Environment | CAS in the Media | Washington State University

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Dazzling fluorescent rocks on display

February 5, 2014

Geologist Kurt Wilkie. WSU’s fluorescent rocks are beacons to students and visitors. (Photos by Shelly Hanks, WSU Photo Services)

“There’s always lots of oohing and aahing when kids see them and, as you can see, they get as close as they possibly can,” said WSU geologist Kurt Wilkie. He’s one of several scientists who give tours of the S. Elroy McCaw Fluorescent Mineral Display located on campus – and who sometimes must clean the viewing window of so many small hand and nose prints.

On display behind the glass, 150 rocks glow in brilliant yellows, purples, oranges and greens. Set against a dark background, they make up a nocturnal garden that captivates adult visitors as well, said Wilkie.

WSU students take aim at the Spokane River

December 5, 2013

This fall, 16 WSU students are seeking ways to reduce, and hopefully prevent, pollution in the Spokane River. Sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences’ student ambassador program, the Save the Spokane research challenge “is a way for students from different majors to collaborate,” says Devon Seymour, a senior studying French and global politics and organizer of the project.

Listen to the Public News Service podcast and learn more

WSU researcher tracks levels of microcystins

September 18, 2013

Ellen Preece wants to know if microcystins, liver-damaging toxins produced by algal blooms in freshwater lakes, accumulate in Puget Sound seafood.

She’s not the only one who wants to know. Preece, a doctoral student in the WSU School of the Environment, is helping the Washington Department of Health determine whether seafood accumulates enough microsystins to be a health concern for populations who rely on locally harvested seafood to meet their protein needs.

Research furthers food security, sovereignty

September 3, 2013

Amber Heckelman. Photo by Laura Evancich, WSU Vancouver.

Amber Heckelman, a doctoral student of environmental science at Washington State University Vancouver, has won the 2013-2014 Bullitt Foundation Environmental Fellowship worth $100,000 for research that centers on alleviating the suffering of Philippine peasants by restoring food security and sovereignty.

Awarded annually since 2007, the prize goes to an outstanding, environmentally knowledgeable graduate student from an underrepresented community who has demonstrated an exceptional capacity for leadership as well as scholarship. This is the third year in a row the honor has gone to a WSU student.

On Gaiser Pond: Middle-schoolers have been doing real science

July 23, 2013

Now dubbed “Gaiser Pond” by the school community, wetlands below the school are being studied and cleaned up thanks to two dedicated Gaiser Middle School science teachers and their students and environmental science graduate students from Washington State University Vancouver.

The Partners in Discovery GK-12 Project brought together environmental science graduate students from WSUV with middle school science teachers in several Clark County districts for real-world science projects using funds from an NSF grant.