Division of Natural Sciences

Grant supports natural sciences research

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 17:56:01 +0000

Grant supports natural sciences research Rachel Sauer Tue, 03/10/2026 - 11:56

�� Boulder receives $1.5 million from Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to fund postdoctoral researchers

The University of Colorado Boulder has received $1.5 million to provide funding for postdoctoral researchers in the Division of Natural Sciences—part of $55 million in funding provided to 30 U.S. universities by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

"We are grateful for the generosity of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and its significant support of the groundbreaking research happening at �� Boulder,” says Irene Blair, dean of the Division of Natural Sciences. “Despite the current uncertainties that we and universities across the country are experiencing, our scientists remain committed to finding innovative answers to the most pressing questions and issues we are facing today. By supporting post-doctoral research, this grant will advance fundamental research in the natural sciences."

The Moore Foundation provided this one-time support to maintain the pipeline of scientists in training. After consulting with leading scientists and university leaders, the foundation said it identified an especially critical, immediate shortfall at the postdoctoral training level.

“Universities are experiencing budget cuts which are drastically curtailing funding for postdocs,” said Aileen Lee, president of the Moore Foundation. “Though critical to the scientific enterprise, postdoctoral trainees are typically less readily supported by university friends and alumni than are graduate and undergraduate students.”

�� Boulder was one of 30 universities that received past support from the Moore Foundation Science Program. Awards for this latest round of funding ranged from $1 million to $2.5 million per university, based upon historical levels of funding from the foundation.

“As funding for science becomes increasingly constrained, philanthropy plays a crucial role in fueling innovation and discovery,” Lee said. “We invest where science can make long-term, measurable change and in the talented people whose ideas will shape the future.”

The funding from the Moore Foundation assists 400 postdoctoral researchers across 25 fields.

For �� Boulder, departments receiving funding include chemistry, biochemistry, ecology and evolutionary biology, environmental studies, geological sciences, integrative physiology, physics, psychology and neuroscience, atmospheric and oceanic sciences, astrophysical and planetary sciences, and applied mathematics.

Although the Moore Foundation’s science program funding is typically tightly focused on a small number of long-term research priorities, in this case, the foundation provided the funding to support postdoctoral researchers. The awards were made in late 2025 and the universities have the latitude to spend the funds across three academic years (2025-2028).

Established in 2000 by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore and his wife, Betty, the Moore Foundation supports scientific discovery, environmental conservation and the preservation of the character of the San Francisco Bay area. The Moore Foundation has provided $2.46 billion in cumulative grants for scientific discovery thus far.

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�� Boulder receives $1.5 million from Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to fund postdoctoral researchers.

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Film builds science into beaver tales

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 16:46:49 +0000

Film builds science into beaver tales Rachel Sauer Mon, 03/09/2026 - 10:46

Rachel Sauer

�� Boulder alumnus Emily Fairfax shared her scientific expertise as the beaver consultant on the new Pixar film Hoppers

Emily Fairfax came home one evening from her job as a weapons engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory feeling a bit sad. Yes, she was using her degrees in chemistry and physics, but the work just wasn’t a good fit for her.

She sat on the couch and turned on the TV, happening across an episode of Nature on PBS called “Leave it to Beavers.”

“I was so hooked,” recalls Fairfax (PhDGeol’19). “I couldn’t stop thinking about it. There were all these aerial images of beaver wetlands in places like the Nevada desert, which was amazing and I couldn’t get it out of my head. So, I thought, ‘I’ve got to go to grad school and study beavers.’”

�� Boulder alumnus Emily Fairfax (PhDGeol’19) was the scientific beaver consultant for the new Pixar film Hoppers. (Photo: Emily Fairfax)

Fast forward to the evening of Feb. 23 on the red carpet outside the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California. There, wearing a beautiful teal and black dress with a lace and sequin overlay—and having received glam tips from her grad students—Fairfax posed for photographers in front of a yellow screen bearing the images of animated beavers she’d helped bring to life.

Fairfax, whose “a-ha beavers!” moment led her to the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Geological Sciences, was the scientific beaver consultant for the acclaimed new Pixar film Hoppers, which opened nationwide Friday.

The story of an animal-loving college student whose mind is transferred into a robotic beaver so she can help save a pristine glade from being paved for a freeway, Hoppers highlights a keystone species in a scientifically accurate way that is, frankly, adorable.

“People need to know that they’re a keystone species,” says Fairfax, who signed on to the film project with the assurance that this point would be emphasized. “When you lose the beaver, you lose the ecosystem, and I think (Pixar filmmakers) made that crystal clear.

“The other point that I really wanted to be in the film is that beavers are not just off in national parks. You can have beavers living in cities, living adjacent to cities, and we can coexist with them to our benefit, not just the benefit of the beaver. I wanted to highlight the idea that protecting beavers and habitats isn’t just about protecting nature out of the goodness of our hearts; we benefit greatly.”

The force of a glacier

Long before her pivot from Los Alamos to �� Boulder, Fairfax, who now is an assistant professor of geography, environment and society at the University of Minnesota, was a Girl Scout in a troop that took its role as stewards of the natural world very seriously.

“We learned the basic principles of ‘Leave No Trace’ very early on, but then our troop leaders took it a step further,” she wrote on her personal website. “They urged us to put in that little bit of extra effort and leave things better than we found them. When we went camping this usually panned out as picking up trash off of trails, but the sentiment stuck with me. If everyone strives to leave things better than they started—even if only by a little bit—then the overall state of things will consistently improve.”

It’s a sentiment that dovetailed neatly with her graduate work at �� Boulder, where she studied beavers through the lens of ecohydrology, combining remote sensing, modeling and field work to understand how beaver damming changes the landscape and the timescales on which that change happens.

“I’m at heart a water scientist—how fast it’s moving, if it’s being slowed or stored or just blasting downstream superfast,” Fairfax says. “I care about the shape of rivers as a geomorphologist, and I’m very hyper-focused on how one specific animal controls water or the shape of water.”

Her first Colorado field site was in Lefthand Canyon west of Boulder—where, if you drive slowly and look closely, it’s possible to see an 11-foot-tall beaver dam from the road—and her dissertation research was inspired by “Leave It to Beavers”: “In the documentary, they were interviewing hydrologists and geomorphologists, who kept bringing up how beaver wetlands in these areas are the only things staying green during droughts.

Emily Fairfax takes measurements of a beaver dam in Lefthand Canyon west of Boulder. (Photo: Emily Fairfax)

“I get that beavers can seem really chaotic—they don’t draw any blueprints, they don’t pull permits, they don’t let anybody know what they’re going to do before they do it. But beavers are second only to us, humans, in terms of animals that can change the physical earth. They’ve been damming for at least 7.5 million years, maybe as long as 25 million years, so thinking about beavers as this geological force is really intellectually exciting—this rodent in my yard carries the force of a glacier.”

Inquiry from Pixar

Two years after earning her PhD and joining the California State University Channel Islands faculty, where she worked before joining the University of Minnesota faculty in 2023, Fairfax presented a Zoom webinar about beavers and drought in California that several Pixar employees attended. “I thought, ‘OK, cool, they have a right to be interested in what’s going on in their state,’” she remembers. Several months later, she received an email with the subject line “Inquiry from Pixar” and thought it was a prank.

Nope: It was legitimate.

Pixar filmmakers wanted her to give a presentation to studio staff about beavers, which she did. It turns out that Pixar was making a film about them, and after signing reams of non-disclosure agreements and securing a promise that the filmmakers wouldn’t even think about having the beaver characters eat fish—because beavers do not eat fish—Fairfax was officially the Hoppers beaver consultant.

At first, Fairfax answered a lot of basic questions about beaver behaviors, ecology, what they can and can’t do, how long they live, their family units, their size and why their teeth are orange. Then the questions started getting more specific: What other animals would you see in a beaver wetland? How do beavers get along with humans? If someone tried to build a road by a beaver wetland, how would beavers react? She brought a group of Pixar filmmakers to Lefthand Canyon for a week of beaver observation, which yielded even more questions.

“At every step along the way, they were turning seemingly disconnected beaver facts into scenes,” Fairfax says. For example, as with humans, beavers’ tailbones tuck under, allowing them to sit on their tails like little chairs. So, the scene in Hoppers in which the real beaver George sits on his tail is accurate, and the fact that the character Mabel sits with her tail outstretched is a clue that she’s not a real beaver.

The dam-building sequence in Hoppers is also scientifically accurate: “A lot of people don’t know how beavers build dams,” Fairfax explains. "It can be very sudden, and they will often use relatively large cobbles and stones to start, which they put along the base of their dams. Then they’ll put on some sticks and then pack it with mud. Everyone thinks they pat the mud on with their tails, but they actually use their paws. So, the sequence in the film where you see these super buff beavers lifting up stones and rolling them down, then you see other beavers waddling in carrying mud and patting it down, that actually shows the real sequence of dam building.”

Among the questions that Pixar filmmakers asked scientist Emily Fairfax was how beavers relate to and get along with other animals in the areas where they live. (Photo: Disney/Pixar)

Throughout the filmmaking process, Fairfax received scenes to review, so the accurately rotund beavers in the film are her doing. “The very first time I saw one of the (film) beavers, I told them it was too skinny. Beavers are shaped like a bowling ball, so when I saw it again it was a little fatter, and then I saw it again and it was a little fatter. Finally, people with Pixar were like, ‘If it’s sitting on its tail, it needs more rolls’ and ‘It should be jiggling more when it’s running.’ I was like, ‘Oh my god, this is adorable.’ They’re like big, fuzzy bowling balls, and I’m collecting all the little plushies.”

Science and storytelling

Through the process, Fairfax says, the filmmakers balanced storytelling and science. There were times when total accuracy had to concede a little to the story, “but they always asked me, ‘Is this realistic enough? Is it going to hurt beavers, is it going to hurt climate change work if we do it this way?’ They were always really good about asking me how much certain things mattered, because they are people trying to create a compelling narrative, but they also wanted to respect the science.”

(And speaking of respecting the science—and scientist—the full name of the film character Dr. Sam is Dr. Samatha Emily Fairfax.)

Fairfax’s work on the film was also a matter of balancing the often solitary, generally unglamorous work of science with the razzle-dazzle of Hollywood. She jokes that she considered wearing her waders to the Hollywood premiere, but her grad students stepped in with hair and makeup tips. And then she was on the red carpet with A-list stars like Jon Hamm, then inside the ornate theater watching the velvet curtain rise on her research via Hollywood movie magic.

“It was just so surreal,” she says. “I’d seen the movie many times before that, but it was so real in that moment, packed into this theater, all the voice actors there, and immediately I’m crying. In many ways, it felt like there was a lot of myself on that screen, and seeing people’s reactions to it felt like seeing reactions to my research.

“Trying to translate what I know in a way that’s relevant to artists was not a normal part of my job, and it felt very high risk at first because what if people don’t like the movie and it sets beavers back? Beavers are still coming back from the fur trade, plus we have the rising challenge of climate change, so it felt risky. But it’s a beautiful movie and people seem to love it, so that makes me feel very hopeful about how science and storytelling can benefit all species.”

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�� Boulder alumnus Emily Fairfax shared her scientific expertise as the beaver consultant on the new Pixar film Hoppers.

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Top image: Disney/Pixar

The yellow brick road starts here

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 23:41:11 +0000

The yellow brick road starts here Rachel Sauer Wed, 03/04/2026 - 16:41

Julie Chiron

�� Boulder's clinical psychology training clinics give children, students and adults a diagnosis, a direction and a path forward

The letter arrived years after their consultation.

A former client of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Attention, Behavior and Learning Evaluation (ABLE) Clinic was doing some spring cleaning and found the assessment he had received from the clinic as a teenager. Enclosed with the test results that diagnosed his dyslexia was a small note of encouragement.

His discovery prompted him to write to the clinic with an update. He was graduating from college, and the note gave him fresh encouragement for the new set of challenges ahead.

Nomita Chhabildas (left), director of the Attention, Behavior, and Learning Clinic; Tina Pittman Wagers (center), director of the Raimy Clinic; and Renée Martin-Willett (right), assistant research professor and acting director of the Psychological Assessment & Testing Hub (�� PATH).

“Words are powerful to me. They have always been both vexing and lovely,” he wrote. “When coupled with the right moment, words can carry a meaning that is both motivating and moving. Today it was your words, written almost five years ago, that affected me in just such a way.”

For Nomita Chhabildas, who has directed the ABLE Clinic for more than two decades, the former client’s letter captures what the university’s three clinical psychology training clinics are meant to do. They are places where people come to better understand themselves and leave with a path forward.

This year, the clinics are experiencing a moment of renewal.

�� PATH, the department’s adult psychological assessment clinic formerly known as the Brain Behavior Clinic, reopened after an 18-month closure following the retirement of the long-time former director. The Raimy Clinic, which provides affordable mental health treatment for students, staff, faculty and the community, is under new leadership. And the clinic spaces inside Muenzinger Psychology Building have been refreshed with soft colors, warm lighting, art on the walls and inviting furniture in every room. It feels more like a living room than a waiting room.

“It’s a time when our clinics are being rebuilt,” Chhabildas says. “A really exciting time, both for our students and for the community.”

Three clinics, one mission

The Department of Psychology and Neuroscience operates the three training clinics.

The Raimy Clinic provides psychotherapy for adults, couples and, less frequently, children. �� PATH offers comprehensive adult psychological assessments for conditions including ADHD, learning disabilities and cognitive changes following concussion or traumatic brain injury. The ABLE Clinic focuses on children and adolescents, with deep expertise in learning differences, ADHD and autism spectrum disorder, now estimated by the CDC to affect 1 in 31 children.

All three clinics serve �� Boulder students, faculty and staff, as well as community members across the Front Range.

And all three share what Reneé Martin-Willet, assistant research professor and director of �� PATH, describes as a dual mission. They train the next generation of clinical psychologists while delivering evidence-based care to the community.

“We’re one of the top-ranked clinical psychology programs in the country,” Martin-Willet says. “We have fantastic student clinicians, and everything we do is based on the best, newest science.”

Like a teaching hospital or dental school, the clinicians are doctoral trainees working under close supervision. The model keeps standards high while expanding access. �� PATH charges about $2,100 for a comprehensive assessment, significantly less than the typical private-practice rate. The ABLE Clinic keeps fees similarly low and offers scholarships for families who otherwise cannot afford testing.

That affordability is not incidental. Research conducted by the ABLE Clinic found that children from the lowest-income families are evaluated for learning disorders at roughly half the rate of their higher-income peers.

Undergraduate student Cece Di Bella (left) and clinical psychology graduate student Mateo Chavez chat in one of the Raimy Center's welcoming spaces.

“We could have increased our fees,” Chhabildas says. “We could have stopped seeing families on scholarships. But we have not done that because we feel like we’re here for the community.”

Bringing research into the room

What distinguishes the clinics, faculty members say, is how closely training is tied to research.

“Our students and faculty are working with world-class clinical researchers who are developing and testing the very evidenced-based treatments we provide,” says Raimy Clinic Director Tina Pittman Wagers.

Pittman Wagers stepped into the Raimy Clinic director role seven months ago after 25 years on the faculty. She’s currently supervising doctoral students in behavioral activation, a gold standard treatment for depression developed in part by Sona Dimidjian, faculty member and director of �� Boulder’s Crown Institute.

“When clients come to the clinic,” Pittman Wagers says, “they benefit from treatments that have been rigorously tested and are being taught by some of the same people who helped develop them.”

Martin-Willet traces a similar arc in her own career. As a doctoral student at ��, she trained under anxiety researcher Joanna Arch while working on one of Arch’s clinical trials. Later, during her residency at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) approaches she had learned proved essential for patients with brain injuries, amputations and cancer.

“That’s a very direct line,” she says, “from research at ��, to training in the clinic, to application with patients elsewhere, to better care in real-world settings.”

More than a label

Since opening in 2004, the ABLE Clinic has served more than 1,000 children and trained more than 80 doctoral students. Family feedback surveys consistently rate the experience highly. Last year’s average score was 3.86 out of 4.

But Chhabildas is quick to point out that the most important outcome is not the number.

A child assessed for dyslexia, for example, does not leave with a label alone. Families receive detailed recommendations for school accommodations, learning programs, tutoring approaches and strategies tailored to that child’s specific situation and needs. Equally important, the clinicians work to identify strengths such as verbal reasoning, spatial creativity, artistic abilities and social skills that can be cultivated alongside challenges.

One parent wrote to the clinic, “Since J has had her diagnosis from you, she feels empowered in a way she never has. You gave us a yellow brick road to follow.”

That sense of direction, faculty members say, is the real measure of success. For the young man writing from across five years of distance, it was the encouragement, twice over, that arrived exactly when he needed it. For J, it was the direction her family needed to support their child. In this moment of renewal for the clinics, with refreshed spaces, reopened doors and a commitment to keeping care within reach for every family, they remain steadfastly oriented toward helping people better understand themselves and leave with a path forward.

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�� Boulder's clinical psychology training clinics give children, students and adults a diagnosis, a direction and a path forward.

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Top photo: �� Boulder's Raimy Center provides items to support children, teens and adults in the therapy process.

A slow drama in the red rock canyons of the San Rafael River

Rachel Sauer — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 23:14:00 +0000

A slow drama in the red rock canyons of the San Rafael River Rachel Sauer Wed, 03/04/2026 - 16:14

Jeff Mitton

Intentionally introduced to the western United States in the 1800s, tamarisk is a bully of a neighbor that replaces native species with a dense monoculture that no native herbivores care to eat

The San Rafael River is only 90 miles long, originating at the confluence of three creeks emanating from the Green River in the Wasatch Plateau, two miles upstream of the Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness. This is red rock canyon country in Utah, rugged and sublimely scenic. It is a wonder that the San Rafael, which dwindles to a shallow creek during summer and fall, could have carved such deep canyons.

Approximately 15 miles downstream of the confluence is Little Grand Canyon, about 10 miles long, and at the Wedge Overlook, 1,000 to 1,200 feet deep. The overlook provides not only a fine view of the river below but also a panoramic view of Sid's Mountain Wilderness to the south and Mexican Mountain Wilderness to the east. The eastern end of the Little Grand Canyon opens to the Historic Swinging Bridge, built in 1937 to allow mining and cattle trucks to cross the San Rafael River at the Buckhorn Draw. Primitive campgrounds at Wedge overlook, Swinging Bridge and along Buckhorn Draw make this an adventurer’s destination.

The San Rafael River enters Mexican Mountain Wilderness at Swinging Bridge. From there, Mexican Mountain Road runs between the river and an escarpment of tall cliffs for 30 miles. This is a rough road, definitely 4WD-HC, but it is worth the time and jostling, for it leads to Mexican Mountain and three spectacular slot canyons: Lockhart, Upper Black Box and Lower Black Box. A slot canyon is particularly deep and narrow—for example, both Upper and Lower Black Box are miles long, and in some sections, each is 400 feet deep and other sections only 25 feet wide. In both slot canyons, the water is so deep that most of the passage is achieved by swimming or drifting in an inner tube. Upper Black Box is usually entered by rappelling vertical walls 60 or 80 feet tall. I don't do that. I have only peered into Lockhart and Upper Black Boxes—both provided awesome views and opportunities for photos of Mexican Mountain looming high above a deep and narrow slot canyon.

With all the pinnacles, canyons and cliffs to appreciate, it is easy to overlook the slow and silent drama gripping the plant community in the red rock canyons of the San Rafael River. In the early to mid 1800s, multiple species of tamarisk were introduced to the western United States, and today six species can be found on or around the Colorado Plateau. The most common tamarisk species is probably Tamarix chinensis (synonym ramosissima) from China. Tamarisk was purposely introduced to the southwest for its abilities to thrive in a dry climate and colonize and stabilize soils that no other plants could tolerate.

Tamarisk crowds both sides of an oxbow of the San Rafael River, strangling rabbitbrush. (Photo: Jeff Mitton)

The problem with tamarisk is that it is a bully of a neighbor, replacing native species, such as cottonwoods, willows and rabbitbrush, until the streams and rivers are lined with a dense and virtually impenetrable monoculture that no native herbivores care to eat. Although it has the growth form of a shrub, tamarisk is technically a tree, and dense stands turn into denser stands of deadwood, transforming the plant community and creating a fire hazard. Each plant can produce between 500,000 and 600,000 seeds per year, so when a fire comes, the dead branches spread the fire quickly, killing most plants. When the next rains come, an enormous bank of tamarisk seeds are waiting; tamarisk becomes more numerous with each fire.

Four or five decades ago I saw stretches of the Green River lined with stately cottonwoods that were inviting to campers, picknickers and fishers. Since then, tamarisk has moved in and changed that pleasantly shaded riverbank to a dense, sharp, scratchy thicket, profoundly unpleasant to fight through. In addition, tamarisk colonized the river's edge, trapping sediments and narrowing the channel. Some strands of cottonwoods, increasingly isolated from the water, have died. Narrowing the river channel changes its ecology for a variety of fish species. Tamarisk has many pretty flowers, but the only other civil thing that can be said for tamarisk is that it is very nearly the perfect weed: accumulates deadwood, is flammable and inedible, and has deep roots and high seed production.

When tamarisk invaded national parks and monuments and state parks, state and federally employed ecologists initiated control measures. Dinosaur National Monument, Arches National Park, Saguaro National Park, Mojave Trails National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Glen Canyon and Lake Mead National Recreation Areas all initiated programs to manage the perfect weed. They were joined by programs in the Colorado, Virgin, Dolores, Green and San Juan Rivers. It isn't easy to remove the perfect weed from a landscape. Fire, herbicides, chainsaws and bulldozers have all been tried, and although they can diminish the population of tamarisk, it always returns. Tamarisk is in the Little Grand Canyon and along the San Rafael River to Upper Black Box and below the Lower Black Box to the Green River. It is hard to find a stream or river in the southwest that is not being slowly claimed by tamarisk.

A new tool for the managers of public lands is being applied now. When tamarisk was introduced to North America, it escaped the herbivores that had evolved to eat its leaves and roots. But now, closely related species referred to as "tamarisk beetle" are being introduced to tamarisk thickets—including some in the downstream portions of the San Rafael River. Introductions by managers evoke both hope and dread.

Some introductions have been wonderful successes; others have been disastrous. So far, the managers have not seen any proclivity for the tamarisk beetle to eat anything other than tamarisk. Experienced managers do not use the word eradicate, but a realistic goal is to reduce tamarisk to a minor species in an otherwise healthy community of native species.

Jeff Mitton is a professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder. His column, "Natural Selections," is also printed in the Boulder Daily Camera.

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Intentionally introduced to the western United States in the 1800s, tamarisk is a bully of a neighbor that replaces native species with a dense monoculture that no native herbivores care to eat.

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Top photo: Fremont's cottonwoods flourish along the San Rafael River in the Mexican Mountain Wilderness in Utah. (Photo: Jeff Mitton)

Students blend suds and science at Earth on Tap

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 23:17:41 +0000

Students blend suds and science at Earth on Tap Rachel Sauer Tue, 03/03/2026 - 16:17

Rachel Sauer

The March 9 event at Rayback Collective in Boulder, open to all, invites scientists and non-scientists to gather for discussions of climate research

It started, as good things often do, with CAKE. In this case, that’s the Climate Action Knowledge Exchange, a group formed by University of Colorado Boulder atmospheric and oceanic sciences (ATOC) graduate students Max Elling, Dora Shlosberg and Josh Gooch. They noticed, the further they progressed in their studies, that there are “a lot of different people working in climate, but not necessarily working together,” explains Shlosberg, a PhD student.

If you go

What: Earth on Tap

When: 5:45-7:30 p.m. Monday, March 9

Where: Rayback Collective, 2775 Valmont Road in Boulder

Who: All are invited

Learn more

So, they formed an interdisciplinary outreach group, CAKE, to break down silos and build partnerships between scholars, industry professionals and community members. From there, CAKE began collaborating with ATOC’s existing Outreach Committee, a group dedicated to educating the public on Earth science through engaging and interactive learning. Outreach teaches children through their SEEDS program, bringing live demonstrations on Earth-system science to local elementary schools.

Then, last semester, they began discussing what more they could be doing to involve adults in science, particularly those who aren’t professional scientists but are science curious.

Earth on Tap organizers express that there has been a lot of misinformation spread about science, and there is sometimes an element of mystery among the public as to what it is local scientists do. Earth on Tap aims to break down these barriers and connect people of all backgrounds to the science being done in their own backyard.

The key is to make it fun, says ATOC PhD student Maggie Scholer. But how?

The answer: Beer.

Not to make the science go down easier, but as a tool to bring science out of the lab and field research sites and into spaces where all are welcome, where community grows, where learning can happen with a chocolate stout and a shared plate of sliders. So, that’s how Earth on Tap came to be.

An event at which all ages are welcome—though you’ll have to show ID if you want that beer—Earth on Tap features climate scientists discussing their research with a focus on how it applies to and affects the broader community.

The second Earth on Tap will be from 5:45-7:30 p.m. Monday, March 9, at the Rayback Collective in Boulder. Nels Bjarke, a hydrologist with Western Water Assessment and �� Boulder PhD alumnus, and McKenzie Larson, an ATOC PhD student and researcher in the Synoptic Meteorology Research Group, will discuss the impacts of low seasonal snowfall and the development of downslope windstorms.

Telling science stories

Monday’s Earth on Tap topic is especially timely, Josh Gooch says, because he and his ATOC colleagues frequently discuss how “to communicate how abnormal this winter has been and contextualize it to the future. Each week we have a weather discussion that one of our professors leads, and we get these branching discussions of, ‘If we make up the precipitation deficit in the future, what does that mean in terms of more fuel for wildfires?’ So, one of our goals (with Earth on Tap) is to set the context of what current weather events that are occurring on the Front Range may lead to in future seasons. That’s a concern that a lot of people share.”

Max Elling, an ATOC PhD student and researcher in the Oceans and Climate Lab, notes that the Boulder area is interesting because of its large population of scientists as well as its population of non-scientists, who are nevertheless involved in Earth science, yet there still can be a disconnect between the research that’s happening in this area and what community members know about it.

“With Earth on Tap, we’re learning more about what people are curious about,” Elling says, adding that he and his colleagues are learning to better understand their audiences and tailor their outreach style accordingly.

“We have an inherent language that we use as scientists, certain acronyms, and we’re taught to present at conferences where everyone is aware of this language,” Gooch says. “We need to be more aware of situations where an audience member might not be as familiar because they don’t interface with these things every day.”

Jonah Shaw, a post-doctoral associate at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) who spoke at the inaugural Earth on Tap in January, adds that all of his communication training in graduate school was in a conference environment, which doesn’t necessarily translate to climate discussions over beers at the Rayback.

“Something that I think is really important when you’re communicating within a scientific field is a story, but it becomes even more important when you’re communicating with the general public,” Shaw says. “It’s meeting people where they are, so for me, instead of talking about what I do on a day-to-day basis, I talked about a satellite mission I worked on, the story of that mission. I was talking about the narrative aspects and connecting with people’s experiences, and I was incredibly excited to see how well attended it was by non-scientists. Everyone is in their own realm and able to connect (with the science) in their own way.”

Scholer says that Earth on Tap organizers learn from event to event how to better involve audience members in the presentation, including trivia questions with prizes and QR codes that people can scan to submit questions if they’re not inclined to raise their hand. Ideally, she adds, people will come to Earth on Tap and have a great time and be more inclined to take climate action when opportunities arise.

“I think, especially in atmospheric science, ideally the outcome of what we do in the field is actionable for policy makers,” says ATOC PhD student Lucas Howard. “I think having the public more informed about not just the science in terms of outcomes, in terms of uncertainty, but the process of what goes into generating the science, can only have good downstream effects.”

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The March 9 event at Rayback Collective in Boulder, open to all, invites scientists and non-scientists to gather for discussions of climate research.

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New minor spans disciplines in studying climate science

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 21:39:09 +0000

New minor spans disciplines in studying climate science Rachel Sauer Mon, 02/23/2026 - 14:39

The interdisciplinary climate science minor, available in Fall 2026, will allow students to capitalize on �� Boulder’s role as a leader in climate research

A new College of Arts and Sciences minor available in Fall 2026 will allow students to study the defining global, environmental, social and political issues of our time across disciplines and departments.

The interdisciplinary climate science minor capitalizes on the University of Colorado Boulder’s place at the vanguard of research, innovation and action—with internationally recognized programs, institutes and departments.

Classes in the interdisciplinary climate science minor span the natural sciences, giving students a broad foundation in understanding how Earth’s climate works, evolves and influences other aspects of the planet and society. Students will receive deep exposure to the science of climate and broader understanding of the complexities of climate change.

“Climate change is perhaps the defining global environmental, social and political issue of our time,” says Bradley Markle, an assistant professor of geological sciences and faculty fellow in the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.“The climate system consists of the interactions between the atmosphere, the oceans, the land surface, the biosphere, the cryosphere and the energy the planet receives from the sun. The climate knows nothing of departments, or majors, or any of the other distinctions we impose upon studying the world. An interdisciplinary approach is not just advantageous, but essential, to understanding this system. With this new minor �� Boulder provides our students a path to connect and inter-tangle the world class learning opportunities that already exist within our college.”

Majors and Minors Fair

Learn more about College of Arts and Sciences departments and their majors, minors and certificates at the Majors and Minors Fair!

When: 12-3:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26

Where: University Memorial Center ballroom

Who: All students, faculty and staff are invited

Learn more

Students pursuing the minor will select from a course menu that encompasses astrophysical and planetary sciences, atmospheric and oceanic sciences, applied math, Earth science, ecology and evolutionary biology, environmental studies, geography and physics. They will pursue a total of 18 credits in classes broadly grouped as air and water; ice, land and past climate; the impact of climate on Earth’s environment; quantitative methods; and climate impacts and solutions.

Courses include:

Arctic Climate System
Oceanography
The Cryosphere: Earth’s Icy Environments
Paleoclimatology
Mountain Ecology and Conservation
The Art and Strategy of Science Communication
Climate Politics and Policy
Global Geographies: Societies, Places, Connections

“From this new minor a student can expect to gain both a deep and a broad understanding of Earth’s climate,” says Robert Anderson, a distinguished professor of geological sciences and faculty fellow in the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. “They will develop knowledge of the physical mechanisms of climate, gain an appreciation for the web of connections between the atmosphere, ocean, land and biosphere that make up the climate, and learn about the intricacies of modern climate change within the context of past climates on Earth. This background will uniquely position our minors to tackle the challenges that our changing climate poses in the future, and indeed sets the intellectual context for exploration of climates of our planetary neighbors.”

Students pursuing the interdisciplinary climate science minor will be able to connect with students and faculty across campus who share a similar passion for climate science. They also will be able to build connections with research labs through tours and potential internships at NOAA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility. They also will be able to apply to participate in the Juneau Icefield Research Program, an eight-week summer field school in earth and climate sciences.

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The interdisciplinary climate science minor, available in Fall 2026, will allow students to capitalize on �� Boulder’s role as a leader in climate research.

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Menstrual pads and tampons can contain toxic substances

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 18:29:13 +0000

Menstrual pads and tampons can contain toxic substances Rachel Sauer Fri, 02/20/2026 - 11:29

Jenni Shearston

�� Boulder scholar highlights what to know about this emerging health issue

�� half of the global population menstruates at some point in their lives. Disposable products, such as tampons and pads, are some of the most popular products used around the globe to manage menstrual flow.

Unfortunately, studies have shown that many personal care products, including shampoo, lotion, nail polish and menstrual products, contain hazardous chemicals. Items used in or near the vagina are of particular concern because they are in contact with vaginal mucous membranes—the moist tissue lining the inside of the vagina that secretes mucus. These tissues can absorb some chemicals very efficiently.

People use menstrual products 24 hours a day for multiple days monthly, over the course of many years. Tampons, which are used internally, are surrounded by the permeable vaginal mucous membrane for up to eight hours at a time.

�� Boulder scientist Jenni Shearston is principal investigator in the Chemicals, Environment, Equity, Public Health, and Periods (CEEP.) Lab.

I am an environmental epidemiologist, and I study chemical exposure, its sources and its health effects. As a person who menstruates, I also must make my own decisions around menstrual products and manage the challenge of finding accurate information about women’s health risks, which receive less research attention and funding than men’s health.

In 2024, I co-authored the first paper that detected metals in tampons, including toxic metals like lead and arsenic. My colleagues and I also wrote a review paper that surveyed the scientific literature and found about two dozen studies measuring chemicals in menstrual products.

The various chemicals that these studies detected were typically at concentrations low enough to make their health impact unclear. However, they included chemicals known to disrupt the endocrine system, which makes and controls hormones that are essential for bodies to function.

How contaminants get into menstrual products

The first modern tampon in the U.S. was patented in 1931. Nearly a century later, tampons still are made primarily from cotton, rayon or a blend of the two.

Chemicals may get into tampons and other menstrual products in a number of ways. Some chemicals, like heavy metals, are present in soil, either naturally or due to pollution, and may be absorbed by cotton plants.

Other chemicals, such as zinc, may be intentionally added to menstrual products to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria. Still others, such as phthalates—synthetic chemicals used to manufacture plastics—may leach into menstrual products from plastic packaging or be added as part of a fragrance.

Research suggests that these chemicals are present in a large proportion of menstrual products – we found lead present in all 30 tampons we tested. What we don’t yet know is if these chemicals can get into people’s bodies in a high enough concentration to cause health effects in either the reproductive system or elsewhere in the body.

Limited federal regulations

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates tampons, menstrual cups and scented menstrual pads as Class II medical devices, which carry moderate to medium risk. Unscented menstrual pads are Class I medical devices, which are considered low-risk. These categories are based on the risk the device may present to a consumer who uses it in the intended way.

FDA guidance for Class II devices offers only a few general guidelines with respect to chemicals. For menstrual tampons and pads, it recommends—but does not require—that products should not contain two specific dioxin products or “any pesticide and herbicide residues.” Dioxins are a chemical by-product of the bleaching process to whiten cotton, and they are associated with cancer and endocrine disruption. Using non-chlorine bleaching methods can reduce dioxin formation.

The most stringent regulation of tampons in the U.S. occurred after an illness called toxic shock syndrome became a public concern in the 1970s and 1980s. Menstrual toxic shock syndrome occurs when the bacteria Staphlococcus aureus grows in the vagina on inserted menstrual products and releases a toxin called TSST-1. This substance can be absorbed through the vaginal mucosa and cause a variety of symptoms, including fever, high blood pressure, shock and even death.

During this epidemic, in which at least 52 cases were recorded and seven people died over a period of eight months, tampons were associated with the syndrome—especially a highly absorbent tampon called Rely, which was pulled from the market.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates tampons, menstrual cups and scented menstrual pads as Class II medical devices, which carry moderate to medium risk. (Photo: iStock)

In response, the FDA created a task force that recommended standardizing the tampon absorbencies and advised consumers to use the lowest absorbency for their flow. This is why tampons in the U.S. now come in a range of absorbencies, from light through regular to super and ultra, so that users can choose the level they need while minimizing risk of toxic shock.

Living in a ‘soup of chemicals’

Just because a chemical is present in a menstrual product doesn’t mean it can get into the body. However, chemicals like lead and arsenic are known threats to human health. So it’s important to study whether harmful chemicals present in menstrual products could contribute to health problems.

Humans in the modern world live in what expert toxicologist Linda Birnbaum, former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, calls a “soup of chemicals.” Simply being present on Earth means being exposed to many chemicals, at different concentrations, all at once. This makes it difficult to unravel the relationship between a single chemical exposure and health.

Nonetheless, science has shown that chemical exposure from at least one menstrual product—vaginal douches—does affect health. Vaginal douching is the process of washing or cleaning the inside of the vagina with water or other fluids.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends avoiding this process, which can harm healthy bacteria in the vagina, increasing the risk of vaginal infections and other diseases.

In addition, a 2015 study found that women who use vaginal douches have higher concentrations of a chemical called monoethyl phthalate in their urine. Exposure to this substance is associated with reproductive health problems, such as reduced fertility and increased pregnancy risk.

Can these chemicals be absorbed?

Scientists are working now to determine what concentrations of metals and other chemicals can leach out of tampons and other menstrual products. One 2025 study estimated that volatile organic compounds, a group of chemicals that vaporize quickly, can be absorbed through the vaginal mucosa. Volatile organic compounds may be added to menstrual products as part of fragrances, adhesives or other product components.

My team and I are now shifting our focus to the relationship between menstrual product use, various chemicals, and menstrual pain and bleeding severity. We want to see whether some chemicals will be elevated in menstrual blood, whether these chemical levels are higher in people who use tampons, and whether the chemicals are associated with greater menstrual pain and bleeding.

States are starting to act on this issue. For example, in 2024, Vermont became the first U.S. state to ban multiple chemicals from disposable menstrual products. California bans PFAS, a widely used group of highly persistent chemicals, from menstrual products. New York adopted a law in December 2025 barring multiple toxic chemicals from menstrual products.

California also enacted a law in October 2025 that requires manufacturers of disposable tampons and pads to measure concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, lead and zinc in their products, and to share those measurements with the state, which can publish them. More information like this will help support informed choices for millions of consumers who rely on menstrual products every month.

Jenni Shearston is an assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article

�� Boulder scholar highlights what to know about this emerging health issue.

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Three �� Boulder faculty named 2026 Sloan Research Fellows

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 16:05:06 +0000

Three �� Boulder faculty named 2026 Sloan Research Fellows Rachel Sauer Tue, 02/17/2026 - 09:05

Fellowships provide $75,000 in funding for early-career researchers in fields including chemistry, physics, neuroscience and mathematics

Three University of Colorado Boulder faculty members have been selected to receive prestigious Sloan Research Fellowships in 2026. Winners receive a two-year, $75,000 fellowship that can be used flexibly to advance their research.

The three College of Arts and Sciences faculty members are:

Erica Nelson, assistant professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, for physics.
Andres Montoya-Castillo, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, for chemistry.
Kelsie Eichel, assistant professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, for neuroscience.

“The Sloan Research Fellows are among the most promising early-career researchers in the U.S. and Canada, already driving meaningful progress in their respective disciplines,” said Stacie Bloom, president and CEO of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in announcing the winners Tuesday. “We look forward to seeing how these exceptional scholars continue to unlock new scientific advancements, redefine their fields and foster the wellbeing and knowledge of all.”

�� Boulder researchers (left to right) Erica Nelson, Andres Montoya-Castillo and Kelsie Eichel have been named 2026 Sloan Research Fellows.

For 2026, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation named 126 early-career researchers—including Nelson, Montoya-Castillo and Eichel—as Sloan Research Fellowship award winners. Fellows from this year’s cohort were drawn from 44 institutions across the United States and Canada.

Since the first Sloan Research Fellowships were awarded in 1955, 60 faculty from �� Boulder have received one, including this year’s winners, according to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

“I’m delighted and honored to receive the support of the Sloan Foundation,” Montoya-Castillo said. “I’m especially grateful to my group, mentors and senior colleagues, both at �� and beyond, who have been immensely supportive and kind.”

“It’s a big honor to be recognized by the Sloan Foundation,” Eichel agreed, adding that she is appreciative of the funding for her research. “My lab studies a fundamental question in cellular neuroscience—how neurons build and maintain their polarized architecture. This polarized architecture enables the nervous system to communicate, adapt and ultimately generate behavior. By uncovering the core principles that govern neuronal function, our work will lay the groundwork for developing new strategies to restore neuronal function in neurological diseases.”

Nelson said she is thrilled to be named a Sloan Research Fellow and added that the fellowship funding will be a valuable asset to her research.

“We’ve discovered mysterious red objects in the early universe with the James Webb Space Telescope that challenge what we thought we knew about the first galaxies and black holes. This fellowship provides crucial support to determine what these objects really are: Are they massive galaxies or a never-before-seen phase in the formation of supermassive black holes? Whatever the answer, it will fundamentally reshape our understanding of cosmic dawn in our universe,” she said.

Sloan Research Fellowships are considered one of the most prestigious awards available to young researchers—in part because so many past fellows have gone on to become distinguished figures in science. To date, 59 fellows have won a Nobel Prize, 72 fellows have received the National Medal of Science, 17 have won the Fields Medal in mathematics and 25 have received the John Bates Clark Medal in economics.

Open to scholars in seven fields—chemistry, computer science, Earth systems, economics, mathematics, neurosciences and physics—more than 1,000 researchers are nominated by their fellow scientists each year, according to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The organization said winners are selected by independent panels of senior scholars based upon their research accomplishments, creativity and potential to become leaders in their fields.

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Fellowships provide $75,000 in funding for early-career researchers in fields including chemistry, physics, neuroscience and mathematics.

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From EDM to ‘I do’

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 01:16:49 +0000

From EDM to ‘I do’ Rachel Sauer Thu, 02/12/2026 - 18:16

Rachel Sauer

For Fiske Planetarium off-site education lead and �� Boulder astrophysics alumna MacKenzie Zurfluh, the famed dome isn’t just where she works, but where she found love

Did MacKenzie and Tanner Zurfluh fall in love and get married because of Fiske Planetarium? Not exactly, but it is where they met and it is where she works; plus, Tanner is frequently there helping out at various events. So, credit where credit is due, let’s say that theirs is a Fiske love story.

It began in October 2018, when MacKenzie was serving in the U.S. Air Force and stationed in South Dakota, and Frederick native Tanner was living in Boulder with several roommates who attended the University of Colorado Boulder.

MacKenzie and Tanner Zurfluh met at a Fiske Planetarium show in October 2018. (Photo: MacKenzie Zurfluh)

With all due respect to South Dakota, “there wasn’t a lot to do there when you’re 19 and living on base,” MacKenzie says. So, she and her then boyfriend decided one weekend to drive to Denver for an electronic dance music (EDM) show at Red Rocks and scouted around for something to do the other evening of their visit. They happened across the ILLENIUM laser show at Fiske.

Meanwhile, one of Tanner’s roommates knew someone on the Fiske production team, and that friend of a friend got tickets to the ILLENIUM show for the group.

So, that was how two 19-year-olds who didn’t know each other—one of whom had a boyfriend that she would break up with a week later—ended up at the same Fiske Planetarium EDM show on the same evening.

The show was great—“because all shows at Fiske are,” says the unbiased MacKenzie—and afterward most of the audience migrated to the lobby to chat and make new friends. Tanner was in one amorphous circle and MacKenzie was in another, and eventually the two circles merged.

The closest they came to actually talking, though, was when MacKenzie complimented the jersey that one of Tanner’s friends was wearing. And that was it.

“But we kept running into each other,” Tanner recalls.

Because of the aforementioned South Dakota issue and the fact that Colorado’s Front Range is an EDM hub, MacKenzie drove down most weekends and kept happening across this guy whose name she couldn’t quite remember.

Tanner, however…

After an EDM show at the Ogden Theater in December 2018, Tanner waited outside the theater for 45 minutes to see if she’d come out, not knowing she’d already left.

“My friends had to drag me away,” he says. “It was the first night we talked, and I remember thinking, ‘Come hell or high water, she is going to be my wife.’”

A few weeks later, at the 2018 New Year’s Eve Decadence festival at the Colorado Convention Center, MacKenzie walked up to a group and put her arms around the two nearest people, one of whom happened to be Tanner.

By that point, she remembered his name. SnapChats were exchanged. They were officially Talking with a capital T—not dating, but it wasn’t 100% platonic, either. “After we’d been talking for a while, he looks at me and says, ‘Were you at Fiske on this day wearing this color beanie at this show?’” MacKenzie says.

On Feb. 4, 2019—yes, they remember the exact day—they decided: We’re doing this.

MacKenzie Zurfluh (left, with husband Tanner Zurfluh) graduated at Fiske Planetarium and was a speaker at the ceremony. (Photo: MacKenzie Zurfluh)

Black holes and relativity

In the beginning, MacKenzie left base on Friday afternoon, arrived in Boulder late Friday night and drove back to South Dakota Sunday afternoon. Tanner made the trip north a few times, but they both agreed there was more to do in Colorado.

However, MacKenzie was also getting ready to deploy to the Middle East and tried to give Tanner the ol’ “Go live your life, don’t worry about me.”

“And I remember he goes, ‘That’s fine if you don’t want to have a relationship, but can I still be your friend?’” MacKenzie says, adding that while the deployment ended up being canceled, she was still there and he was here. “That gave us the opportunity to build a really strong friend foundation. There were times where things sucked, and I had him to talk to.”

When she planned to exit the military, MacKenzie knew she wanted to pursue a degree but wasn’t sure where. On the cusp of returning home to California, Tanner offered her an alternative: “Come live here."

Without MacKenzie knowing it, he’d spent months finishing his mother’s Frederick basement. She could live with him there and study astrophysics at �� Boulder, which is what she did. In the middle of earning her degree, while she was going to school full time and working as a server at a brewery in Longmont, she applied for a job at Fiske and got it.

“I wouldn’t be making as much, so I was really worried about how I was going to pay my bills, but I kept thinking that NASA doesn’t care if I was a waitress, they care if I worked at Fiske,” she says.

“You were chasing your dreams,” Tanner adds. “Studying space and being in the field was always the goal.”

“So, he said to me, ‘We’ll figure it out,’” MacKenzie finishes, and that’s what they did.

In class she was studying black holes and relativity, and at work she was helping them come alive. And in the middle of all this, on the last day of finals in May 2022, kneeling in the chaos of their home remodel—because they’d bought a house in Dacono—Tanner proposed.

She said yes, but with the caveat that they couldn’t even think about planning a wedding until after she graduated—which she did at Fiske Planetarium in May 2024. Seven months later, their wedding in California was essentially Fiske West because so many of MacKenzie’s colleagues attended.

“Our director (Professor John Keller) calls Tanner a Fiske in-law,” says MacKenzie, who is now the Fiske off-site education lead. “Any time there’s an event, he’s here helping.”

“It’s great to be part of the Fiske family,” says Tanner, who co-owns Jayhawk Tile LLC. Fiske has been part of many of their important moments, MacKenzie adds, and in fact her colleague Amanda Wimmer Flint, Fiske on-site education lead, programmed the ILLENIUM show at which they unknowingly first “met.”

Now, sitting in MacKenzie’s office in the depths of Fiske, Tanner can be honest: “As cheesy as it sounds, I fell in love with her smile and her laugh. I genuinely felt a connection.”

MacKenzie beams at him and gestures to her left. “And it happened right out there.”

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For Fiske Planetarium off-site education lead and �� Boulder astrophysics alumna MacKenzie Zurfluh, the famed dome isn’t just where she works, but where she found love.

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Young voices must rise in the climate conversation

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 21:27:51 +0000

Young voices must rise in the climate conversation Rachel Sauer Thu, 02/12/2026 - 14:27

Cody DeBos

�� Boulder geography PhD student Ethan Carr joins colleagues worldwide to confront climate change across continents

Ethan Carr has always been drawn to cold places. Growing up, he spent summers exploring national parks and winters immersed in the stark beauty of Alaska.

Now, as a PhD student in the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Geography, he spends his days researching the world’s melting ice and participating in an innovative youth leadership forum alongside fellow climate activists from around the world.

They are part of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) - Arctic Youth Leadership Forum, an ambitious new initiative connecting young people from mountain and polar regions to amplify voices in the climate fight and search for new solutions.

“Not everybody needs to be a scientist or a strict climate activist to have an impact. Really, all you need is to have a voice and a passion for it," says Ethan Carr, a �� Boulder PhD student in geography. (Photo: Ethan Carr)

From soldier to scientist

“It’s been a long, kind of windy road to get to where I’m at today,” Carr says.

That road, it turns out, began at West Point.

Carr didn’t originally set out to become a climate researcher when he enrolled at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. But a mandatory earth-science course nicknamed “DIRT” sparked an interest he didn’t know he had.

“That was kind of the first time I realized that you can make a career out of studying and being in really cool environments while you do it,” he says.

After graduating in 2020 and serving as an infantry officer, Carr’s career was redirected by an injury, forcing him to reassess his path forward. Business school wasn’t appealing, but geography still was.

“I took a couple of pre-MBA courses and couldn’t have been more bored in those,” he recalls. “So I said, ‘I have this geography degree, I might as well try to make a career out of it.’”

That decision led him to �� Boulder, one of the country’s top hubs for cryosphere research. He moved to the area before even getting into grad school, taking a chance on himself that would soon pay dividends.

First came a master’s degree. Then he turned his attention to pursuing a PhD in geography with support from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES).

Climate leadership across continents

Carr was recently named part of the inaugural class of youth champions in the HKH - Arctic Youth Leadership Forum, a yearlong fellowship launched by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Nepal. The forum brings together 12 young leaders from some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions.

Carr first saw the application on LinkedIn and was intrigued not just by the opportunity, but by the forum’s emphasis on public education and policy.

“One thing I’ve realized in my scientific journey so far is you have a lot of scientists who are obviously very intelligent, but not everyone wants to engage in public education, especially on the policy side,” Carr says.

Coming from a military background, he was already used to thinking geopolitically, so he saw the forum as a way to merge science with diplomacy while making a real impact.

“Within our cohort, we represent nations that are some of the largest emitters, being the U.S., China, and India,” Carr explains. “But we also have representatives from some of the countries that are experiencing the effects of climate change firsthand.”

While studying at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Ethan Carr took a mandatory earth-science course nicknamed “DIRT” that sparked an interest he didn’t know he had. (Photo: Ethan Carr)

In the Arctic, Carr points to the rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet, a reality threatening both biodiversity in the region and Indigenous fishing economies. Meanwhile, countries like Pakistan, Nepal, and India, home to thousands of Himalayan glaciers, are confronting retreating ice sheets that underpin their water security.

“We see a lot of similarities in how things are changing, but this collaboration shows the kind of differences in who’s being affected and the populations being affected more so,” he says.

Data meet lived experience

As part of his doctoral work, Carr studies glacial lake outburst floods in Greenland—events in which meltwater lakes suddenly burst through glaciers, often with destructive force. He relies on satellite data to track water levels, but he’s also learned to listen to what local people are witnessing on the ground.

“Local fishermen have been noticing trends where, after these drainage events, they see an increase in primary productivity in local fjords. That has a significant impact on fishing for the year,” he says.

“That’s not something I would have expected as a scientist just looking at satellite imagery.”

This experience is one among many that has shaped Carr’s belief in combining scientific knowledge and the lived experiences of those native to the regions being studied. It also helped reinforce his understanding of the importance of bringing more voices to the table.

“Our generation and the generation after us are going to be the ones that are inheriting the climate mess we’ve been given by former generations, so those voices need to be heard,” he says.

Speaking of his fellow members on the leadership forum, Carr adds, “These are people that are passionate and empowered youth that have good ideas.”

A global generation

Carr sees connection as a unique advantage in his generation’s ability to catalyze change in the climate arena.

“We’re the most globalized generation there has ever been. My parents couldn’t pick up the phone and directly communicate with someone living in Bangladesh or Bhutan. But we can do that and form genuine working relationships with somebody 12 hours across the globe and work on projects that connect our regions,” he says.

He says the ability to collaborate across borders and cultures is a crucial advantage in the fight against climate change.

But so is perspective.

In his conversations with peers in South Asia, Carr has come to appreciate just how immediate the crisis is elsewhere and why people closer to home might not be able to recognize the urgency.

“In the U.S., I think sometimes we can be kind of separate from understanding what’s really happening in the world. Obviously, we’ve had massive disasters, but we’re not going to be seeing the 10-, 15-million people being displaced in Southeast Asia if sea level rises a few centimeters,” he says.

Ethan Carr (bottom row, left) and his colleagues in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) - Arctic Youth Leadership Forum. (Photo: Ethan Carr)

“These are real impacts happening on that side of the world that we can be pretty ignorant to in the U.S., and it’s something I’ve become way more aware about after talking with folks from over there. They have a lot more urgency in their fight for climate solutions because they can’t afford to wait as long as other parts of the world can,” he adds.

A message for future climate leaders

When asked what he would say to those who feel overwhelmed by the negativity surrounding climate change, Carr doesn’t hesitate. He knows the scale of the crisis can feel suffocating, but he’s also quick to challenge the idea that only scientists belong in the fight.

“Not everybody needs to be a scientist or a strict climate activist to have an impact. Really, all you need is to have a voice and a passion for it,” he says.

Carr believes that the most effective climate solutions will come not just from labs or policy think tanks, but from every corner of society. In fact, he sees this diversity of thought as essential.

“We need climate-minded people in all professions, from business to economics, engineering, and especially journalism. The more we talk about it, the more awareness we can bring to the issue,” he says.

He also sees a need to reframe how climate change is discussed.

“The same rhetoric that’s been used the last few decades of, ‘This is bad because our planet is warming up, and we aren’t going to be able to live,’ hasn’t delivered. Changing how we discuss it to focus on what climate change will do in certain regions and how it will affect local people and economies, I think, is a better way to look at it,” Carr says.

More than anything, Carr encourages young people to speak up and get involved—even if they don’t have a degree or defined role yet.

“The world needs the youth to step up in these spaces. Don’t wait to be asked. Make a space for yourself and move into it. Use your voice to make good things happen in the world.”

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�� Boulder geography PhD student Ethan Carr joins colleagues worldwide to confront climate change across continents.

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Top image: Ethan Carr (third from left) and fellow member of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) - Arctic Youth Leadership Forum (Photo: Ethan Carr)

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