ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES - Alex Staben, a senior majoring in Spanish and environmental studies, took second place and a $500 prize. Her presentation – “Active Travel to School: Analyzing Barriers and Finding Solutions for Students of River Road/El Camino del Río Elementary in Eugene” – focused on the disparities faced by some schools in finding safe walking and biking pathways to school.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, GEOGRAPHY - Fire is a dynamic process and requires a multidisciplinary approach to appreciate its complexities. Researchers in the College of Arts and Sciences are combining their unique perspectives to gain a comprehensive understanding of fire and its impacts on West Coast communities.

BIOLOGY, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES - The Hallett Lab is collecting samples to test a new, more sustainable way to farm hazelnuts. Steve Haring, a postdoctoral researcher in the Hallett Lab, is studying what happens when cover crops, such as native wildflowers, are used as beds around the trees.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES - After a recent week in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, five UO graduate students have returned ready to use what they learned to help local communities plan for a more sustainable future.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, SOCIOLOGY - Physicist Richard Taylor and environmental sociologist Richard York of the University of Oregon examine the beauty and benefits of fractal patterns in the natural world—and the need to protect that world from an ever-growing built environment.

The UO’s Environment Initiative has awarded seed funding to five new teaching projects to support faculty members who have proposed innovative courses and dynamic classroom experiences. The funding supports both research and curricular projects and focuses the intellectual energy and work of faculty, students and community partners on a just and livable future through transdisciplinary research, teaching and experiential learning.

INDIGENOUS, RACE, AND ETHNIC STUDIES; NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES-Researchers from the University of Oregon (UO) have earned a $3 million grant from the federal government to help tackle global warming, while incorporating the insights of rural and Indigenous communities which are often left out of decisions about what happens around them. The grant will last five years and come from the National Science Foundation, (NSF) part of a tranche of $27 million for 12 projects that use the “rules of life”—the interactions between living systems of different sizes—to address societal problems.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES - A University of Oregon research team has landed a $3 million federal grant to work with Indigenous and rural communities in Oregon to find ways of reducing climate-changing carbon in the atmosphere in ways that build trust with historically marginalized groups.

ENGLISH, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, INDIGENOUS, RACE AND ETHNIC STUDIES, NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES - “Indigenous Data Sovereignty Research Center,” will serve as a hub for transdisciplinary and collaborative research focused on transforming institutional practices and frameworks to honor tribal sovereignty through data justice.