Around 800 people in the United States received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award for 2022-23. Two of those are married Washington State University professors.
“We were expecting neither of us to get a Fulbright; we hoped one of us would get it,” said Carolyn Ross, professor in WSU’s School of Food Science. “We didn’t think there was a chance we would both receive one. But here we are and we’re excited.”
Ridout
Ross and her husband, Travis Ridout, professor in WSU’s School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs, will spend the first six months of 2023 in Australia working on separate projects primarily funded by the U.S. Department of State program.
“There’s tremendous prestige applied to the Fulbright Program,” Ridout said. “We’ve had colleagues receive them and they talked about what a great experience it was. Part of the program is acting as cultural ambassadors for the U.S., which our family won’t take lightly.”
The couple have three children, ages 14, 11, and 9, who will re-locate with Ross and Ridout from Pullman to Melbourne.
How human and animal diseases spread, how trees move in wind, and how confined fluids flow are among topics of research conducted by undergraduate mathematicians from across the Pacific Northwest who met recently at Washington State University to discuss their work.
Students and faculty from six universities in Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and Washington joined dozens of WSU peers at the 2022 Pacific Inland Mathematics Undergraduate Conference (PiMUC) to present their research in both applied and theoretical mathematics and to learn about using math skills to solve real-world problems.
“This year’s PiMUC conference saw a number of very impressive presentations in many diverse and interdisciplinary areas, ranging from pure mathematics to applications in public health and computer science,” said Sergey Lapin, a career-track professor of mathematics who co-organized the conference on the WSU Pullman campus.
“Despite being somewhat isolated geographically, colleges and universities in our Pacific inland region have brilliant undergraduate students doing interesting and important research,” said fellow organizer Will Hall, WSU assistant professor of math. “The conference enabled undergraduate students from across the region to network with one another as well as with faculty and WSU graduate students also currently engaged in research.”
Nomadic pine siskins are a type of finch often seen on backyard feeders. Studies of migrating pine siskins have shown they exhibit “nocturnal migratory restlessness.” This means the birds move around a lot at night instead of resting. Their bodies also adapt to support migration by gaining muscle and fat deposits to use as fuel during flight.
However, a new study from Washington State University has revealed that the natural migratory behaviors of pine siskins can change in the presence of settled birds.
Watts
“The presence of another bird that isn’t migratory seems to be a really potent cue to stop migration,” said study co-author Heather Watts. “We saw changes in their behavior and changes in their physiology associated with the energetics of migration.”
GOP politicians are taking more-uncompromising positions on guns even as lawsuits and infighting have dragged down the flagship gun lobby.
Nearly a decade ago, the massacre of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school threw the politics of gun violence into a state of suspension for a full week, as conservative politicians waited to hear from the powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, before taking a stand.
This week, after another rampage, at a Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead, Republican lawmakers didn’t wait for the NRA as they lined up within hours to rebuff any proposed gun-control measures.
Ridout
“The NRA is not a big player when it comes to spending on political advertising, but guns are still an issue that a lot of candidates are talking about,” said Travis Ridout, a politics professor at Washington State University and co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project, which tracks political ads. “A lot of it is by virtue of being pictured with a gun, and that sends a message that the candidate is not hostile to gun rights.”
In another sign of how the party has moved since the Newtown massacre, the baseless claim spread by Alex Jones that the shooting was staged has turned into a knee-jerk response for some Republican elected officials after new mass shootings. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, before she was elected to Congress, endorsed a false claim that the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., was staged, leading the House to remove her from her committee assignments. On the day of the vote last year, Greene acknowledged school shootings were “absolutely real.”
This month, the Arizona state Senate opened an ethics investigation into Sen. Wendy Rogers for a social media post that falsely suggested the May 14 mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket, which authorities have said was motivated by the gunman’s white-supremacist beliefs, was done by a federal agent. Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday tweeted and then deleted false information blaming the Texas shooting on a “transsexual leftist illegal alien.”
Lessons from fires of the past can help the West’s residents prepare for wildfires to come—and help our forests become more adapted to an era of fire.
Forestry scientists at Washington State University study wildfire and its impacts on the land, both bad and good. WSU Extension Foresters share current understanding about fire and how to reduce its ravages, helping rural landowners safeguard their homes, property, and natural resources.
Swanson
“The more we use fire as a land management tool, the less we need to be afraid of it,” says Mark Swanson, associate professor and faculty leader for WSU’s Forestry teaching and research program. “Native Americans were masters at using fire to reduce forest density and fuels. We profoundly need to learn from them.”
For nearly a decade, Swanson has been part of a multi-institutional team studying the effects of an unusual fire in California’s Yosemite National Park. In 2013, the Rim Fire burned more than a quarter-million acres on the west slope of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, entering Yosemite, where managers had used prescribed fire for decades to reduce fuels.
Last year, Swanson launched WSU’s new Wildland Fire Ecology and Management course, which prepares young forestry professionals to become entry-level wildland firefighters. The first batch of 25 students awaits certification this spring.
Students learn standard tools, concepts, and practices, from understanding forest and weather conditions to digging a fire line and building an emergency fire shelter.
“We’re trying to prepare our students to be safer in a world that will be more dominated by fire,” Swanson said.
