Rita Sodt, a student at the University of Washington, won a national competition sponsored annually by the Council on Undergraduate Research. Her winning project was “Fighting Cancer with Math: A Patient-Specific Computational Model of Brain Tumor Growth.” She displayed her poster along with other winners from across the country, at a reception in the Rayburn House Office Building on April 14. Rita and her faculty mentor, Russell Rockne, also met with Senator Patty Murray and staffers from several Members of the Washington state delegation.
Also in DC on April 14 was Sabine Mecking, an oceanographer at the Applied Physics Lab at the university. She was invited to DC by the Coalition for National Science Funding. Her presentation was on recent results on direct measurements of ocean acidification in the North Pacific Ocean, a research project by the National Science Foundation.
The week following the reception, April 19-23, brought six more representatives from the university. The primary purpose of their trips was to attend professional or association meetings, but they were all also able to meet with staff of the Washington State Senators and Representatives.
A group of four were here representing Students Advocates for Graduate Education (SAGE): Jake Faleschini (GPSS President); Sarah Reyneveld (GPSS Vice President); Ben Henry (GPSS Senator, Evans School); and Adam Sherman (GPSS Senator, Evans School). The focus of their discussions was on the SAGE policy issues: the need for more financial support for higher education; making scholarships/fellowships tax exempt; and immigration reform for international students.
Tom Ackerman, Director of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, attended a Directors meeting of the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies. Also in DC was Penny Dalton, Director of Washington Sea Grant, who participated in the meeting of the US Committee for the Census of Marine Life.