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An Indigenous Geopoetics for the Apocalypse

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 22:38:04 +0000

An Indigenous Geopoetics for the Apocalypse Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 01/26/2026 - 15:38

Dr. Mabel D. Gergan
Assistant Professor
Department of Asian Studies
Vanderbilt University

Abstract:

Somewhere deep in the Dzongu valley, in the shadow of Mt. Kanchendzonga, lies a secret pathway to Mayal Kyong – a hidden paradise of abundance, home to seven immortal couples revered as ancestors by the Lepchas (Mutanchi Rongkup Rumkup). Mayal Kyong is one though perhaps the most significant of several hidden places believed to exist in Dzongu, where sacred scriptures, relics, religious teachings, and even precious jewels are said to lie concealed in rocky caves, crags, and waterfalls. These treasures are believed to reveal themselves only in moments of great need or at the end of the mortal world. One such sacred treasure is a pot filled to the brim with grains and seeds, meant to help the Lepcha people rebuild in the event of an apocalypse.

Since 2006, Dzongu has been the site of a vibrant anti-dam movement led by the Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT), which successfully pressured the state to withdraw four proposed dams on the River Teesta in Sikkim, India. Today, however, much of the Teesta has been dammed, and only a few free-flowing stretches remain. Hydropower development has also intensified the impacts of cyclical disasters, the most devastating of which include the 6.9 magnitude earthquake in 2011 and the 2023 Glacial Lake Outburst Flood. Despite significant pressure and criticism, ACT members continue to nurture the hope that the Teesta will remain a free-flowing river. Their activism is nourished and sustained by their belief in the power and protection of Sikkim's sacred landscapes. It is this act of nurturing hope, and the beliefs and practices that sustain it, that inform my analysis here.

In Lepcha oral histories and prophecies, the apocalypse much like in its original Greek meaning signals not only a time of disaster and doom but also a moment of sacred revelation. In conversation with Indigenous Himalayan and critical geographic theorizations of geopoetics, sacred landscapes, and prophecy, I understand these articulations as an Indigenous geopoetics: a praxis and philosophy grounded in the particularity of place, one that reads the earth and its signs in ways that maintain hope in times of crisis and uncertainty.

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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 CU ��ý�� Today online publication on 1/23/2026 for archival purposes.

1/22/2026

The SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education at CU ��ý�� 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 CU ��ý��. 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 CU ��ý�� 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 CU ��ý��, 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 CU ��ý��’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 CU ��ý��.

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 CU ��ý��.

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A Mountain Debate on Climate/Relational Change: Revitalizing the Voice of Indigenous Territorial Sovereigns in Tibetan Contemporary Literature

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 22:11:35 +0000

A Mountain Debate on Climate/Relational Change: Revitalizing the Voice of Indigenous Territorial Sovereigns in Tibetan Contemporary Literature Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 01/20/2026 - 15:11

Dr. Tashi Dekyid Monet
Post-doctoral Scholar
Modern Tibetan Studies
Weatherhead East Asian Institute
Columbia University

Abstract:

What do Tibetan mountains say about the recent climate change that is driven by and intensifies complex changes and disruptions to multiple relationships on the Tibetan Plateau? How do the mountains communicate their emotions, thoughts, pains, and resolutions? How can we listen, observe, know, and understand the mountains’ perspectives? In this paper, I explore how two Tibetan contemporary short stories provide creative and generative spaces to reflect on these questions. They are “Snow” (1999) by Pema Tseten and “The Conference of Lhanyen Mountains” (2020) by Joné Yumtsering. These questions emerge from Tibetan cosmologies and ontologies of the environment, personhood, life, and the plateau itself. Understanding the thoughts, moods, and visions of the mountains—known to Tibetans as Territorial Sovereigns (Zhidak གཞི་བདག; also rendered as mountain gods in English) —has been important for Tibetan communities in many ways, ranging o

ver cultural practice, agricultural production, and political governance. Territorial Sovereigns are both physical mountains and metaphysical figures who rule and protect specific places that constitute the Tibetan Plateau. I also engage the history of, and poetic evocations to, Mountain Sovereigns, including lived experiences of mountain ceremonies in my community. Similar to conclusions drawn by Indigenous climate studies (Whyte 2021; Cane 2025), these Tibetan stories illustrate how the “unnatural” events of natural disasters are signs of, and results from, disruptions in their human and more-than-human relationships. I argue that these stories offer a space for the emergence of fuller stories of Tibetan mountains and place-based relationships, including their entanglements with multiple changes today. They are also spaces where we can reflect on the possibilities and challenges of understanding places in their fuller being and senses than the often disembodied, objectified, extracted, and fragmented manners in which they are dealt with in research.

Speaker Bio:

Tashi Dekyid Monet (མོ་ངེ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་སྐྱིད།) is a Tibetan scholar, writer, and translator whose academic and literary work explores Indigenous Land-based traditions, multispecies care, and the intersections of literature, spirituality, peoplehood, and the environment. Born and raised in Minyak Rabgang, one of the Six Mountain Ranges of eastern Tibet, she earned her BA in Tibetan Literature from Minzu University of China. She received her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Virginia (2024), where her research connects Tibetan literary and oral traditions of Land, Buddhist sacred geography, Indigenous storytelling, popular culture—art, music, literature and film—with global conversations on decolonial methodologies, critical Indigenous education, human geography, environmental humanities, and multispecies justice.

Tashi Dekyid is a postdoctoral scholar in the Modern Tibetan Studies program at Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University, where she co-leads a collaborative Indigenous-led the project on “Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change on the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas.” Her publications includes “Translating the Tibetan Lifeworld: An Ontological Bridge or Erasure” (Yeshe), a co-edited trilingual anthology Hope that Burns, Friendship that Heals: An Anthology by Tibetan Women Writers, and “Rejoicing in Reciprocity” (The Brooklyn Rail), She has authored three Tibetan-language children’s books—Ten Precious Yaks, Snow Friend, and Where Are You?—and translated works by Joy Harjo, Leslie Marmon Silko, Margaret Atwood, and others into Tibetan. She co-organized the 2022 international Symposium of Tibetan Women Writers at University of Virginia.

Zoom Option: https://cuboulder.zoom.us/j/91058919425

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Fall 2025 Newsletter Now Available!

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 18:03:18 +0000

Fall 2025 Newsletter Now Available! Gabriela Rocha Sales Thu, 12/18/2025 - 11:03

You can now view our Fall 2025 Newsletter!

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Katie Writer (BA, 1991): Photojournalist turning aerial art into climate archive

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:42:29 +0000

Katie Writer (BA, 1991): Photojournalist turning aerial art into climate archive Gabriela Rocha Sales Fri, 12/12/2025 - 11:42

12/4/2025 • By Cody DeBos

Copied from the A&S Magazine for archival purposes.

/asmagazine/2025/12/04/photojournalist-turning-aerial-art-climate-archive

On a clear day high above south-central Alaska, you can find Katie Writer pulling open the window of her Super Cub airplane and leaning her camera out into the rushing wind. Below, the landscape doesn’t look like the same one she once hiked and skied. That’s exactly why she’s flying.

For Writer (Geog’91), flying offers a unique vantage point from which to witness the planet changing in real time.

“Climate change is something I saw coming all the way back in my CU days studying geography, and I knew it would be a big part of my life’s calling. I have a sense of duty as a photojournalist pilot and an advocate for the environment. Whenever there’s a chance for me to tell the story of the landscape or point emphasis to an area that needs some protection, I jump on it,” she says.

From documenting glacier retreat to photographing generations of spruce trees withered by beetle kill, she’s built a career at the intersection of science, storytelling and adventure.

Skiing onto the page

Writer’s journey to the cockpit wasn’t traditional. At CU ��ý��, she majored in geography and raced on the ski team, balancing course loads with weekend races. After graduating, she worked as an interpreter for the United States Olympic Committee at the 1992 Winter Olympics in France, and that lit a fire in her for world-class racing.

“I quickly moved up the ranks and placed 17th at the U.S. National Championships in 1994,” Writer recalls.

But when an injury derailed her career, she pivoted her skiing passion from racing to the page, becoming an aptly named writer of outdoor adventure articles for the likes of Couloir and Powder magazines. One story led her to Denali National Park.

“On that trip, I was inspired to become a pilot,” she says. “I’d also been on another ski trip where a Cessna 185 flew us into the wilderness in a ski plane, and it made me realize that these little planes give you some great access to the wilderness.”

After earning her pilot’s license with support from aviation scholarships, Writer settled in Alaska, where she has since filled her appetite for adventure and storytelling through the lens of her camera. She didn't give up competitive skiing entirely, though, and races in three World Extreme Skiing competitions in Alaska

“Others were noticing my photography and really appreciating the bird’s eye view I was getting as an aerial photographer/pilot. It helped me realize that capturing these images was something I was really passionate about,” she says.

Seeing the story from above

When Writer takes her camera into the sky, the viewpoint of Alaska’s stunning landscapes brings awe, but also a sense of urgency. From her Super Cub, she observes patterns of change. Hillsides of dying spruce. Once thriving glaciers shrinking every year. Riverbanks collapsing after torrential storms. She has returned often to the same places, documenting changes that most people never get to see.

“There’s no doubt when you live in Alaska, you see the effects of the beetle kill. I realized this was an excellent way to present climate change with the visuals from an aerial perspective,” Writer says.

Warmer winters have allowed spruce beetles to survive year-round, leaving entire forests stained with rust-colored decay. Glaciers tell a parallel story of loss.

“We spent a lot of time going back to the toe of the Ruth glacier, photographing the specific area year after year and seeing how dramatically the receding lines were, as well as observing the collapsing walls,” she adds.

She also tracks what happens downstream. After record rainfall from an atmospheric river in August 2025, she flew over the swollen Talkeetna River and saw entire stretches of bank washed away.

“These weather events with high levels of moisture, in my opinion, are another visual acceleration of erosion.”

These scenes are part of a photographic timeline Writer has spent years assembling. With each flight, she adds a new layer to the growing visual archive that captures the rapid reshaping of Alaska’s wilderness. For those of us on the ground, it’s a rare glimpse at what our world looks like from above.

Exploring a new medium

In time, the stories Writer wanted to tell outgrew both print and pictures. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she launched the All Cooped Up Alaska Podcast, a show born from isolation and the desire to connect. It’s since evolved into the Alaska Climate and Aviation Podcast, where she explores stories of weather, flying and environmental change.

The benefit of producing your own podcast is that you get to be as creative as you want and can tell the stories you want to tell,” she says. “A lot of the stories I used to create for our local radio station would be edited down to three and a half minutes for airtime. I was always a little bit frustrated by that.”

Now, Writer brings on regular guests, including prominent Alaskan climatologists Rick Thoman and Brian Brettschneider, to discuss everything from wildfire smoke to Arctic feedback loops. She also covers major events like the Arctic Encounter Symposium in Anchorage.

“Arctic Encounter is attended by world leaders from all around Arctic countries, including Indigenous leaders, policymakers, scientists, villagers and Arctic dwellers,” she says. “It’s a very inspiring event with fascinating panels of people talking about the problems they’re having and solutions they envision.”

Writer has also added a sightseeing business to Visionary Adventures, taking people out on Super Cub Airplane Rides so they can experience the beauty themselves. And these days, her children are her most frequent fliers: "We—my son, Jasper, and daughter, Wren—have also enjoyed soaring above the wilds looking for wild game and fishing spots."

CU at altitude

Looking back, Writer credits her time at CU ��ý�� with helping to shape her worldview.

“One of the primary things that made a major influence on choosing geography as a major was an upper-division course that was in the Arctic Circle, learning field research techniques,” she says.

She also recalls the atmosphere of both ��ý��’s scientific community and cultural diversity.

“As a sophomore, our house was across the street from the Hari Krishnas, where we ate a meal a week and enjoyed philosophizing on life and world religions. It was just a really neat place to be,” Writer says. “All of the beautiful architecture and even the Guggenheim building for Geography really held a special place in my heart for a place of learning.”

Her advice for today’s students? Write often.

“Writing is a really important skill that I’m noticing more and more being lost with the use of AI. Getting the pen flowing onto a piece of paper lets you tap into a whole different type of creativity,” she says.

“Realize that you may not know what your whole career is going to be, but don’t be afraid to explore and take a risk in opportunities you might get. When I look back at the journals that I had at that time in my life, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m doing it,’” she adds.

Even now, after decades of flying and learning to balance the art with the business, Writer isn’t sure where her career will lead next.

“I always aspired to work for National Geographic as a photojournalist,” she says. “And I still haven’t met that goal—but who knows what could happen in the future.”

One thing is certain: Writer has no plans to stop flying over Alaska and documenting its changes.

“Being in the air and photographing the landscape feels like artistic movement and is a spiritual experience,” she says. “The natural world is just stunning.”

CU ��ý�� geography alumnus Katie Writer shares Alaska’s changing landscape from the skies

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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 CU ��ý�� 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 CU ��ý�� 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 CU ��ý��,” 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 CU ��ý��,” 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 CU ��ý�� 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 CU ��ý�� 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 CU ��ý��’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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