Alumni News

ENVS assistant professor, Matthew Burgess, and ENVS alum Renae Marshall (current PhD student at the Bren School at UCSB) recently released an op-ed on bipartisan climate progress that discusses an "emerging bipartisan climate playbook wherein both parties tame their political vices."

CIRES is hosting the Bipartisan Climate Solutions panel, moderated by Professor Matt Burgess and ENVS alum Renae Marshall. The panel will feature Rep. Joe Neguse and Rep. John Curtis. The panel will discuss where consensus lies on climate change policy.

The ENVS Department hosted a successful inaugural Patricia Sheffels Visiting Scholar Keynote Speaker talk by Professor Kyle Powys Whyte (left). The lecture titled ‘Against Crisis Science: Research Futures for Climate and Energy Justice’, inspired the crowd, which included donor Patricia Sheffels (middle) and Chair Max Boykoff (right), to think of our climate crisis through the lens of indigenous peoples.

Rae Lewark, a May graduate with a major in environmental studies and a dance minor, went to great lengths to create their honor’s thesis. Lewark combined her passions for environmental sustainability, self-expression, and the element of water to make a short film titled "The Life of Water. Becoming the Water Cycle", in which the path of the water cycle is depicted by Lewark dancing both in and under water.

As an Assistant Director Angela will help position the Department as we implement the Governor’s and State’s priorities on climate change, protecting communities from wildfires, promoting forest health and restoration, and moving forward on protecting public health and the environment while managing our state’s oil and natural gas resources.”

CU grads Tyler Huggins (Ph.D. Environmental Engineering) and Justin Whiteley have formed a successful startup known as Meati Foods in NE Boulder, which grows lab-cultured mycelium indoors in stainless steel tanks, similar to those used to brew beer. The process uses 99% less water and land, and emits 99% less carbon dioxide than conventionally produced animal protein. Meati Foods has already attracted $28.2 million in investment funding and cultivates a scalable protein product that is remarkably similar in texture to steak and chicken cutlets, a viable market competitor to companies like Impossible (burger) and Beyond Meat.

“I’m really thankful to CU, which game me this sort of cross-pollination and promotion of interdisciplinary skills,” he says. “I’m able to engage in these seemingly disconnected pursuits in one place. That’s kind of cool.”

ENVS undergraduates get the opportunity to do some pretty fabulous research! CU Boulder Today highlights ENVS alumn, Rachael Kaspar, who studied the secret lives and social behavior of honeybees. Kaspar graduated in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EBIO) and Environmental Studies (ENVS) with a minor in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (ATOC). She is the lead author of a scientific article in Animal Behavior based on her undergraduate honors thesis about honeybee behavior, which shows experienced fanner honey bees influence younger, inexperienced bees to fan their colony to cool it down.

Meteorologist Joel Gratz takes weather prediction off the beaten path. Gratz, founder of the skier-beloved forecast company OpenSnow and alumnus of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research (CSTPR) at the University of Colorado Boulder, recently created a new app for iPhones that provides forecasts for hikers of Colorado’s...