News

INSTAAR has announced its DEI Summer Scholars for 2024: Natalie Aranda and Jed Lenetsky. The scholars will each be awarded a stipend for the summer months to continue their research projects.

A new model makes better predictions of the behavior of ice on Mars—and any other rocky planet with an atmosphere.

On May 8th, we came together as a community to eat, present awards, and recognize our MS and PhD graduates. Many INSTAARs attended, along with the families of our graduates and award winners. Congratulations to all!

PhD student Millie Spencer is 1 of 5 Fulbright awardees from CU Boulder. She will use her award to expand her work with Mapuche-Pehuenche communities in Chile: mapping glaciers, gathering oral histories of glacier retreat and hydrological change, and illuminating water insecurity.

Incoming PhD student Katie Gannon (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) has garnered this year’s Sarah Crump Graduate Fellowship. She will investigate greenhouse gas emissions from seasonally ice-covered lakes, working with advisor Bella Oleksy.

Mountain tourism brings revenues to Nepal but leaves a mess behind. Local and international groups are offering new cleanup strategies. INSTAAR research scientist Alton Byers and his colleague Suzanne OConnell discuss the scope of the problem, pollution from the waste, and solutions for sustainable tourism.

Five questions and answers with Michael Dyonisius, a postdoc with INSTAAR’s Laboratory for AMS Radiocarbon Preparation and Research, a keen investigator of greenhouse gas fluxes, and an occasional ukulele-playing indie pop fan. Read on to learn about Michael’s work, inspirations, and life.

As a student assistant in INSTAAR's front office, Joe has been a beacon: his creative problem-solving and hard work are matched only by his kindness and generosity of spirit. Turns out his degree program (Leeds School of Business) was equally impressed.

After a recent trip to Antartica, Cassandra Brooks (ENVS/INSTAAR) did a Q&A with The Pew Charitable Trusts about Adélie and Emperor penguins and their need for protection. Topics included climate change threats, population declines, protected areas, and hope for the future.

Warming temperatures are causing a steady rise in copper, zinc and sulfate in the waters of Colorado mountain streams affected by acid rock drainage. Concentrations of these metals have roughly doubled in these alpine streams over the past 30 years, a new study finds, presenting a concern for ecosystems, downstream water quality and mining remediation.