People Spotlights

Airy Peralta and Jared Collins are the recipients of the first INSTAAR Graduate Community Awards. The award is a new honor that recognizes students who expend substantial effort in activities that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the INSTAAR community and as representatives of INSTAAR.

Sarah Spaulding has been honored by the North American Lake Management Society for their extensive contributions to the aquatic sciences. These represent a career-long dedication and vision to improve science through coordination of research, unparalleled teaching and mentorship, and accessibility and engagement of all.

As part of CU Boulder's annual Research & Innovation Week (October 17–21, 2022), the 2022 Faculty Fellows gave short TED-style talks in the Gordon Gamm Theater at the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder. In this talk, Dr. Julio Sepúlveda describes the microbes that fill our oceans, the impact of climate change on the ecosystems that depend on those microbes, and his research group’s work to better understand how we can all contribute to protecting our oceans and our planet.

Presentation on Michael Gooseff, winner of the 2022 Robert L. Stearns Award, profiles his career as a polar science researcher and educator. Gooseff leads the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research project, chairs the Water Quality Control Commission for the State of Colorado, and was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board on Water Body Connectivity for the Environmental Protection Agency among other leadership and teaching roles.

A new children’s book is centered in the Critical Zone, the thin outer layer of Earth’s surface from the tops of the trees down to bedrock where life exists and interacts with rock, soil, water, and air. Designed for 8 to 12-year olds, the book is by INSTAARs Eric Parrish and Suzanne Anderson and is published by Muddy Boots Books.

Katharine Suding is among three CU Boulder faculty members who received Fulbright fellowships to study internationally. Suding will travel to the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, to work on a project called Recovery, Resilience and the Ecology of Change.

As a young Latina, Pérez-Ángel brings a fresh perspective to paleoclimatology. She's profiled in an AGU Eos feature.

INSTAAR postdoctoral scholar Peyton Thomas loves being in nature, but as a scientist she is well-aware of the threat climate change poses to our environment. She also hopes to inspire the next generation of Black women scientists.

Jim White, acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and INSTAAR researcher, has accepted the position of dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. White will remain at CU Boulder through June 30.

Algae in the ocean, water on Mars, and supercharged apple orchards are research topics for three INSTAAR scientists awarded RIO seed grants. The grants are designed to foster new areas of research with high impact and future funding potential.