UW Bothell professors Ben Gardner and Ron Krabill will lead an exploration seminar called “Critical perspectives on ecotourism in Tanzania” to examine many of the issues raised in Gardner’s newly-released book “Selling the Serengeti: The Cultural Politics of Safari Tourism” and ongoing research in the area. The seminar is funded by a Global Innovation Fund grant.
Tag: research
UW part of team that drilled first deep ice core at the South Pole
This January — high summer at the South Pole — a University of Washington glaciologist helped lead a project that surpassed its goal to drill the first deep ice core at the planet’s southernmost tip, providing material to help solve a climate puzzle.
Unearthing new discoveries at Honduras’ City of the Jaguar
UW researchers Anna Cohen and Rodrigo Solinis-Casparius are part of a bi-national, multi-agency team excavating the City of the Jaguar in Honduras. Artifacts from the site provide clues about life in the lost city, and how it came to an end.
Diplomacy in the Earth’s orbit
Professor Saadia Pekkanen says that space is “a sort of new frontier in terms of U.S. foreign policy, but also the global community.” She aims to “bridge the bridge the gap between what academics know and what policymakers might want to know.”
Teaching and supporting innovators
The Seattle Times weighs in on the University of Washington’s resources and programs for innovators, including the Global Innovation Exchange.
Twenty-seven UW faculty listed among ‘world’s most influential scientific minds’
The University of Washington is home to 27 researchers included on Thomson Reuters’ list of “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds” for 2015, which was released Jan. 14. The distinction, based on an analysis of over a decade of research paper citations among 21 general scientific fields, is meant to recognize scientists who are most cited by their peers.
“The awe-inspiring research being done every day at the University of Washington aims to create change and make the world a better place,” UW President Ana Mari Cauce said. “This recognition of so many of our faculty members as being among the world’s most influential minds is not surprising, but does serve as a reminder of the global impact of their innovative research and scholarship.”
Arctic Encounter Symposium convenes policymakers, industry leaders and experts
Experts from the University of Washington are set to engage in next week’s Arctic Encounter Symposium. The largest annual Arctic policy event in the United States, the Symposium confronts the leading issues in Arctic policy, innovation, and development. It aims to raise awareness, engage challenges, and develop solutions for the future of a region and a people.
Biology professor advocates for Argentine penguins
The legislature for Chubut province in Argentina has established a new marine protected area off Punta Tombo, which would help preserve the feeding grounds for about 500,000 Magellanic penguins that make their home along this rocky stretch of Argentine coast.
University of Washington biology affiliate associate professor Pablo Garcia Borboroglu says, “This new [marine protected area] designation is an historical accomplishment, since [until now] there is only one protected area in Argentina that is exclusively marine and only 4 percent of the marine surface of the country is currently protected.”
Law 103/15 passed the Chubut legislature with backing from the Global Penguin Society, its co-founder and president Borboroglu and teams of scientists led by Boersma, who provided key data about the penguins from their decades of research at Punta Tombo. The government and the Global Penguin Society agreed to the marine protected area in 2013, and Borboroglu drafted the proposal and designed the protected area. Critically, he also made regular trips to Rawson, the provincial capital, to explain its importance to legislators, answer questions, negotiate details and monitor the bill’s progress.
“This wouldn’t have happened without him,” said UW biology professor Dee Boersma. “The legislature had put off the vote for months, and then on Dec. 3 they voted — and just in the nick of time, too.”
Climate project uses logbooks from historic whaling ships
As climate negotiations continue in Paris, Old Weather, a citizen-science project led by a University of Washington scientist, is mining historic ships logs to get a unique peek at Arctic climate over the past two centuries.
UW researchers use cell phone metadata to estimate poverty in developing countries
In developing or war-ravaged countries where government censuses are few and far between, gathering data for public services or policymaking can be difficult, dangerous or near-impossible. Now, researchers with the University of Washington Information School and Computer Science and Engineering Department have devised a way to estimate the distribution of wealth and poverty in an area by studying metadata from calls and texts made on cell phones.