This past weekend SMEA was invited to participate in the Seattle Aquarium’s Discover Science Weekend, a wonderful opportunity for the public to get a chance to interact with scientists and researchers from organizations all across the Puget Sound. 

SMEA Professor Eddie Allison and graduate student Hannah Bassett co-authored a paper titled “Climate change in the oceans: Human impacts and responses” that was recently published in Science. The paper was part of a special issue of Science dedicated to informing the upcoming COP21 meeting in Paris. As an article from UW Today explains, the paper “looks at scientific understanding of changes to the world’s oceans and how people around the world are responding to those changes. 

SMEA second year, Neal McMillin, recently toured OpenHydro’s Greenore Technical Centre in County Louth, Ireland. OpenHydro designs, tests, and deploys tidal energy turbines to provide silent, invisible, and predictable renewable energy from the ocean. The facilities tour complimented McMillin’s research on tidal energy pilot projects. 

Seth Sivinski and Devon Thorsell recently had the opportunity to travel to Iceland to attend the the Arctic Circle Assembly, a yearly gathering of governments, non-governmental organizations, indigenous groups, corporations, and students which meets in the Harpa in Reykjavik, Iceland. 

The School of Marine and Environmental Affairs was recently represented at the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics (CANSEE) & United States Society for Ecological Economics (USSEE) 2015 Joint Biennial Conference by Research Associate Dr. Stacia Dreyer and 2nd year graduate student Hilary Polis. The conference, themed, Pathways for Change: Toward a Just and Sustainable Economy, was held in Vancouver, BC, Canada October 1-4. 

SMEA 1st year student Jessica Hernandez was selected as a UW Graduate School Latino/a Scholars Graduate School Fellowship (LSGSF) recipient for the 2015-16 academic year. Jessica has been recognized for her academic research, work, and/or service demonstrating her strong commitment to Latino/a communities.
Administered by the UW Graduate School Graduate Opportunities & Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP), LSGSF awardees become part of the GO-MAP Graduate Diversity Fellows cohort and are invited to participate in GO-MAP programming and events throughout their graduate studies at the UW. 

SMEA rising 2nd year student, Hilary Polis, presented her research at the Offshore Renewable Energy and the Public session of the Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference in Exeter, UK on September 3rd and her presentation, titled “Measuring willingness to pay for tidal energy research and development: A study of households in the Puget Sound,” was judged as the leading paper presented by graduate student on a coastal or marine topic. 

This year the School of Marine & Environmental Affairs graduated fourteen students with an eclectic mix of research topics ranging from communicating environmental science through art, to oil pollution prevention strategies in the arctic. 

On May 14th, Brian Tracey became the first awardee of the College of the Environment’s Outstanding Diversity Commitment Award. Among 42 nominees across the College of the Environment including faculty, staff and students, Brian was selected for his efforts and impact not only at the department or university level, but in the Seattle community as a whole.  

Congratulations to SMEA student Brit Sojka on her recently published chapter in the Arctic Yearbook 2014 (pp. 342 – 354). Sojka is also an Arctic Research Fellow and Canandian Studies FLAS Fellow at the UW. Her chapter,  “The New Insecurities of Canadian Integrated Ocean Management”, is an “attempt to identify and address some of the emerging insecurities and tensions that exist between current federal resource management policies and their ultimate impact on both the people and environment of the Canadian Arctic.” Congratulations, Brit!