Graduate Student & Alumni News
The Forum on Science Ethics and Policy (FOSEP)
FOSEP is a non-advocacy, non-partisan, multidisciplinary organization that is run by graduate students and post docs. It works to build bridges between scholarship and society in order to explore solutions to 21st century challenges that are impacted by science and technology. FOSEP prepares future leaders who not only have specialized technical knowledge, but understand the complexities of the system that governs science, technology, and innovation, and an appreciation for how science and technology may be integrated with economic, social, and other factors to advance solutions to societal challenges. FOSEP emphasizes inclusion and intellectual modesty in order to create a neutral ground for exchange and collaboration among people with diverse views and expertise.
FOSEP was founded by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at the University of Washington in 2004, and currently has approximately 200 members from more than twenty academic departments and programs. They have organized well over 100 events, including small discussions, seminars, public forums, and stakeholders’ meetings with policy makers. Membership is open to all graduate and professional students who are enrolled at the University of Colorado, and to postdoctoral fellows at the University of Colorado or affiliated research organizations such as NOAA and NCAR.
To join complete a membership application form and email it to Ursula.rick@colorado.edu. For more information visit the FOSEP website.
Dave Cherney Comments about National Parks in New York Times
The New York Times ran CSTPR graduate student Dave Cherney and Susan Clark’s comment about the national parks to coincide with the airing of the first episode of Ken Burns’s 12-hour history, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.” Cherney and Clark argue that “the greatest threat to our national parks is the “therein” philosophy of management — the idea that effective park management ends at a park’s boundaries. Decades of ecological research has shown that even the largest national parks are too small to maintain viable populations of wildlife in the long run…” Read more.
More Graduate Student and Alumni News
Marilyn Averill
Marilyn attended the Barcelona Climate Change Talks 2009, which is last interim UN climate meeting before Copenhagen. It included talks on the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA), and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP). Marilyn is a member of the planning committee for the RINGOs (Research and Independent NGOs), an approved observer organization to the UNFCCC, whose members include universities, think tanks, and other research institutions.
Melanie Roberts
Melanie Roberts, formerly a CIRES Fellow at the Center, recently accepted the position of Assistant Director for Collaborative Research at the Colorado Initiative on Molecular Biotechnology. In this position Melanie will be establishing interdisciplinary research projects and collaborations between CU researchers, the business school, biotech, and physicians and clinical researchers. Congratulations to Melanie!
Ursula Rick
Center postdoc Ursula Rick gave a noontime presentation on November 2 titled "Climate Change Metrics and Their Uncertainty" discussing her research at the Center on sea level rise and its representation in the media.
