Recent Center Presentations

Center staff, graduate students, and faculty affiliates have been busy this fall discussing their research at professional conferences, on campus, and at the Center:

Graduate student Jessica Lang gave a talk at the Center’s October 27 noontime seminar entitled “What is an Assessment: Connections between Science and Decision-Making”  about her research on scientific assessments and their potential contributions to decision makers.  While the purpose of these assessments is to relate scientific information to decision makers, it is not clear whether they are effective at providing the information that decision makers can use.  Jessica’s research has led her to conclude that the full spectrum of assessments is so broad that it is impossible to identify the particular characteristics that would make any assessment effective at relating science to policy.  However, it is clear that most assessments would be more effective if scientists better understood the context of decisions and decision makers actively pursued science as a source of information for their decisions.

On November 21 Jessica gave an informal talk to members of the Western Water Assessment about her summer internship with the City of Westminster’s Water Resources Department.  Throughout the summer, Jessica worked with senior water resources engineers, the water quality director, and the water resources analyst.  She compiled information about the current science regarding climate change and the future of Colorado’s water resources.  She also worked with an inter-governmental group to investigate options for maintaining water quality in Standley Lake, the drinking water supply for all three cities, and to determine the kind of information needed to make a decision about what options to pursue to protect the drinking water supply.

Faculty affiliate Jill Litt gave two talks about gardens and health:

(with) Brett, J., Marshall, J., Buchenau, M., Bardwell, L.  "Identifying Features of Gardens and Garden Neighborhoods that Promote Increased Physical Activity and Healthful Eating."  Oral presentation, Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, San Francisco, CA.  November 17, 2003.

(with) Brett, J., Marshall, J., Buchenau, M., Bardwell, L.  "Cultivating Neighborhood Open Space to Promote Population Health: A Pilot Study of Community Gardens in Denver, Colorado."  Oral presentation, International Conference on Urban Health, New York, New York.  October 16, 2003.

On November 21 graduate student Genevieve Maricle spoke to the Western Water Assessment about her summer internship with the House Science Committee minority staff and its relationship to her Climate Services Clearinghouse work (see “Project News” for more details).  During her internship she initiated several discussions with potential users of climate information, including the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), the American Red Cross, the Reinsurance Association of America, and others.

Genevieve also spoke at the Center’s December 15 noontime seminar about "The Climate Services Clearinghouse: A Web Portal to Usable Climate Information."  She presented a poster about the Clearinghouse at the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting on January 15 when the site was officially released.

Center director Roger Pielke gave a talk entitled "The Politics of Preemption" on October 8 at the University of Colorado Graduate School Fall Symposium.  He also participated in a debate on preemption as U.S. foreign policy at the University of Colorado on November 6.  This debate was one of a series being held across the country to develop opinions on U.S. foreign policy, sponsored by the United Nations Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Open Society Institute.