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Ogmius Newsletter

Student News

Adam Briggle

Adam BriggleThe Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics (ESTE), edited by Dr. Carl Mitcham at the Colorado School of Mines, will be published in August.   Adam Briggle, a doctoral student in Environmental Studies, worked on the ESTE as a research assistant, editor, and writer.  For more information about the ESTE click here.

Adam will be spending this summer writing his dissertation titled “Knowledge, Democracy and the Good Life: The President's Council on Bioethics.”  He will attend the Society for Philosophy and Technology (SPT) conference in Delft, Netherlands in July.

And in his “spare time” Adam was recently elected Co-chair of the Board at the CU Environmental Center.

Joel Gratz

Joel GratzENVS/MBA graduate student Joel Gratz is spending the summer at ICAT Managers LLC, a Boulder, Colorado-based catastrophe insurance company.  Joel, who has completed two out of three years toward the pursuit of a Masters in policy and meteorology and an MBA, is working in the modeling department at ICAT.  ICAT only insures for damage caused by earthquakes and from the winds of a hurricane, and only for small to medium size businesses.  Whereas other types of insurance companies base their pricing on historical statistics (for example, an auto insurance company may use historical statistics to indicate that a 20 year old male in Boulder, Colorado driving a brand new sports car has a xx% chance of getting into a car accident costing the insurance company $xxx), insurance companies that specialize in earthquakes and hurricanes only have a few quakes or storms to rely on in order to determine pricing strategies.  The companies therefore must rely on computer models of simulated hurricanes to understand the risk to different types of buildings (built from wood, steel, etc) in different locations.  Joel is helping ICAT analyze these computer models to ensure that the company achieves its business goals.  This work relies on knowledge of meteorology, business, and the methods and policies employed to protect life and property when tropical storms and hurricanes threaten land.

Elizabeth McNie

Elizabeth McNieCenter doctoral student Elizabeth McNie is traveling to Iceland in July to conduct research on Iceland's paleoclimate history, societal impacts of climate variability, and strategies for adaptation to climate variability. Elizabeth is part of a four-person research team funded by a grant through the NSF IGERT program. The project is interdisciplinary in nature and includes graduate students in paleogeology, environmental studies, science journalism, and science and technology policy.

Shep Ryen

Shep RyenCenter doctoral student Shep Ryen is spending the summer interning for the House Committee on Science, chaired by Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY).  Shep is the second Center student to work for the Committee, after Genevieve Maricle interned in the summer of 2003.