News | People Community

People Spotlights are news stories centered on an INSTAAR member or group, rather than a science result or a community event. In many cases, the spotlight will focus on a person's latest award or special accomplishment.

Diane McKnight kneeling by a streambed in the sub alpine

Congratulations to the 2021 AGU Union medal, award, and prize recipients (EOS)

Sept. 15, 2021

Diane McKnight is the recipient of the Robert E. Horton Medal, bestowed for outstanding contributions to hydrology

Chickadee on a branch

New grant to study life-and-death trait of chickadees (Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine)

Aug. 24, 2021

CU Ƶ and University of Nevada Reno professors win $2.7 million grant from the NSF to study spatial cognition in chickadees. The new grant will allow the researchers to study natural selection on a complex behavioral trait, a difficult task that could potentially expand the ways natural selection is studied broadly, while also shedding light on how it relates to a changing climate.

Photo of Bob Anderson

Two CU Ƶ profs elected to National Academy of Sciences (Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine)

May 7, 2021

Geologist (and INSTAAR) Robert S. Anderson and astrophysicist Fran Bagenal recognized for ‘distinguished and continuing achievements in original research’.

Rolf Kihl, with thick glasses, works in the Sed Lab while wearing his cherished CU Buffs sweater.

In memoriam: Rolf Kihl

March 4, 2021

Rolf Kihl, a meticulous and inventive scientist who established INSTAAR’s Sedimentology Lab and ran it for decades, passed away on January 19, 2021. The INSTAAR community mourns his loss.

Photo of Holly Barnard

Holly Barnard wins Ƶ Faculty Assembly Excellence Award (Ƶ Faculty Assembly)

Feb. 16, 2021

The Ƶ Faculty Assembly has awarded INSTAAR Fellow Holly Barnard an Excellence Award for leadership and service.

A bearded Bruce Vaughn in a very furry parka and sunglasses

Xmas Special 2020: Studying Climate Change at the North Pole with Bruce Vaughn (Nice to Know podcast)

Dec. 22, 2020

Climate change - we all know that it's happening, but how do we actually know this scientifically? Bruce Vaughn studies glaciers up at the North Pole, looking at ice cores to study how our climate has changed over the Earth's history. We talk about how this is done, and also how we are now entering uncharted territory of atmospheric CO2, warming, and what we as a species can do about it.

Photo of Katharine Suding

8 CU Ƶ faculty members become distinguished professors (CU Ƶ Today)

Dec. 10, 2020

With approval in November by the University of Colorado Board of Regents, the University of Colorado has introduced 12 newly designated distinguished professors, eight of whom are affiliated with the CU Ƶ campus. INSTAAR researcher Katie Suding is among their number.

Photo of Mette Bendixen

Mette Bendixen receives the AGU Science for Solutions Award

Nov. 11, 2020

The American Geophysical Union has announced that INSTAAR postdoctoral scholar Mette Bendixen is the recipient of their 2020 Science for Solutions Award. The award follows Bendixen’s out-of-the-box work on an overlooked global challenge: the scarcity of sand resources.

A satellite view of the Yukon River watershed in Alaska

Arctic communities planning for abrupt permafrost thaw

Oct. 21, 2020

A new INSTAAR-led project will engage Indigenous and Western knowledge systems to better understand abrupt permafrost change in Alaska. The National Science Foundation selected the project as part of its Navigating the New Arctic funding area, one of ten “Big Ideas” that NSF is investing in as an area of profound national challenge and opportunity. The research project brings Alaskan communities together with social and natural scientists to examine changes in permafrost thaw lake environments, including associated effects on villages in the Yukon River watershed.

Photo of Julia Moriarity

Meet Julia Moriarty

Sept. 25, 2020

Learn a bit about Dr. Julia Moriarty, a new INSTAAR scientist and an Assistant Professor in ATOC who studies processes in the coastal oceans.

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