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.
The return of wolves to Yellowstone National Park is having an interesting — though not surprising — effect on the larger ecosystem, affecting everything from grizzly bears to elk to berry bushes, according to new research from Oregon State University and Washington State University.
The study was published this week by scientists from Washington State University and Oregon State University in the Journal of Animal Ecology. WSU co-authors are graduate assistant Jennifer K. Fortin and Charles T. Robbins, professor in the WSU School of the Environment.
Read more about the research at WSU News
Other sources:
Terra Daily
Popular Science
Science Daily
KCBY CBS 11
Los Angeles Times
BBC Radio
PlanetSave.com
Austrian Tribune
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.
School of the Environment’s Dirk Schulze-Makuch and a colleague suggest lifting unnecessary and expensive environmental restrictions — on Mars.
Rethinking: read the article at WSU News
UPDATE – It’s OK, Infect Mars With Our Germs
Read the related story at Discovery News
UPDATE – Is NASA Being Too Protective of Mars?
Writing in Nature Geoscience, Alberto Fairén, of Cornell University’s department of astronomy, and Dirk Schulze-Makuch, of Washington State University’s School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, argue that this “planetary protection”—beyond what’s … Read the related story at IEEE Spectrum
By Robert Strenge, WSU News
To Washington State University astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch and seven of his space-minded colleagues in an initiative called Star Voyager, it has never been enough for humans to simply dream about traveling to the stars. To them, interstellar travel is not so much a dream as it is an ultimate ambition.
With the release this month of their book, How to Develop the Solar System and Beyond: A Roadmap to Interstellar Space, the eight collaborators—scientists, engineers, economists, and assorted other professionals—lay out mankind’s plausible pathways to the stars. They present multiple scenarios for mankind’s space-faring future over the next hundred years, providing a comprehensive overview of the human, technological, and financial challenges of interstellar travel.
Among the first manned starship proposals, the Star Voyager Roadmap describes potential scenarios for our space faring future. From the development of earth-orbital operational platforms to systems of asteroid capture and deflection, the book describes the strategies and resource developments that will support and contribute to the overall goal of achieving interstellar travel. As with previous advances in space-focused technologies, new interstellar travel technologies will have benefits that advance science and technologies across the globe. Continue story →