Saturday, November 22nd, 2008

New climate change program integrates science with policy

The National Science Foundation funded the program, which is aimed at graduate students.

By Joe Preiner (Contact)

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

A new program offered at the University helps graduate students warm to ideas of applying their interests to Earth’s changing climate.

Climate Change, Humans and Nature in the Global Environment, or C-CHANGE for short, focuses on interdisciplinary training for Ph.D.-seeking graduate students. The goal of the program is to relate various fields of study to the environment.

Five graduate students in various fields of study are taking the course this semester. They are the first students of the eventual 22 who will complete the training program during the next five years.

Joane Nagel, University distinguished professor of sociology and project director of the C-CHANGE program, said getting funding for the program was competitive. She said that of the applications the National Science Foundation received, only about 20 percent were awarded funding. Nagel said the program, which is the first of its kind in Kansas, was important for understanding policy processes.

“The biggest issue here is policy,” Nagel said. “Policy decides whether your research findings are used or not. The training will help minimize the disconnect between research and policy.”

Nagel said researchers are seldom trained in understanding the interactions between science and policy. The C-CHANGE program helps address the problem, making the trainees more effective advocates for the issues they research.

Alexis Reed, Great Bend graduate student and C-CHANGE trainee, specializes in global change ecology. Because the topic of the program is closely related to her area of study, she said she could focus on the policy aspect of the class.

“It will help make me an informed, well-rounded scientist,” Reed said.

Trish Jackson, Sterling graduate student, said she recognized the importance of the course. She said overcoming the communication barriers among the disciplines was an invaluable experience.

Jackson, who focuses on urban soil, said she hoped to use the skills she gained to help urban gardeners. Jackson said urban soil often contained toxins that were harmful to human health. In the long run, she said, she wanted to use the experience to preserve the planet at the community level and to encourage healthy living for people.

The C-CHANGE program brings students such as Jackson and Reed together. The five members take the course together, commenting and evaluating each other’s work. The process helps them understand a broader range of disciplines and how they apply to climate change.

“C-CHANGE is an incredible opportunity to explore multiple aspects of this issue,” said Linda Williams, Gardner graduate student and program member. “This can only improve my own understanding, broaden my approach to and enhance my own research.”

Williams comes to the program from the other side of the educational track. A public administration student, she said the C-CHANGE program would allow her to understand the issues from a viewpoint other than public policy. Williams said the experience would make her research more complete and of a higher quality.

Various academic departments nominate students for the C-CHANGE program. Nagel said the NSF was interested in training the next generation of environmentally aware leaders in the sciences. She said the foundation was committed to supporting interdisciplinary training because it thought issues were seldom accomplished by people working alone.

— Edited by Lauren Keith

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