"Journalists covering water issues in the American West now have an extensive new visual library at their disposal — and it’s thanks in no small part to the efforts of former KSJ Project Fellow Ted Wood (’21). Wood set out last spring to photograph the Colorado River basin, from its headwaters in Colorado to downstream reservoirs and branches in states like Arizona and Utah. It was part of a collaboration with The University of Colorado’s Water Desk, which aims to create a collection of photos, videos, and data visualizations that can be used, free of charge, by reporters.
Last month, the Water Desk released its first big trove of Wood’s photos, including images of Colorado’s Blue Mesa Reservoir, the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming and Utah, and the Santa Cruz River in Arizona. The Water Desk plans to roll out more of Wood’s images in the months ahead. All imagery in the library is available for editorial and non-commercial use under a free Creative Commons license.
Wood now hopes to continue working with the project in the Rio Grande watershed.
Christoph Drösser (’94) has been awarded with the German Children’s Literature Award in the nonfiction category, for the book “100 Kinder” (“100 Children”). Drösser, the book’s author, will share the award with Nina Coenenberg, the illustrator.
Judges liked the book’s central conceit, wherein the titular 100 children symbolize the 2 billion children currently living on the planet. Six of the children live in Europe, four in North America, eight in South America, one in Australia, 25 in Africa, and 56 in Asia. Using that idea as a jumping off point, the judges write, “the book uses a cleverly coordinated combination of texts, illustrations, and infographics to create a comprehensive tableau of social, political and cultural aspects.”
The German Children’s Literature Awards were announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October.
The award is the second in a pair of recent honors for Drösser. He was also named one of four inaugural fellows for the Free University of Berlin’s MIP.labor initiative, an ideas workshop for science communication on mathematics, computer science, and physics. His six-month fellowship project will deal with fairness and bias in machine learning algorithms.
Edward Struzik (‘97) published a new book last month, “Swamplands: Tundra Beavers, Quaking Bogs, and the Improbable World of Peat,” his third with Island Press. The book celebrates the often-overlooked natural environments “in all their offbeat glory.”
“Expect to encounter the unexpected in this science- and story-rich book,” writes Pulitzer-Prizewinning author Jack E. Davis. “Edward Struzik and a procession of eccentric-yet-wise characters turn old, deprecating notions on their head and reveal fabled wastelands to be vital wonderlands.”
Struzik is currently a fellow at the Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy at Queen’s University in Canada.
Meera Subramanian (‘17) recently helped to launch the Boston University-based Religion and Environment Story Project, which offers fellowships and funding to journalists to bridge the divide between the religion and science beats. The project aims to promote new thinking and new narratives that will inform and educate the public, especially on the climate crisis.
The effort follows Subramanian’s recent stints as Princeton University’s Barron Visiting Professor and as a board member of the Society of Environmental Journalists. She continues to freelance, including as a contributing editor of Orion magazine, where she recently wrote “The Nature of Plastics.”
After finding success as a science writer and health columnist for the Boston Globe and as a nonfiction book author, Judy Foreman (‘90) is now foraying into fiction. Her debut novel, “CRISPR’d,” is a medical thriller that imagines a rogue scientist who uses the gene editing technology CRISPR to nefarious ends.
Writes best-selling author Robin Cook, “Foreman has written a page-turner — a medical thriller cum cautionary tale — that will not just have you on the edge of your seat but will enlighten you about the power, and potential dangers, of the new gene-editing technology, CRISPR.”
“CRISPR’d” is set to publish in February 2022.
Finally, an update: The September installment of Alumni Notes recognized 2018-19 class members Jeff DelViscio, Pakinam Amer, Rachel Gross, and Magnus Bjerg for their contributions to the film project, “In Event of Moon Landing,” which was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy Award. In an October ceremony, “In Event of Moon Landing” was announced as the winner in its category, Outstanding Interactive Media, Documentary. Congratulations to DelViscio, Amer, Gross, Bjerg, and their collaborators!
Here’s what other alumni are writing, a compendium from Federico Kukso (‘16):
Amina Khan (‘19): “Pregnant women were kept out of clinical trials. That left them vulnerable to COVID-19.” Los Angeles Times.
Zack Colman (‘16): “Time to ‘get scared’: World’s scientists say disastrous climate change is here,” Politico (with Karl Mathiesen).
Giovana Girardi (‘15): “Brazil’s emissions are distorted without counting Amazon degradation,” Folha de S. Paulo (in Portuguese).
Jeff Tollefson (‘06): “Top climate scientists are sceptical that nations will rein in global warming,” Nature.
Maryn McKenna (‘14): “The Race Is On to Develop a Vaccine Against Every Coronavirus,” Wired.
Federico Kukso (‘16): “How ‘Dune’ inspires innovations to fight droughts and climate change,” Agencia Sinc (in Spanish).
Teresa Carr (‘18): “Women’s Professional STEM Societies Rethink Gender Diversity,” Undark.
Herton Escobar (‘07): “The Diaspora: Why scientists are leaving Brazil,” Piauí (In Portuguese).
Valeria Román (‘06): “She Worked with Marie Curie and Debunked Cancer Myths: The Unknown Story of a Cutting Edge Researcher,” Infobae (in Spanish).
Wycliffe Muga (‘07): “Kenya’s energy future unclear,” The Star.
Sascha Karberg (‘09): “Antarctica Aliens: The Crumbling Base of Life,” Der Tagesspiegel (in German).
Marcin Rotkiewicz (‘09): “What are mental time travels?” Polityka (in Polish).
Chris Mooney (‘10): “Russia allows methane leaks at planet’s peril,” The Washington Post (with Steven Mufson, Isabelle Khurshudyan, Brady Dennis, John Muyskens and Naema Ahmed).
Yves Sciama (‘14): “Amazon could reach a point of no return,” Reporterre (in French).
Fabio Turone (‘17): “Doctors Experience Long-term Mental Health Effects of COVID-19,” Medscape (w Tim Locke).
Christine Mlot (’94): “Connecting the Dots,” OnWisconsin (University of Wisconsin–Madison Alumni Magazine)
Justin Gillis (‘05): “Will Glasgow Be the Climate Breakthrough We Need?” New York Times