Shayan Oveis Gharan receives 2021 Presburger Award for Young Scientists from the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science听

, UW associate professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, has received the from the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science.

The has been given each year since 2010, at the annual International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming conference, to an individual or group of scientists, for outstanding contributions in theoretical computer science.

The association honored Oveis Gharan for his “creative, profound and ambitious” research on “,” which asks how to find the shortest and most efficient route between multiple destinations and back to the starting point. Working with Oveis Gharan were Allen School faculty colleague and doctoral student .

The award is named for Polish Jewish mathematician, logician and philosopher (1904-1943). Read more on the Allen School .

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National Center for Atmospheric research names Cleo Woelfle-Erskine to Early Career Faculty Innovator Program

The National Center for Atmospheric Research has named , assistant professor in the UW School of Marine & Environmental Affairs, to its .

The designation comes with a $400,000 award and Woelfle-Erskine is among the new program’s second cohort, working with School of Environmental and Forest Sciences doctoral student .

The Faculty Innovator Program aims to support faculty researchers in the social, policy and behavioral sciences and graduate students for two years as they develop interdisciplinary research projects in partnership with the center. They will begin their work this summer.

Woelfle-Erskine is working with the Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources in northern California to study how cultural burning affects watershed hydrology such as snowpack, runoff and stream temperature. This is part of larger work to center floodplain restoration in Karuk science, culture and protocol.

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Hamza Zafer receives Katz fellowship for study at University of Pennsylvania for 2021-2022 year

, UW associate professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, has received a fellowship from the for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Zafer is also an affiliate of the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies.

Zafer and others of the , will be in residence at the University of Pennsylvania for the 2021-2022 school year. He will research war regulations and raiding norms among Arabian Jewish communities of the sixth and seventh centuries CE.

Zafer’s is the Jody Ellant and Howard Reiter Family Fellowship; his research title is: “Conscription, Captives, and Spoils among Arabian Jews: The Quran and Early Muslim Sources as Evidence for Late Antique Jewish Legal Culture.”

Social inequalities, specifically racism and classism, are impacting the biodiversity, evolutionary shifts and ecological health of plants and animals in our cities.

That鈥檚 the main finding of a led by the 天美影视传媒, with co-authors at the University of California, Berkeley, and University of Michigan, which examined more than 170 published studies and analyzed the influence of systemic inequalities on ecology and evolution. Published Aug. 13 in Science, it calls on the scientific community to focus on environmental justice and anti-racism practices to transform biological research and conservation.

鈥淩acism is destroying our planet, and how we treat each other is essentially structural violence against our natural world,鈥� said lead author , an assistant professor of urban ecology at the 天美影视传媒 Tacoma. 鈥淩ather than just changing the conversation about how we treat each other, this paper will hopefully change the conversation about how we treat the natural world.鈥�

The paper cites other studies that have found racism and other inequalities are reducing biodiversity, increasing urban heat island effects and augmenting impacts of climate crises across the United States.

For example, several studies the authors included found fewer trees in low-income and racially minoritized neighborhoods in major cities across the U.S. Less tree cover means hotter temperatures and fewer plant and animal species. Additionally, these areas tend to be closer to industrial waste or dumping sites than wealthier, predominantly white areas 鈥� a reality that was put in place intentionally through policies like redlining, the authors explain.

Fewer trees, over decades, has led to pockets of neighborhoods that are hotter, more polluted, and have more disease-carrying pests such as rodents and mosquitoes that can survive in harsh environments. These ecological differences inevitably affect human health and well-being, the authors said.

The main purpose of the paper is to show the scientific community that fundamental practices in science are based on systems that support white supremacy and perpetuate systemic racism, the authors said. They hope their colleagues in science fields will begin to dig into the history of the various laws and practices that built present-day inequalities 鈥� such as and 鈥� and then start to reevaluate how they run their labs and conduct their research.

鈥淚 hope this paper will shine the light and create a paradigm shift in science,” Schell said. “That means fundamentally changing how researchers do their science, which questions they ask, and realizing that their usual set of questions might be incomplete.鈥�

For example, Schell said he has seen numerous papers comparing biodiversity in urban and rural areas. However, organisms in cities were often only measured in wealthier areas, negating the possibility for differences among urban neighborhoods of different income levels. That type of science, even if done unknowingly, is negligent, he said.

The authors also hope this paper paves the way for younger scientists entering the field, especially people of color, to have legitimacy in pushing for science that is centered around anti-racism and environmental justice.

鈥淚dentity matters, and creating space for researchers who aren鈥檛 straight white cis males to pursue questions that arise from their lived experiences can really strengthen science,鈥� said co-author , assistant professor and social scientist in the UW School of Marine and Environmental Affairs. 鈥淚 hope that scientists will read this paper and be inspired to think about representation in our labs and departments, and how that might matter for science going forward.鈥�

Ultimately, the authors said, environmental issues should be recast to encompass societal issues, which departs from what traditional, mostly white environmentalists advocate.

For example, creating affordable housing should be on every environmentalist鈥檚 agenda, they explained. More secure housing, with less turnover and fewer vacant lots or construction areas, promotes ecological stability for people, animals and plants. Additionally, more equitable access to parks and greenways within cities also promotes more animal and plant biodiversity. And better public transportation to and from well-paid jobs cuts carbon emissions and reduces animal-vehicle collisions.

Notably, each of these actions benefits humans as well as plants and animals 鈥� and all are not included in traditional definitions of environmentalism.

Schell also led a recent paper, in Nature Ecology and Evolution, that scientists can take to fight racism and white supremacy. For Schell, this includes paying everyone who works in his lab, making sure people of color are treated equitably, and advocating for women of color to hold leadership positions in professional societies and organizations. He encourages colleagues to do the same.

鈥淚鈥檓 hopeful things are going to happen, because I have to be,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have the power to be activists in our own ways, in our own sectors, and we have the ability to motivate others to do the same.鈥�

Co-authors are , Tracy Fuentes and of the UW College of Built Environments; of UW Tacoma; of the University of Michigan; and of University of California, Berkeley.

This research was funded by the 天美影视传媒, the University of California, Berkeley, the David H. Smith Fellows program and the National Science Foundation.

For more information, contact Schell at cjschell@uw.edu,听Woelfle-Erskine at cleowe@uw.edu and Lambert at lambert.mrm@gmail.com.

is a 天美影视传媒-wide institute connecting scholars with community partners to address environmental challenges. The institute announced awards for its 2020 on May 5.

Four research teams were chosen from 43 that applied. Proposals were reviewed by an 11-member committee including faculty and staff in several areas as well as an outside community member. This is the program’s second year.

Each team will receive up to $75,000 as well as administrative and communications support for a 16-month period ending in September 2021.

Crucially, the researchers also plan to collaborate with community partners from El Centro de la Raza locally to universities internationally for these projects. All of the community partners involved are listed on the .

Does vegetation help mitigate roadway and aircraft-related air pollution in Seattle?

, associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, is principal investigator on this community-engaged study using drones for 3D air quality measurements.

Co-investigators are professor and assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and , professor of atmospheric sciences.

According to their proposal, “Findings from this study will provide local and highly relevant evidence on the effectiveness of urban planning initiatives that may utilize greenery as an approach to address particulate air pollution.”

Hazard planning, food sovereignty and climate adaptation in the Alaskan Arctic听

, assistant professor in the Department of American Indian Studies and the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, is this project’s principal investigator and co-director.

is a 500-person community in Northwest Alaska about 80 miles above the Arctic Circle. Sea-ice cover around this area has decreased dramatically in the last two decades, increasing coastal erosion during storms and the frequency of traveler distress calls, among other concerns.

For this research, an interdisciplinary team of UW polar researchers will work with area search and rescue volunteers to help Kivalina and its residents achieve more safety, resilience and food sovereignty, and become a model of community-driven polar research. The team also plans to develop new methods in sea ice forecasting to support local decision-making, among several other goals.

Other UW researchers involved are , chair and professor; and , research assistant professor, both in atmospheric sciences.

P铆kyav on the Mid-Klamath River: Peeshk锚esh Y谩v Um煤saheesh

The flows through parts of Oregon and Northern California. Four hydroelectric dams along the river are scheduled for removal in 2022. The , in that area, is among the largest in California.

This research team proposes a river restoration process on the Klamath that centers on Karuk tribal sovereignty using a model of justice, helping to bring tribal perspectives to large-scale governance. The title of the project, they write, translates to “the river will look good” 鈥� and the phrase “goes far below the surface to include function, connection and ceremonial renewal.”

The team plans an intergenerational, field-based school on the river, working with Karuk youth and cultural practitioners to gather historical maps, stories and spatial data on Karuk uses of floodplain ecosystems.

UW team members for this project are , assistant professor in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs; , a lecturer in Comparative History of Ideas and the Program on the Environment; and Karuk tribal member Kimberly Yazzie, a doctoral student in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

Lessons from urban indigenous immigrants 听

“This project will compare a self-managed indigenous immigrant community still using traditional practices in Iquitos, Peru,” the team wrote, “to a similar indigenous immigrant community nearby that developed with social and political pressures to colonially urbanize and leave traditional practices behind.”

UW members of the research team are , affiliate assistant professor of landscape architecture; , photographer with the UW Center for One Health Research; , lecturer in the UW Bothell School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences; Kathleen Wolf, research social scientist with the School of Environment and Forest Sciences; and doctoral student of the School of Public Health.

“We use an innovative, mixed-methods approach by combining indigenous knowledge, science and art to document environmental conditions, ecosystem health, traditional knowledge practices, and human-nature connections in each community,” the team wrote.

Environmental and human health impacts of a new invasive species in Madagascar

A fifth project was in March, representing the second project funded in collaboration with the UW Population Health Initiative. The project’s UW leads are , assistant professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences; and , professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences.

For more information, contact the EarthLab Innovation Grants program lead at elgrants@uw.edu.