Feature-Faculty

Waleed Abdalati: CIRES Director Shares Impact NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Grant Funding Pause

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 15:27:32 +0000

Waleed Abdalati: CIRES Director Shares Impact NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Grant Funding Pause Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 04/13/2026 - 09:27

Article copied for archival purposes.

Trump administration holds up NOAA grant funding

by Rachel Frazin - 04/13/26 6:00 AM ET

The Trump administration is holding up some National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) grant funding.

Earlier this month, the University of Colorado released a statement saying that a federal pause on grant funding has put scientists who collect data about the atmosphere “at risk for elimination.”

It specifically pointed to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), saying it “has not released these funds.”

Waleed Abdalati, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research In Environmental Sciences (CIRES), told The Hill that about 30 days before the institute was slated to run out of funds to pay the scientists in question, “we were informed that NOAA has put a pause on all grant actions.”

“We are all told to assume no funding is moving through the grants management division until a spend plan has been approved,” he said.

NOAA spokesperson Kim Doster referred budget-related questions to OMB. Rachel Cauley, an OMB spokesperson, did not respond to questions from The Hill.

Nature reported in February that other agencies that award research grants, including the National Institutes of Health, were also experiencing delays in getting their grant funding approved.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, which funds NOAA, said that holding up the money violates the law.

“On a bipartisan basis, we rejected Trump’s attempt last year to slash NOAA’s budget — making clear that the Administration must continue programs to predict and track extreme weather, support the fishing industry, boost the resilience of our coastal communities, and more,” Van Hollen said in a statement to The Hill.

“But Russ Vought is ignoring these directives from Congress by preventing the obligation of funds, a clear violation of the law. It’s time for Vought to follow the law and release the funds as Congress intended for the public services that NOAA provides, which are vital to our economy,” he added.

A spokesperson for Van Hollen’s office said it’s their understanding that OMB is holding up money laid out for NOAA operations, research, and facilities, which prevents the agency from issuing new awards and funding opportunities across nearly all of its programs and only allowing it to plan for 15 days at a time.

In the case of CIRES, the funding holdup could mean the lab isn’t able to pay scientists working at the Global Monitoring Lab.

“We’ve had to notify our people that … should funds not become available by May 15, they will be on furlough,” Abdalati said.

CIRES has had to give furlough notifications to 42 of its employees at the lab, while some other people were reassigned to other work. The lab also has federal employees whose pay is not directly affected by the grant funding issue.

CIRES studies Earth system science, including weather and climate, changes at Earth’s poles, atmospheric chemistry and water resources. The Global Monitoring Lab studies greenhouse gases, ozone recovery and more.

Abdalati said that if the funds don’t come through, in the short term, “we lose observations and data that … help us understand the condition of our atmosphere, the content and makeup of our atmosphere, how much carbon dioxide is in it, how much is the ozone hole recovering, what other constituents are in the atmosphere.”

“In the longer term, it’s the loss of capability, the ability to make these observations, because, like many things, it’s much easier to break than it is to reconstitute,” he said, noting that some work is already stopping.

He added that this impacts research into topics ranging from pollution to global warming to ozone recovery. He also said that the information is important for understanding seasonal weather variability, which has implications for crops and cattle ranching — as well as the variability over years and decades.

A congressional joint explanatory statement accompanying the spending package passed earlier this year directs NOAA to spend about $104 million on climate laboratories and cooperative institutes, as well as $94 million on weather laboratories and cooperative institutes through its Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

NOAA, the climate research that it funds, and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research have been in the Trump administration’s crosshairs. A document that leaked last year showed the Trump administration eyeing eliminating the office and cutting 74 percent of its funding.

For fiscal 2026, the Trump administration proposed zeroing out NOAA’s climate research. The latest proposal released by the White House last week includes a $1.6 billion cut to NOAA’s operations, research and grants.

Andrew Rosenberg, former deputy director of NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, described the grant delays as abnormal.

“It’s atypical. OMB normally wouldn’t hold up money like this,” said Rosenberg, who is retired and now co-edits the newsletter SciLight on Substack.

He said he believes it is part of a larger effort by the administration to hamper climate and other science.

“NOAA is mostly a science agency, and there’s a real anti-science bent to all of this,” Rosenberg said. “They’re using the budget as a weapon to fundamentally change what people have access to and the work that the government does.”

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Holly Barnard: Receives the 2026 Hydrology Days Award

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 14:31:57 +0000

Holly Barnard: Receives the 2026 Hydrology Days Award Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 04/07/2026 - 08:31

Professor Holly Barnard, co-chair of the Hydrologic Sciences Graduate Program and former Arts and Sciences Associate Dean of Research, has received the Colorado State University 2026 Hydrology Days award. "The Hydrology Days Award is presented each year in recognition of outstanding and significant contributions to hydrologic science."

Professor Barnard will be presented the award and give a keynote address on April 8th at the Colorado State University during the American Geophysical Union Hydrology Days conference.

Find out more about the award and previous recipients here.

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Jennifer Fluri: Winner of the 2026 Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) Award for Excellence in Leadership and Service

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 14:13:01 +0000

Jennifer Fluri: Winner of the 2026 Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) Award for Excellence in Leadership and Service Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 04/06/2026 - 08:13

Jennifer Fluri, Chair of the Geography Department, has won the 2026 Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) Award for Excellence in Leadership and Service.

Excellence in faculty leadership and service is defined as all of those professional activities other than teaching and research that are performed by faculty members as part of their University responsibilities or as community outreach (internal, external, or both kinds of service).

See here for a complete list of BFA's 2026 Excellence Awards Winners.

Jennifer Fluri, Chair of the Geography Department, has won the 2026 Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) Award for Excellence in Leadership and Service.

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Katherine Siegel Named in The Story Exchange's Saving Nature: 11 Women to Watch in Science

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 16:57:15 +0000

Katherine Siegel Named in The Story Exchange's Saving Nature: 11 Women to Watch in Science Gabriela Rocha Sales Fri, 03/06/2026 - 09:57

Copied from The Story Exchange (https://thestoryexchange.org/11-women-to-watch-in-science-2026/) for archival purposes.

Letter from the Editor

We live in a time when words like “women,” “gender” and “diversity” are banned or restricted in federal research grants, particularly at agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.

Yet that has not stopped trailblazing women from searching for urgent, innovative, science-based solutions to the human-caused “climate crisis” (another phrase that’s been banned, along with “global warming” and “emissions”).

These scientists are working to safeguard the safety of our water, air and soil. They’re seeking the smartest ways we can transition to clean energy. They’re pushing their limits to stop deforestation and curb greenhouse gas emissions. And they’re doing it within a system that – on top of the banned words and the Trump administration’s rollback of environmental protections — has long discriminated against them. Research confirms that women in science are paid less, given fewer leadership roles, and receive far less recognition than their male peers.

We can help with that last problem.

At The Story Exchange, we have long elevated women’s voices and achievements. Today, we are thrilled to spotlight these women scientists — nominated by peers — who are working tirelessly on our behalf. Their efforts alone will, of course, not be enough to save our natural world. We need thousands of committed scientists (and business and industries) like them. But their stories, dedication and perseverance can surely inspire others to try to do the same – and maybe just give the Earth a fighting chance.

Kathleen Alexander

Marianne Cowherd

Liz Dennett

Cynthia Gerlain-Safdi

Madeline Walker Miller

Rebecca Peters

Katherine Siegel

Ada Smith

Paige Stanley

Sarah Waickowski

Yagmur Yegin

"These women are using their hard-earned knowledge to protect our planet already ravaged by brutal storms, epic floods and intense wildfires."

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Professor Emily Yeh: SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education welcomes 13 faculty fellows

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 20:40:13 +0000

Professor Emily Yeh: SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education welcomes 13 faculty fellows Gabriela Rocha Sales Fri, 01/23/2026 - 13:40

Copied from �鶹��Ƶ Today online publication on 1/23/2026 for archival purposes.

1/22/2026

The SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education at �鶹��Ƶ has selected 13 faculty members as its inaugural SPIKE Faculty Fellows, launching a new initiative designed to strengthen and expand sustainability education across campus.

The SPIKE Faculty Fellows will play a central role in advancing sustainability-focused teaching and praxis at �鶹��Ƶ. Together, they will build a cross-campus network of faculty committed to integrating sustainability into curriculum and applied learning, while providing critical faculty perspective to broader university initiatives connected to sustainability education.

During the program’s first six months—starting in January 2026—the fellows will focus on two primary objectives: developing and delivering an annual Sustainability Across the Curriculum training for �鶹��Ƶ faculty, beginning each May, and offering faculty voice and input into campuswide visions and initiatives that intersect with sustainability education.

In spring 2026, fellows on academic-year appointments will concentrate on teaching strategies responsive to the current moment, as well as foundational sustainability content. The theme for the spring 2026 cohort will be environmental and climate justice.

Advancing transformational learning

In coordination with administrators, staff, students and faculty colleagues across �鶹��Ƶ, the inaugural class of SPIKE Faculty Fellows will work toward a range of outcomes that benefit both the Buckley Center and the campus community. These include:

Co-creating and coordinating a campuswide agenda for transformational learning related to sustainability (distinct from formal curriculum development, which will be supported through a separate ambassadors program)
Informing and illuminating best practices in sustainability education to guide campuswide efforts and reinforce �鶹��Ƶ’s role as an international leader
Sharing experiences and challenges encountered in sustainability education and praxis
Advocating for innovative initiatives that energize and support pathways toward more sustainable futures
Cultivating networks of faculty support across campus, including serving as liaisons to centers and institutes
Collectively preparing and delivering a faculty training on sustainability education
Identifying, assessing and curating sustainability education materials for teaching and learning

Through these efforts, the SPIKE Faculty Fellows program aims to deepen collaboration, elevate faculty leadership and embed sustainability more fully into the educational experience at �鶹��Ƶ.

Spring 2026 SPIKE Faculty Fellows

The inaugural cohort of faculty fellows includes:

Thomas Andrews, Professor, History and Social Science
Karen Bailey, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies and Natural Science
Dave Ciplet, Associate Professor, Environmental Studies and Natural Science
Azza Kamal, Associate Teaching Professor, Environmental Design and Communication
Gregor Macgregor, Assistant Teaching Professor, Environmental Studies and Natural Science
Cresten Mansfeldt, Assistant Professor, College of Engineering and Applied Science
James C. Rattling Leaf, Sr., Geography, Natural Science and CIRES
Esther Rolf, Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering
Jonathan Skinner-Thompson, Associate Professor, Colorado Law
Seema Sohi, Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies and Social Science
Katharine N. Suding, Distinguished Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Natural Science
Meghan Van Portfliet, Assistant Teaching Professor, Leeds School of Business
Steven Vanderheiden, Professor, Political Science and Social Science
Emily Yeh, Professor, Geography and Natural Science

Together, these faculty leaders represent a wide range of disciplines and perspectives, underscoring the SPIKE Center’s commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration and inclusive approaches to sustainability education at �鶹��Ƶ.

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Jessica Finlay Named 2026 Research and Innovation Office Faculty Fellow

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 14:25:59 +0000

Jessica Finlay Named 2026 Research and Innovation Office Faculty Fellow Gabriela Rocha Sales Fri, 12/12/2025 - 07:25

December 11 , 2025 by Kelly Holguin

Copied from IBS for Archival Purposes

Assistant Professor of Geography and Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) Faculty Fellow Jessica Finlay has been selected as one of 18 �鶹��Ƶ Research & Innovation Office (RIO) Faculty Fellows for the 2026 cohort. This is the largest and most interdisciplinary cohort since the program began eight years ago.

The RIO Faculty Fellows program identifies emerging leaders across �鶹��Ƶ who are poised to advance high-impact, collaborative research. Fellows are chosen through a competitive nomination and application process, with priority given to those whose work bridges disciplines and demonstrates strong potential for innovative scholarship and institutional leadership.

For Finlay, the recognition is both meaningful and motivating.

“It’s a true honor. Becoming a Faculty Fellow represents an opportunity to grow alongside a new, cross-disciplinary community at �鶹��Ƶ,” she said. “It feels deeply validating to have RIO invest time and resources into my development as an early-career scholar. I’m excited to learn from research leaders across campus and to contribute to a collaborative environment focused on leadership, innovation, and impact.”

Finlay’s work explores the social and environmental determinants of health across the life course, often integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches to understand how lived experiences and physical spaces shape aging, wellbeing, and equity. Her interdisciplinary research is anchored in geography and spans public health, environmental gerontology, and community-engaged scholarship.

Through the year-long fellowship, Finlay hopes to strengthen the skills that will support her evolving research program and growing mentorship roles.

“I hope to gain a tight-knit peer community and to strengthen my leadership skills so I can be a better scholar, mentor, and representative of �鶹��Ƶ,” she said. “I’m looking forward to structured time and creative activities for reflection, feedback, and skill-building.”

When asked what advice she would give to faculty considering applying in future years, Finlay encouraged authenticity and intention.

“Lean into the parts of your work that feel most meaningful, and articulate how leadership development can enhance your distinct contributions to the university and broader community,” she said. “Reflect on your scientific or artistic niche and your longer-term career aspirations. The program is designed for people who are eager to learn, collaborate, and stretch themselves.”

Finlay’s selection underscores IBS’s continued representation among campus research leaders and highlights the Institute’s commitment to supporting rising scholars whose work advances understanding of complex societal challenges.

Assistant Professor of Geography and Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) Faculty Fellow Jessica Finlay has been selected as one of 18 �鶹��Ƶ Research & Innovation Office (RIO) Faculty Fellows for the 2026 cohort. This is the largest and most interdisciplinary cohort since the program began eight years ago.

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Tim Oakes: Forthcoming book culminates a four-year project on the technopolitics of nuclear power in Asia

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:23:00 +0000

Tim Oakes: Forthcoming book culminates a four-year project on the technopolitics of nuclear power in Asia Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/08/2025 - 14:23

Between 2021 and 2024, working in collaboration with the Center for Asian Studies, Tim Oakes hosted a series of four workshops on nuclear power development and disaster in Asia. The workshops were funded by a generous grant from the Albert Smith Nuclear Age Fund. The first, held in commemoration of the 10year anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown in Japan, explored how people in Japan have lived with the aftermath of this disaster. The second focused on China’s efforts to expand its nuclear power industry and export its nuclear technology. The third examined the broader political and cultural configurations of the nuclear realm from an Asian perspective, while a fourth workshop brought together most of the participants of all three previous workshops for a final extended discussion on what we might learn from the different aspects of nuclear power development and disaster in Asia.

Residents in Pingtung County, Taiwan, protest against a referendum on whether to reactivate the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant. July, 2025. Source: Taiwan Central News Agency: https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202507030010.

While the issues swirling around nuclear power are often portrayed in purely technical terms, the workshops sought to demonstrate that nothing is ever ‘just technical’. The project’s sociotechnical perspective sought to recognize that nuclear power enrolls people, as individuals and as groups, into a particular and peculiar set of relationships with technology. Those relationships blur the boundaries between science and society, and between technology and culture, in unique and compelling ways. How do people – in their everyday lives – understand and practice their relationship to radiation? How do they calculate different kinds of risk? How do they come to be involved in the measurement of radiation and the science of predicting its health-related effects? What have been the unexpected political outcomes of people’s encounters with nuclear technology? How do we define responsibility when considering the risks and benefits of nuclear energy? How have cultural practices been shaped by people’s relationship with the technologies and infrastructures of nuclear power, or with the technological interventions brought about by the disaster? These are just some of the questions workshop participants grappled with.

Residents in Lianyungang, China, protest government plans to build a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. August, 2016. Source: South China Morning Post: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2001726/nuclear-plant-scheme-halted-eastern-china-after.

Along with �鶹��Ƶ Anthropologist Kate Goldfarb, Oakes is co-editing a collection of papers from the workshops in a volume to be published in 2026 by the University of Toronto Press. Living in Nuclear Asia: Sociotechnical perspectives on nuclear power development, risk, and vulnerability will, in the broadest sense, address what it means to survive in the nuclear age in Asia. Collectively, the chapters in the book ask: what do we learn by paying attention to Asian experiences of ‘nuclearity’? Nuclear power is typically written about from the policy perspectives of proliferation, containment, and security. This is especially the case regarding work on nuclear development in Asia. Living in Nuclear Asia marks a departure from this trend, emphasizing instead nuclear technologies themselves, including nuclear power infrastructures, and the socio-cultural, economic, and political relations that swirl around them.

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Morteza Karimzadeh: New AI Methods Are Reshaping How Geographers Model Air Pollution and Wildfire Smoke

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:20:09 +0000

Morteza Karimzadeh: New AI Methods Are Reshaping How Geographers Model Air Pollution and Wildfire Smoke Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/08/2025 - 14:20

As wildfire seasons intensify and air pollution continues to threaten public health, geographers are turning to new generations of artificial intelligence models to understand how environmental hazards unfold across space. Geography Professor Morteza Karimzadeh, PhD student Zhongying Wang, and collaborator Dr. James Crooks of National Jewish Health are developing next-generation models that combine satellite data, atmospheric information, and AI-driven “place signatures” to better estimate air pollution across the United States.

Their latest publication accepted in GIScience and Remote Sensing focuses on PM₂.₅, a harmful form of air pollution linked to asthma, cardiovascular disease, and premature mortality. Traditional approaches rely on networks of ground-based monitors and satellite-derived aerosol data, but both leave important gaps. Many communities, especially in rural regions or areas affected by sudden wildfire smoke, lack reliable monitoring. Pollution also varies dramatically from one neighborhood to the next. This creates both scientific and equity challenges.

To address these gaps, the team built a deep learning model that synthesizes 21 days of satellite observations, meteorological variables, wildfire smoke information, and other environmental data to estimate daily PM₂.₅ at high spatial resolution. The model is designed to follow how pollution evolves over time, capturing the dynamics of major smoke events and seasonal changes. But their latest innovation adds something novel to the discipline: geospatial foundation models, including “location encoders” such as GeoCLIP, incorporated in a practical way for dynamic air pollution estimation. These models learn from millions of ground-level photographs—urban streetscapes, forests, industrial landscapes, suburban neighborhoods—to produce rich, 512-dimensional embeddings that describe the visual and contextual character of places. When incorporated into the air-quality system, these learned representations provide information about land use, vegetation, density, and built environments that traditional datasets often miss.

“Location encoders give our models a deeper understanding of what a place is like,” says Karimzadeh. “They capture signals that satellites alone can’t see—traffic corridors, industrial zones, tree cover—and that helps us estimate pollution more accurately, especially in places with few monitors.”

The impact is clear in case studies like the 2021 Dixie Fire, when thick smoke blanketed large portions of the western U.S. Models enhanced with location embeddings captured not only the concentration of PM₂.₅ but also the full spatial extent of the smoke plume with greater precision and coherence than satellite-only approaches.

For Wang, who leads much of the model development, has been pursuing this goal of building models that generalize well and provide reliable information even where monitoring is sparse.

In the future, the team aims to incorporate additional sensors and imagery into their models, and explore seasonal and long-term place representations. Their research reflects a broader paradigm in geography and environmental science: using AI not to replace traditional observation methods, but to complement and strengthen them.

Figure from the published paper: Estimated PM2.5 during the 2021 Dixie Fire (Northern California) produced by the baseline model (without geographic features) and the GeoCLIP-enhanced model. Each row corresponds to a different day during peak wildfire activity. Columns (a) and (b) show baseline results, while columns (c) and (d) present GeoCLIP-enhanced estimates at both CONUS and regional scales. The GeoCLIP model yields more intense and spatially coherent smoke plumes and additionally identifies elevated PM2.5 levels over northern Minnesota on July 21, reflecting long-range smoke transport from simultaneous western U.S. and Canadian wildfires.

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Jessica Finlay Publishes New Popular Science Book: The Microbiome Master Key

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:14:20 +0000

Jessica Finlay Publishes New Popular Science Book: The Microbiome Master Key Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/08/2025 - 14:14

Assistant Professor Jessica Finlay and her co-author father Dr. Brett Finlay published The Microbiome Master Key: Harness Your Microbes to Unlock Whole-Body Health and Lifelong Vitality. In this popular science book, they explore how microbial communities everywhere in and around us impact your brain health, sleep, immune system, metabolism, and more. The work bridges Jessica’s expertise in geographies of aging with microbial science to demonstrate how social, spatial, and environmental factors connect to invisible ecosystems within and on our bodies. It also weaves personal narratives—including stories of cross-generational scientific collaboration—into the science, making complex research accessible through family, science, and place.

/asmagazine/2025/09/15/when-microbiome-family-matter

https://theexperimentpublishing.com/catalogs/summer-2025/the-microbiome-master-key/

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AGU Fellow: Jennifer Balch

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:10:37 +0000

AGU Fellow: Jennifer Balch Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/08/2025 - 14:10

CIRES Communications Team

AGU, the world's largest Earth and space science association, celebrates individuals and teams through its annual Honors and Recognition program for their accomplishments in research, education, science communication, and outreach.

CIRES Fellow Jennifer Balch was named a 2025 AGU Fellow. Balch is the director of �鶹��Ƶ’s Environmental Data Science Innovation & Impact Lab (ESIIL) and a professor of Geography. Balch’s research aims to understand the patterns and processes that underlie disturbance and ecosystem recovery, particularly how people are shifting fire regimes and the consequences. Balch has received international recognition for her work on wildfires. As an AGU Fellow, Balch will offer expertise on wildfire science, advising government agencies and other organizations outside the sciences upon request.

Balch joins a distinguished group of scientists, leaders, and communicators recognized by AGU for advancing science. Each honoree reflects AGU's vision for a thriving, sustainable and equitable future supported by scientific discovery, innovation and action.

Honorees will be recognized at AGU25, which will convene in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 15-19, 2025. Reflecting the theme “Where Science Connects Us” at AGU25, the Honors Reception will recognize groundbreaking achievements that illustrate science's continual advancement, inspiring the AGU community with their stories and successes.

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