April 19, 2007
Etc: Campus news and notes
TOPS IN PEACE: Washington D.C. based Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter will be visiting the Seattle-Tacoma area on Wednesday, April 25 and Thursday, April 26 to formally recognize the UW and the University of Puget Sound for claiming first place in two out of three of the Peace Corps’ “Top Schools” categories.
It’s been 25 years since anyone has unseated the University of Wisconsin-Madison from first place on the Peace Corps’ “Top Schools” list. The list, a ranking of the number of currently-serving alumni volunteers, divvies schools up into three categories: large, medium, and small schools. Today, with 110 alumni volunteers currently out in the field, the UW has claimed that top spot in the large schools category — making it the Peace Corps’ top producing school in the nation. The large schools category consists of colleges and universities with more than 15,000 undergraduates.
In the small schools category, which includes colleges and universities with less than 5,000 undergraduates, the University of Puget Sound has claimed first place with 30 alumni volunteers currently out in the field.
The UW will be hosting a faculty reception at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 25 in the Walker Ames Room, Kane. On behalf of the Peace Corps, Tschetter will present a plaque of recognition to the UW, to be accepted by Provost Phyllis Wise. Tschetter will also be touring the campus and hopes to take some time to visit with students in their classrooms.
GROUP WITH IMPACT: The UW’s Climate Impact Group received the Leader in Climate Science award from King County recently for its work in trying to understand the consequences of natural climate variability and human-caused global warming for the people and resources of the Pacific Northwest.
The award is one of the Green Globe Awards given by the county’s Department of Natural Resources. Climate Impact Group’s unique focus is on the intersection of climate science and public policy — performing basic research aimed at understanding the consequences of climate fluctuations for the region, and promoting application of this information in regional decisions. Through research and interaction with regional stakeholders, the group works to increase the resilience of the Pacific Northwest to fluctuations in climate.
Recipients of the Green Globe Awards, the county says, “excel in leadership and activities that foster environmental stewardship by protecting the environment, managing natural resources and benefiting the community.”
SOUND MAN: Brian Dushaw, senior oceanographer at the Applied Physics Lab, has been chosen by the Acoustical Society of America as the recipient of the Medwin Prize in Acoustical Oceanography. The award recognizes a person for the effective use of sound in the discovery and understanding of physical and biological phenomena in the ocean. Dushaw uses acoustical tools to detect and understand ocean processes over long distances. He has studied climate change at the ocean-basin scale and internal waves — a type of wave that can form inside the ocean between two water layers of different densities.
Do you know someone who deserves kudos for an outstanding achievement, award, appointment or book publication? If so, send that person’s name, title and achievement to uweek@u.washington.edu.
