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Blog Post, Events, PGraSC, Spring Symposium

A Recap of the 2024 Spring Symposium

Elise Herzfeld
Presenters spread around the room for further discussion on their projects.

The Program on Climate Change (PCC) community gathered for the annual Spring Symposium highlighting undergrad and grad student research. The event was hosted by the PCC Graduate Steering Committee (P-GraSC) on the evening of Thursday, May 2nd in the Ocean Sciences Building. The event began with P-GraSC introductions and updates on past and upcoming events, like the City Nature Challenge and the Schooner Series. Food from Pagliacci’s and beverages accompanied the event, with time to socialize and eat at the beginning and end.

This year’s event featured six UW student presenters, each giving a two-minute lightning talk on their current research. They represented various aspects of climate change research with presenters from programs in the sciences as well as policy.

  • Max Perkins (SEFS) on “Coastal Habitats Improve Disaster Resilience in Puerto Rico”
  • Zilu Meng (ATM S) on “Reconstructing the Tropical Pacific Upper Ocean using Data Assimilation with a Deep Learning Model”
  • Zac Espinosa (ATM S) on “Antarctic Sea Ice in Winter 2023 was at a Record Low”
  • Medha Kumar (SEFS) on “King County Strategic Climate Action Plan”
  • Elizabeth Echavarria (UW CEI) on “The role of trade and investment in the diffusion of socio-environmental certification systems among climate-exposed mining companies”
  • Liliana Rangel-Parra (SEFS) on “How do floral communities vary and change immediately after fire in northwestern Cascadia?”
Elise Herzfeld
Liliana shares more on her research in post-fire ecology. She brought a few of her plant identification field guides to display.

Following the presentations, the speakers split into two groups for smaller table talks. This format allowed participants to dive further into the research through questions and discussions with the presenters. The speakers welcomed inquiries and shared more about their research and experiences in their respective fields. At the halfway point in the session, attendees could switch groups to converse with all speakers. This was a great opportunity to engage in the climate community through current research happening here at UW. 

 

The presentation slides can be found here:

Spring Symposium Slides Part 1

Spring Symposium Slides Part 2

Thank you to P-GraSC organizers, Kayla Morton, Matias Korfmacher, Allison Thacker, Zac Espinosa, and Kripa Chandran for putting on another great Spring Symposium. An additional thanks to this year’s presenters for sharing their research and making this event possible.

Written by Elise Herzfeld, PCC Undergraduate Assistant