By Elena Rheingans (New PCC Undergraduate Assistant)

I reach the fisheries building after a gloomy walk through puddles that splash against my boots.  Once I enter though, I am in event mode and ready to welcome the PCC community to our event.  

The 12th annual winter welcome was held on March 11th from 5-7 pm in the Fisheries Sciences building.  It was my first event with the PCC as the incoming undergraduate assistant.  After helping carry cases of drinks from the car and setting up tables and name tag stations, I was excited to be formally introduced to the PCC community.  

The presentation portion of the event came first.  This was held in the Fisheries Sciences auditorium where seats were filled with undergraduate cohort (UCo) members to graduate students, researchers and professors. 

Once everyone was seated, the first order of business was to formally introduce Kyle Armour as the new PCC director!  With gratitude to the previous director, Becky Alexander, Kyle was warmly welcomed as the new leader.  Further thanks were given to my predecessor Elise Herzfeld after which I was also highlighted as the new undergraduate assistant.  One more round of introductions took place to recognize Graubard Graduate Fellows in the PCC, including incoming student awards and the new PhD completion awards.  As the room filled with applause, the event started out by really putting the welcome in winter welcome.  

More opportunities for introduction ensued as two PCC Graduate Student Representatives (GSR’s) and members of the PCC Graduate Steering Committee (P-GraSC), Clara Stanbury and Andy Liu, informed attendees of upcoming activities including the ongoing Third Thursday event held in the Greenhouse.  The PCC Undergraduate Cohort (UCo) also presented their activities including ecological restoration, lab tours, and professional portfolio building.  

We then got a peak into the fascinating research being done within the PCC as lighting talks were given by research scientists and post-pocs including

• Seungki Kwak (Ocean) Visiting Scientist working with Dr. Ben Marwick (Archaeology): “Subsistence Change from Foraging to Farming in East/Southeast Asia”
• August Posch (Ocean) Visiting Scientist “Flood Modeling and Atmospheric Forecasting” 
• Kate Hewett (APL) new scientist working with Professor Parker Macready (Ocean) “A Computer Model of Circulation + Biogeochemistry for the Coastal Waters off BC/WA/OR and the Salish Sea” 
• Mar Arroyo (CICOES/PMEL) working with Dr. Jon Sharp (CICOES) and Dr. Andrea Fassbender (NOAA PMEL) “Constructing 4D Biogeochemical Data Products in the California Current System” 
• Lucia Cancelada (Ocean) working with Professor Anitra Ingalls (Ocean) “Aquatic Organic Matter Transformations Impacts on the Carbon Cycle”
• Jacob Cohen (CICOES/PMEL) “Gulf of Alaska Eddies”
• Mary Margaret Stoll (CICOES/PMEL) working with Dr. Andrea Fassbender (NOAA PMEL) “Ocean acidification in the California Current using coral paleoproxies & biogeochemical models”

We also heard from Graubard Graduate Fellowship recipients including

• Sophia Ludtke (ESS) working with Eric Steig & Gerard Roe (ESS) “Drivers of West Antarctic Ice Sheet Melt”
• Caleb Fried (ATMOS) working with Kyle Armour (ATMOS/OCEAN), David Battisti (ATMOS), Aaron Donohoe (APL) “Temperature Variability, Climate Dynamics, Statistical Methods, Paleoclimate”
• Becca Cleveland Stout (ATMOS) “Theoretical and Paleoclimate Constraints on Temperature Variability”
• Joyce Cai (OCEAN) working with Eric D’Asaro (OCEAN) “Submesoscale Frontal Dynamics in the California Current System”
• Tamara Aránguiz-Rago (ESS) How does climate influence the evolution of strike-slip fault landscapes?”
• Madeleine Strait (BIOL) working with Janneke Hille Ris Lamers (ETH Zurich) and Berry Brosi (BIOL) “Impacts of Climate Change on Subalpine Meadow Plant and Pollinator Communities”

From plant-pollinator interactions to plate tectonics, how curious to explore the climate-induced causes behind changes to these patterns. 

The lighting talks were filled with enthusiasm and there was more where that came from as the presentation wrapped with announcements for upcoming events as well as encouragement to vote for the 2026 Summer Institute theme.

As people emptied the auditorium and filled the lobby, catered food and beverages were ready to be enjoyed.  The rest of the night was filled with laughter, story telling, research inquiries, and new connections

being formed.  I thoroughly enjoyed attending my first Winter Welcome from setting up to taking photos to talking with graduate students about their climate science journey; I am excited to continue my own with the PCC.

Elena Rheingans is a second year ESRM student involved in several on-campus projects including the Forest Mycobiome Lab, the Filipino American Student Association, and PCC!