UI Excellence Awards Honor Student Research

Christopher Cox, Ph.D. candidate in the EnvS program, received the Outstanding Doctoral Student Research and Creative Activity Award at the UI Excellence Awards ceremony in April. Working with Professor Von Walden, his research focuses on polar atmospheres, in particular tropospheric conditions and atmosphere-surface interactions in the Arctic, with an emphasis on clouds. Chris has made significant advances in understanding how atmospheric conditions change geographically across the Arctic, and how clouds influence the energy budget of the surface. He has authorships on six publications in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature.

EnvS Junior Wins National Scholarship

Wieteke Holthuijzen, ’14, has been awarded a Morris K. Udall Undergraduate Scholarship of $5,000. She is the second EnvS student in five years to win a full Udall Scholarship; Melissa Firor was a Udall Scholar in 2008. The Udall Foundation awards 50 merit-based scholarships annually to sophomore and junior level students in majors related to the environment, tribal public policy, or Native American health care.

EnvS Students Lead 5th Annual President’s Sustainability Symposium

EnvS student leaders employed through the UI Sustainability Center – including director Adria Mead, projects coordinator Wieteke Holthuijzen, volunteer coordinator Alex Rheault, and event coordinator Keeghan Caldwell – crafted a student-oriented day of events for this year’s President’s Sustainability Symposium in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho on March 19. Thinking in terms of what would be most useful to students, the team developed sessions addressing topics like sustainability career options, networking, and campus sustainability success stories. The student event was followed on March 20 with a program targeting professionals and local leaders.

WR Student Wins Fellowship for Tropical Research

Kristen Unwala, a Water Resources PhD student in the IGERT Program, has been awarded a U.S. Borlaug graduate research fellowship grant of $20,000 from the Purdue University Center for Global Food Security, a program funded by USAID. Unwala will spend approximately one year in Costa Rica studying the effects of climate and agricultural practices on water availability and water pollution in a tropical catchment.

EnvS Alumnus Pens Book on Backcountry Aviation

Richard Holm Jr., ’05, has published “Bound for the Backcountry: A History of Idaho’s Remote Airstrips,” chronicling the role of airstrips in shaping our concept of wilderness in Idaho. The coffee table book combines technical details about historical aircraft with colorful accounts of the personalities involved in the function of the airstrips, and those who were impacted by them – firefighters, hunters, anglers, miners, homesteaders, and more. The volume has been available to the public since November and has been featured in multiple regional newspapers.

EnvS-WR Hosts Movie Night Focused on Water Issues

The Water Resources Program and the UI Sustainability Center teamed up to bring the movie “Watershed” to the Kenworthy Performing Arts Center on February 5th. A Production of the Redford Center and Kontent Films, “Watershed” documents the challenges facing the Colorado River in light of climate change and a growing population, and offers hopeful solutions for water management in the American West. They also screened “Remains of a River,” a series of film shorts chronicling the adventures of two friends who hiked and paddled from Wyoming's Wind River Mountains to Mexico following the Colorado River system from its farthest inland source to the sea, filming and narrating on the fly.

» Learn more about "Watershed".

Avista-Waters of the West Scholarship Winners

Two Water Resources graduate students were selected for the 2013 Avista-Waters of the West Scholarship. $3,000 was awarded to Ricardo Sanchez-Murillo, a Ph.D. student working with Dr. Jan Boll. He is researching the effects of human and natural influences on the low flow regimes of streams and rivers in 26 watersheds in eastern Washington and northern Idaho. This research has implications for the availability of water for hydropower generation, irrigation, habitat and aquatic biota, and as drinking water. Also, $2,000 was awarded to Jon Treasure, an M.S. student working with Dr. Erin Brooks. Treasure's research aims to improve late summer juvenile steelhead rearing habitat in the Potlatch River Basin through reservoir management. This has included investigating the use of Big Meadow Creek Reservoir to augment the west fork of Little Bear Creek during late summer. Congratulations to both students!

Student Essay Featured in High Country News

EnvS junior Wieteke Holthuijzen was a runner-up in the annual student essay contest for High Country News. Her essay was featured in the October 15 issue. The theme for this year's competition was "How I Became a Westerner," and Holthuijzen wrote about her connection to the landscape of her home in southwestern Idaho.

» Read her essay

Regional Symposium Features Student Research on Columbia Basin Dams

Mark Cecchini-Beaver presented his graduate research at the 4th Annual Symposium on Columbia River Governance earlier this month. Cecchini-Beaver is a JD-WR student working with Dr. Fritz Fiedler on a project entitled "Columbia River Operational Alternative Analysis in a Participatory Framework." Motivation for the research comes from the unprecedented opportunity to change the way major dams in the Columbia River Basin operate under the Columbia River Treaty. One part of the research is a survey asking stakeholders to rank river management objectives. Cecchini-Beaver will use the results to sketch out alternative methods for operating the dams, then will develop a computer model to analyze these alternative visions to see how they perform in terms of flood control, power generation, and ecological values.

Pastrama and Team Win Top Prize at VIEW Business Plan Competition

A team led by PSM student Tony Pastrama won the $5,000 prize with a plan for using a new technology, reusable biocatalyst beads, to accelerate the fermentation process of products like ethyl alcohol and alcoholic beverages. This innovation is a win-win, expanding production capacity while reducing costs and environmental impact by decreasing waste and increasing energy efficiency. Pastrama graduates May 2012 with a PSM degree, emphasis in environmental contamination and bioenergy. His teammates were Carlo Munoz and Tushar Jain from Biological & Ag Engineering, and Josh Riley from Business

Osterloh Receives Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award

The College of Science selected EnvS senior Jessica Osterloh for the 2012 Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award. Osterloh worked with Jerry Fairley in geological sciences to assess the geothermal potential of the Rio Grande Rift in Colorado and New Mexico, and the Snake River Plain in Southern Idaho. The study utilized Geographic Information Systems to determine favorable areas for geothermal development and further exploration. The research in the Rio Grande Rift was completed for the National Geothermal Student Competition (NGSC). The UI team, including Osterloh, placed 3rd. The research on the Snake River Plain is part of Osterloh's senior thesis and also part of this year's NGSC.

Seniors Shine at Entomological Society of America Meeting

Congratulations to EnvS seniors Tessa Scott and Jess Inskeep! Jess won the undergraduate student poster competition and Tessa won 2nd place at the 96th Pacific Branch Entomological Society of America Meeting last week. They will submit their posters to the National meeting in Knoxville in November.