to keep track of our most recent work, we compiled a list of SMEA faculty 2025 publications. We are committed to publishing results of our work in open-access journals to increase accessibility. We hope you enjoy catching up on the new research directions SMEA faculty are taking. 

Some other updates. Dr. Phillip Levin, Director of United by Nature and the Interim Executive Director of the UW EarthLab, and his team have completed the draft of the United by Nature assessment. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is seeking volunteers to conduct the review of the draft assessment. SMEA is nominating two members of our Directors’ Council, Dr. Usha Varanasi and Allen Shimada (a SMEA alumnus), to serve on the National Academies’ ad hoc committee to conduct an independent technical review of the draft. Also, our newly appointed Professor of Practice, Stephen Metruck, Executive Director, Port of Seattle, and Dr. David Fluharty, Emeritus Professor and a member of the Director’s Council, will be offering the SMEA speaker series in Winter 2026 entitled “Building a Port for the Future”. You will find several SMEA alumni among the speakers. We hope you will join us for the Speaker Series in person or on Zoom. If you would like a Zoom link for the speaker series, please contact us on or after January 5th at smeast@uw.edu.

We are delighted by the many ways our alumni and supporters are engaging with SMEA. THANK YOU to those of you who’ve donated to the end-of-year crowdfunding campaign to support SMEA students through a matching challenge! Right now, every gift will be doubled thanks to the generous matching gift of an anonymous donor. We are over 80% of our way there and have nearly met the match. If you’re inspired, visit our student support crowdfunding page and make a gift before Dec 31st. If you have questions about giving, please contact SMEA’s advancement team liaison Ben Johns at bkj108@uw.edu

I hope we see you at our Winter Speaker Series or another event. Or just stop by for a coffee/tea. It is always wonderful to hear what you are working on.  

Happy Holidays!

Nives Dolšak

Stan and Alta Barer Professor in Sustainability Science

Director, School of Marine and Environmental Affairs