Environmental Studies

Kate Regan Faculty Development Fund Awarded to Two Environmental Studies Professors

November 26, 2022

CISGO’s Executive Committee is pleased to announce the 2022 Kate Regan Faculty Development Fund will be awarded to two professors in the Environmental Studies Department.

Neil Oculi was invited to participate in COP 27 in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt, as a representative of the Association of Small Island States. The award of $5,500 will cover his expenses for this important work. Oculi’s project is entitled Addressing Issues of Environmental Ethics and Policy Through Diplomatic Participation with the Alliance of Small Island States at the Climate Change Negotiations in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt.

Oculi wrote, “I am currently teaching a new course in Climate Change Negotiations…My presence and participation at the COP will strengthen my teaching and mentoring capacities…”

Kali Abel is awarded $4,500 to cover her expenses for research in the summer of 2023 in Colombia where she will examine the responses of local communities to the twin threats of climate change and violent conflict as they work together to protect their land. Abel’s project is entitled Nos Matan: Environmental Governance, Climate Change, and Conflict in Antioquia, Colombia.

Abel wrote, “My courses are current-context driven and lean heavily on my research and the stories of the communities and individuals I am working with. This allows my courses to mirror my work in the field by being interdisciplinary, problem-solving oriented, and informed by current context and lived experience…”

Both Oculi and Abel will bring their projects into their classrooms as well as present their work to the broader UP community. Both faculty members are also early in their careers and exemplify the enthusiastic junior faculty that Kate Regan was always championing.

Kristina Walowski Lecture, Nov. 8

November 2, 2018

Kristina Walowski will present “Before It Blows: The Science Behind Volcanic Eruptions in the Cascade Arc,” on Thursday, November 8, at 7:15 p.m., in Franz Hall room 034. The lecture is free and open to all.

Kristina Walowski is an assistant professor of geology at Middlebury College with a specialty in volcanic geochemistry. Her dissertation work focused on the eruptions of several volcanoes at Lassen National Park. She has also used boron isotopes to understand ocean island volcanism.

Walowski’s lecture is sponsored by the Department of Environmental Studies. For ADA accommodations or more information call x7653 or email sweeneyk@up.edu.

Science Students Shine at Sigma Xi Conference

November 11, 2016

University of Portland science students swept the undergraduate awards in the “Earth & Environmental Sciences” category at the Thirteenth Annual Sigma Xi Student Research Symposium, held on Friday, November 4 at Portland State University, according to faculty advisor Ted Eckmann, environmental studies.

Summer Grandy won 1st place for her coauthored paper, “Developing New Soils to Improve Green Roof Performance in the US Pacific Northwest.” Logan Simpson won second place for her coauthored piece, “Combining Spatial Interpolation with Wind Data to Analyze Industrial Odor Patterns in Portland.” The are the first students from UP’s environmental studies department to win awards at Sigma Xi, and the first from that department to present there.

Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, is the international honor society of science and engineering. See more at this link.

Butler Wins National Award for Educational Outreach to Schools

February 5, 2016

Environmental studies professor Bob Butler has won a national award in “Educational Outreach to Schools” from the Western States Seismic Policy Council for his work on the Cascadia Earthscope Earthquake and Tsunami Education Program (CEETEP). Butler serves as principal investigator for the University’s collaboration with OSU and Central Washington University through a grant from the National Science Foundation EarthScope Program. In that role he is lead workshop instructor on Earthquake and Tsunami Science. Over the past three years, CEETEP has held six workshops for K-12 Earth Science teachers, parks and museum interpreters, and emergency management educators in coastal communities from the Olympic Peninsula to the Redwood Coast of California.

The national awards are presented every four years and recognize organizations and agencies for their achievements as demonstrated through exemplary programs, projects, and products that address earthquake risk reduction within the United States.

Butler has been a professor of geophysics at the University since 2004. He teaches earth system science, natural hazards, and oceanography and is known locally as an expert in the field of earthquakes and earthquake preparedness. He is also the project director of Teachers on the Leading Edge (TOTLE), a K-12 Earth Science teacher professional development program featuring Pacific Northwest geology and geological hazards. Among his many awards, Butler was named the Oregon Academy of Science 2013 Outstanding Higher Education Teacher in Science and Mathematics, and received the 2014 Fred Fox Distinguished Service to Science Education Award from the Oregon Science Teachers, and the 2015 Neil Milner Award from the National Association of Geoscience Teachers.

For more information contact environmental studies at 8342 or inanb@up.edu.

Columbia River Treaty Conference, Oct. 24

October 16, 2015

The University will host a one-day conference, “Ethics and the Columbia River Treaty: Righting Historic Wrongs,” on Saturday, October 24, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., in Buckley Center Auditorium. Attendees will reflect on the impact of the dam-building era on the Columbia Basin. Discussion will take place on ways to modernize the Columbia River Treaty and seek to establish a water ethic as foundational for resolving international water conflicts.

UP sponsors include the environmental studies program, the Garaventa Center, McNerney-Hanson Chair in Ethics, Molter Chair in Science, and Sweo Chair in Engineering. To attend, please contact Belgin Inan, environmental studies, at inanb@up.edu or 8342 as soon as possible.

UP, Portland Join Worldwide Sustainable Education Network

February 10, 2014

Greater Portland has been recognized as a formal Regional Center of Expertise (RCE) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) by the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Studies of Sustainability. Our region joins 127 RCEs around the world (now numbering three in the U.S.: Grand Rapids, Mich., Shenandoah Valley, Va., and Portland). The University of Portland has been one of the institutions cooperating to propose this RCE, as have Portland State, Portland Community College, Lewis and Clark College, Marylhurst, the University of Oregon Portland campus, Washington State University-Vancouver, Pacific University, and many other educational, government institutions, businesses, and non-governmental organizations. The RCE is intended to increase collaborations in the greater Portland area to promote the understanding of sustainability. To see a complete list of RCE members see http://tinyurl.com/k7cxao3 and for more information contact Steve Kolmes, environmental studies, at kolmes@up.edu.