News

A multi-university team of researchers, including four members of CU Boulder's Taylor Lab, have identified nearly a hundred genes associated with the birds’ spatial memory, or ability to recall the locations of objects. Their paper, published in the journal Current Biology, also suggests a potential trade-off may exist between having a solid long-term memory and being able to quickly ditch old memories to form new ones.

INSTAAR researcher Peyton Thomas has been awarded the Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship for Faculty Diversity from CU Boulder. A fish physiologist who studies the impacts of a changing climate on fish growth trajectories, Thomas is a postdoctoral scholar at INSTAAR and in the Environmental Studies program.

The Mountain Hydrology Group will be developing a new snowpack data set to inform water supply management in the western United States, thanks to grant funding from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

INSTAAR is pleased to announce that incoming PhD student Kathryn Gannon is this year’s recipient of the Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship. Gannon will work with advisor Bella Oleksy to explore murky questions around greenhouse gas emissions from seasonally ice-covered lakes.

Allison Cook, a master’s degree student in the Environmental Engineering program, is passionate about tracing and control of pathogens in the urban environment for stronger public health. With her fellowship, she is investigating E. coli concentrations in storm sewers near Boulder Creek. Her research will help identify the source of the E. coli, which will help mitigation efforts.

Mackenzie Bowden, a PhD student in the Environmental Engineering program, is investigating contaminants from fires at the wildland-urban interface that work their way into streams and present risks to downstream communities and ecosystems.

Millie Spencer, a PhD student in Geography, is part of a team of Mapuche, Chilean, and U.S. scientists that has received consent from several Mapuche-Pehuenche communities outside Temuco, Chile, to share scientific perspectives and community knowledge about glaciers and water supply. Her fellowship has provided funds for travel and lodging while conducting her work in Chile.

In a study published March 5 in the journal Nature Climate Change, scientists from CU Boulder and Tel Aviv University in Israel revealed that deforestation combined with climate change could negatively impact 84% of North America’s lizards by the end of the century. Nearly one in five could face population decline. Keith Musselman is one of the three authors.

The Arctic could see summer days with practically no sea ice as early as the next couple of years, according to a new study led by Alexandra Jahn. The findings suggest that the first ice-free day in the Arctic could occur over 10 years earlier than previous projections.

CU Boulder’s Mountain Research Station is offering six field courses this summer, giving students the opportunity to study a wide range of disciplines in nature