WashU Climate in the News

Check out this student art installation thatexplores the fraught legacy of the River des Peres.

Climate change experts, including WUCCP’s David Fike and Beth Martin, speak to the challenges we have yet to overcome.

Mahadevan Subramanian, Sc.B. candidate in biology and public health at Brown University, writes on their experience hearing from Jonathan Patz, co-director of the Global Health Institute, who gave a presentation on SDG 13 – Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Chris Woolston, Research Writer for the College of Arts and Sciences, highlights four faculty in the Department of Biology on their plant research: Xuehua Zhong, Joe Jez, Kenneth Olsen, Rachel Penczykowski.

Joshua Perez-Cruet, a second-year medical student at WashU’s School of Medicine (WUSM), by drawing on his own research as well as input from his classmates and expertise from medical faculty, has been putting together an ambitious curriculum that directly addresses the intersection between climate change and medicine. By training a new generation of sustainability-oriented doctors, Josh hopes to do his part in shifting US healthcare toward a greener, healthier future.

Jasen Vest was an Environmental Studies Impact intern during the summer of 2022. He shares his experience working at  Metropolitan Congregations United.

Jian Wang to study Arctic aerosols and their impact on climate change. Click to read more.

Arijit Chatterjee, has been selected as winner of the 2021-22 James Harrison Steedman Memorial Fellowship in Architecture, in which participants were challenged to explore how architecture, in light of the ongoing climate crisis, can help to chart new paths and implement far-reaching solutions.

WUCCP Director Beth Martin comments on the implications of rejoining the Paris Agreement, and Steering Committee member Michael Wysession speaks optimistically about the new administration’s plan to advance our energy sector.

Arpita Bose, associate professor of biology, participated in the White House Summit on Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing for the American Bioeconomy.

Carlos Botero, assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences, on the role that big bodies and big brains played in helping crows and ravens survive in the new climates.

With collaborators from Missouri University of Science & Technology and GTI Energy, Xinhua Liang plans to develop an economical process to convert carbon dioxide and solid waste into carbon-negative concrete products. Click to read more.

Congratulations to Jeffrey Catalano, who received a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy that will support geochemistry research on elements and minerals essential for the production of electric vehicles, cell phones, and computers.

Alexander Thompson, a postdoctoral research associate in earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, updated simulations from an important climate model to reflect the role of changing vegetation as a key driver of global temperatures over the last 10,000 years.

Claire Masteller on her grant from the National Science Foundation for collaborative research that will help scientists distinguish between climate-driven change and the natural variability of river channels.

Matthew Austin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Living Earth Collaborative, discusses the impact of climate change on the phenology of wildflowers in this short video.

In the student-run magazine Frontiers, Nina Silverstein authored “Preventing Another Pandemic Means Protecting the Planet.” In this article, she highlights the risks of human-wildlife interactions and our destructive habits that exacerbate them.

Researchers at the Living Earth Collaborative research the changing patterns of pollinators and blooming flowers. How? By emulating pollinators.

Read how the Brown School's social epidemiologist, Lindsay Stark, weighs in on the study.

Matthew Austin of the LEC found that climate change is affecting how these common native flowers reproduce, read more.

Justin Baldwin, biology graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis, on phenotypic responses to climate change.

Washington University takes a leadership role in the Midwest Climate Collaborative to help address specific climate challenges in the 12-state region.

Patricia Weisensee won an NSF grant to study a condensation pathway with green potential. Click to read more.

Read the transcript or watch the interview between Susanne Renner, honorary professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis, and HEC-TV about the effects of climate change on fall foliage.

Theo Hanson, 2022 Institute for Public Health Summer Research Program participant, talks about the link between cycling and climate action strategy.

Physicist Anders Carlsson (WashU) and Sid Redner of the Santa Fe Institute have created a new mathematical model to describe the most reliable, efficient and cost-effective way to harness solar power. Click to read more.

"Basically, we are looking for people who would like to be involved in efforts to help save nature and who are attracted to the idea of working with the Saint Louis Zoo and its conservation partners.” - Jonathan Losos, professor of biology at Washington University and director of the Living Earth Collaborative

Read more...

Marcus Foston, associate professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, leads a multi-institutional project to develop the next generation of biodegradable plastics.

Computer modeling shows just two factors can predict how quickly COVID-19 spreads.

On issues including environmental justice, biodiversity, and climate change, researchers across Arts & Sciences are doing the work of Earth Month all year long.

Fike speaks to the power of collaboration in the Slate article The U.S. Fight Against Climate Change Has to Start at Its Center: The Midwest. The article advocates strongly for the undertakings of the Midwest Climate Summit.

Researchers in Professor Randall Martin’s lab will investigate the effects of spatial resolution on model simulations of atmospheric chemistry.

PhD student Karolina Cysneiros de Carvalho reflects on her experience studying how pollution changes as it travels from the frigid outside to the warm indoors.

Derek Hoeferlin, associate professor and chair of the landscape architecture and urban design programs, comments on storm systems after major flash floods in the St. Louis region.

Major floods in the St. Louis region are increasing in frequency and severity, turning high waters on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, rare a century ago, into events that now strike every few years. Click to read more.

Master of Urban Design students travel the world to deepen their understanding of issues facing cities. Click to read more.

The Forest Park Living Lab is a partnership of Forest Park Forever, The National Great Rivers Research and Education Center, Saint Louis University, the Saint Louis Zoo, Washington University in St. Louis and the World Bird Sanctuary. Click to read about it.

Forest Park Living Lab is collaborative of six different partners, including Washington University, where researchers from around the St. Louis area are tracking animals and trying to learn more about them and how they’re adapting to the urban area around the park. Watch the video to learn more.

Ellery Saluck, a former Climate Associate in the class of 2021, wrote an opinion for the St. Louis Dispatch on how fossil fuel companies may contribute to climate efforts.

Click to read about María Dabrowski, their work, and how they got into conservation.

Read more about the NSF grant that Walid Ben Mansour and Douglas Wiens received for this research.

New research finds when microbes don’t get the metals they need, the result may be more consequential than previously understood.

Bret Gustafson, professor of sociocultural anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has won the 2022 Bryce Wood Book Award.

Through experiential learning and a new environmental analysis major, WashU students prepare to help us understand the questions of climate change.

The Water Environment Federation (WEF) Has named Zhen “Jason” He, a professor of energy, environmental and chemical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, a fellow of the nonprofit.

Micheal Wysession weighs in on the connections between climate change, flooding, and environmental justice in St. Louis.

Biologist Kristin Winchell, postdoctoral research associate in the Losos laboratory in Arts & Sciences finds that city lizards in Puerto Rico rapidly and repeatedly evolved better tolerance for heat than their forest counterparts.

Mihai Dumbrava, MD-PhD candidate and the Schilsky Family Summer Research Scholar in the 2022 Institute for Public Health Summer Research Program, writes on healthcare and the climate.

Environmental epidemiologist Christine Ekenga shares the environmental and ethical consequences of fast fashion.

Congregations in St. Louis are working with local scientists to monitor the air quality in communities affected by industrial pollution. Earlier this year, the multifaith coalition launched a new online air quality monitoring tool, tracking pollutants in the city in partnership with scientists at The Nature Conservancy, the Jay Turner Group research lab at Washington University, and the university’s environmental studies program.