Funding to the University of Washington’s College of the Environment (COE) supports expansions of research into environmental solutions, prediction, and monitoring through field observation and data modeling, as well as retention of key talent across essential graduate, postgraduate, and non-faculty positions contributing substantively to the research. COE’s research prioritizes cross-disciplinary approaches to major climate issues reflecting both the breadth and nuance of the natural world. We spoke with COE’s Dean of Research, Dr. Virginia Armbrust, to understand how she’s approaching this work.
Dr. Virginia (Ginger) Armbrust grew up thinking she wanted to be a medical doctor. It wasn’t until after she finished her undergraduate degree – a Bachelor of Science in human biology – that she realized she was meant for a different path. By chance, while working in a marine lab, Dr. Armbrust was presented with the opportunity to join a research cruise, where she discovered a love of biological oceanography. Out in the middle of the ocean, faced with its vastness and unknowns, Dr. Armbrust developed a new and profound curiosity that would inspire her to dedicate her work to better understanding the natural world. This journey led her to where she is now – Dean of Research for the University of Washington’s renowned College of the Environment (COE).
Dr. Armbrust embodies the idea that you never know what you’ll find unless you take an opportunity to be surprised by the unknown. Now, she is sparking that same curiosity in the next generation of scientists setting out to understand the planet’s most hidden secrets through eight new flagship research projects, made possible support from the Fund for Science and Technology (FFST).
Dr. Armbrust put out a call to the COE faculty: bring your big ideas for the world’s most complex environmental challenges, with no concept too big or too small. “Imagine if everything in your experiment worked – what would you be able to do?” she urged.
This open call – the first of its kind for the COE – was inspired in part by Dr. Armbrust’s conversations with FFST. And, as Dr. Armbrust noted, was made possible by the agency the COE was given to utilize grant funds in a way they deemed would be most impactful to their programs. Dr. Armbrust celebrated the fact that this grant operates in a way that “is totally different” from traditional grants, allowing for collaboration and imagination at a much greater scale.
Dr. Armbrust’s excitement for this new way of doing research was palpable. “I want to bring a community of researchers together to think about doing science in a different way,” she said. To tackle hard problems from different approaches “and think about how the whole system is impacted by changing climates.” She wants to reimagine the way we work and collaborate as scientists – a vision shared by FFST’s President and CEO Dr. Lynda Stuart.
Armbrust reflected on how FFST’s philosophy has allowed faculty to dream big in new ways. “I don’t want to prescribe new ideas,” Dr. Armbrust shared. She wants to come together to think differently. This new way of thinking brought in novel ideas and elaborate opportunities from across the college, uncovering new research topics and directions that Dr. Armbrust and her team want to understand.
Emboldened, she and her team are exploring massive, endlessly complex issues that likely won't be solved for lifetimes: What happens if we seed the atmosphere with sea salt, how might that cool the planet and what are potential unintended consequences? What are the implications of marine carbon dioxide removal – how does that change oceanic chemistry or impact organisms in the region? Could we create a digital twin of the Earth’s surface to understand the regional impacts of major flooding events? Even, if we intervene and repair melting, natural ice roads that connect rural communities in the arctic, what could the repercussions be to tampering with natural processes? Despite varying subject matter, all projects seek to achieve a common goal: how can we better understand the downstream impacts of a changing environment, and how do we use these findings to create more resilient ecosystems.
Reflecting on the state of climate research, Dr. Armbrust noted that “we’re very good at diagnosing what’s going on within our environment, but we must move beyond diagnosing to understand the range of consequences that exist with either action or inaction.” She believes what this could be a dream for the next generation of scientists: they may come up with a huge idea for one of the most complicated issues on the planet, and then actually go after it in their work.
She hopes that, when she and the COE faculty are ready to share the results of their research, their approach to research and philosophy on interdisciplinary areas of study will inspire more diversity of thought around the kind of research needed at the intersection of the most complicated and robust environmental issues.
“There is an assumption about the diversity of life on our planet, an assumption that nature will always be there in the ways that we know it now,” she reflected. And yet, she recognizes that we all have a responsibility to ensure that any decisions we make will help nurture the world around us. “In order to be good stewards of the natural world, we must first understand it,” she acknowledged.
These big ideas are already underway. Dr. Armbrust and her team are embarking on a research expedition this January that will begin in the Philippines, and transect the Pacific Ocean until they reach Guam, to study the impact ocean warming has on marine ecosystems and the chemistry of the atmosphere. As you read this piece, Dr. Armbrust and her team may very well be in the midst of ocean’s vastness, working to uncover just a little bit more of what remains unknown about our environment. Perhaps she is reading this herself from a laptop in the middle of the ocean in the middle of the night – after all she told us, “I will have Wi-Fi at sea, but time has no meaning out there.”
Research at the University of Washington’s College of the Environment drives solutions that safeguard our planet and improve our quality of life. By understanding how the world works, researchers can better manage ecosystems and natural resources to create a healthier, more resilient society for all.