Division of Natural Sciences

When the homework is happiness

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 09 May 2025 13:30:00 +0000

When the homework is happiness Rachel Sauer Fri, 05/09/2025 - 07:30

Clint Talbott

June Gruber’s Science of Happiness course doesn’t map the way to unmitigated joy; on the contrary, the science of emotional wellness is more nuanced, and her students are sharing this message outside the classroom

The Declaration of Independence famously extols the “pursuit of happiness.” But what, exactly, is happiness, and how should one pursue it? Also, should we even view it as something to be pursued?

Those questions underlie countless magazine articles, TV documentaries and self-help courses. More rigorously, they’re the focus of a popular Science of Happiness course taught by June Gruber, a professor of psychology at the ��Ƶ18.

Gruber’s course does not unfold a map to unmitigated delight. Rather, Gruber’s course pores over the developing research—some of it Gruber’s own—that reveals a more nuanced view and even a “dark side to happiness.” The course also asks students to summarize and share the science of happiness for “outreach” to general audiences.

June Gruber (front row left, checked blazer) and her Science of Happiness students pause for a class photo on the last day of the semester. (Photo: June Gruber)

As Gruber has shown in her peer-reviewed research, a TEDx talk and this CU Boulder course, it is not that happiness is bad. Rather, evidence suggests that happiness is one of several human emotions to which people should be open, and excesses of apparent happiness can signal problems such as mania (or bipolar disorder), excessive spending, problem gambling or high-risk sexual encounters.

Perhaps counterintuitively, Gruber cites a growing body of evidence that the act of pursuing happiness can leave the pursuers, paradoxically, less happy. They report being less able to be emotionally present in moments that could be happy, and they are more likely to experience mood difficulties and anxiety. That’s one “dark side” of happiness.

New evidence for old advice

As it happens, modern science reflects ancient wisdom. In the final class of her spring 2025 semester, Gruber showed her class a quotation from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said, “Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others.”

The English philosopher John Stuart Mill, whom Gruber quotes, said, “Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness: on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.”

And that “pursuit of happiness” phrase from the Declaration of Independence was lifted from the philosopher John Locke, who said the “highest perfection of intellectual nature lies in a careful and constant pursuit of true and solid happiness; so the care of ourselves, that we mistake not imaginary for real happiness, is the necessary foundation of our liberty.”

Locke himself was influenced by Aristotle and Epicurus, who viewed happiness as a laudable goal but who defined happiness as leading a purposeful and contemplative life. Happiness, Aristotle said, “is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

Gruber discusses this older concept of happiness, sometimes called eudaimonic wellbeing, vs. hedonic wellbeing. Unlike purposeful and meaningful experiences, hedonic pleasures, which tend to be those people in Western societies equate with happiness, are peak experiences, like watching a stunning sunset or blissing out to the “Ode to Joy.”

Putting lessons into practice

In addition to reviewing researchers’ findings and ruminating on ancient wisdom, students in the Science of Happiness course (PSYC 4541) complete weekly “science-to-life” exercises, which apply the theories and practices learned in class to everyday existence.

For instance, students kept gratitude journals, performed random acts of kindness and completed the UPenn Authentic Happiness Inventory. Students also took “awe walks,” in which they visited novel, physically vast spaces and observed their surroundings mindfully.

Beyond the exercises and coursework, the students also have done outreach projects, the goal of which is to share the science of happiness outside the classroom and in the broader community.

One student, Franco Devecchi, produced a flyer highlighting research on the potential benefits of music therapy for those with autism. The flyer cites studies showing evidence that music therapy can strengthen autistic individuals’ sense of well-being, helping them feel more confident, accommodated and socially acceptable.

Devecchi conversed with people in campus buildings in which he distributed the flyers. In one case, Devecchi spoke with another person with autism, recalling, “We bonded over how developmentally important music was for us growing up and discussed the gap in research when it comes to autistic adults!”

Another student, Indiana Wagner, completed an outreach project on the intersection of awe, psychedelics and well-being. Wagner made a presentation to Naropa University’s Intro to Psychedelics Studies course.

Wagner noted that the transformational mechanisms of awe (which can foster happiness) “have a lot of crossover with the transformational mechanisms of the psychedelic experience.”

Wagner added, “Both awe-inducing experiences and psychedelic experiences have the ability to create a sense of ‘mystical experience,’ which can be followed by these transformations; there's a lot of interesting literature, particularly within Johns Hopkins University, on the mystical experience from psilocybin being associated with positive changes.”

Wagner said many of the Naropa students seemed very interested after the presentation and asked questions relating to the subject of awe, how to incorporate it, practice it and Wagner’s own experiences with it.

And student Kate Timothy produced an outreach project on the relationship between sleep, happiness and well-being. Timothy, who completed an honors thesis about sleep disruptions and their effect on Alzheimer’s biomarkers, wanted to further understand how sleep affects well-being and share that knowledge with others.

She developed a trivia event for college students in which the questions focused on how to improve sleep and thus happiness. Timothy is a dormitory worker, and her audience was the dormitory population. “I just asked students as they went by some trivia questions and also passed out some chocolate prizes,” she said. “It was a fun and easy way to get important information about sleep to my peers!”

Gruber has been recognized for her teaching. She is a President’s Teaching Scholar, has won the Boulder Faculty Assembly Teaching Excellence Award, the UROP Outstanding Mentor Award and the Cogswell Award for Inspirational Instruction. The last award is named for and funded by Craig Cogswell, a three-time alumnus of CU Boulder, who says Gruber is an “amazing educator and teacher.”

Gruber also has developed a free online Coursera #TalkMentalIllness course to tackle stigma and mental health and has written articles for Teaching Current Directions in Psychological Science about the importance of teaching students about the positive side of psychological disorders. She also shares career and professional advice for students in Science Careers. She is currently co-authoring a textbook on the science of happiness with Dacher Keltner and colleagues at the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.

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An apple a day? It’s the Boulder way

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 08 May 2025 17:18:27 +0000

An apple a day? It’s the Boulder way Rachel Sauer Thu, 05/08/2025 - 11:18

Rachel Sauer

Newly planted apple orchard on CU Boulder campus is a nexus of university and community partnerships and will be a living classroom for students and educators

For now, they are twiggy little things, all spindly adolescent limbs that nevertheless hint at future harvests. Saturday morning, one even wore a scattering of creamy white blossoms—flowers that, in years to come, once roots have gained hold and branches have stretched up and out, will grow into apples.

Is there anything more hopeful than planting a tree? Yes, planting a whole orchard of them.

On Saturday, years of planning, research and partnership-building bore fruit on an L-shaped plot in front of the ��Ƶ18 30th Street greenhouse, where more than two-dozen volunteers planted 30 apple trees in what had previously been a scrubby patch of turf.

Funded by a $90,000 Sustainable CU grant, the apple orchard will not only be a classroom and a living lab, but a nexus for community, a carbon sink and a vibrant example that sustainability can be delicious.

“It’s so exciting to see this happening,” says Amy Dunbar-Wallis, who this semester completed her PhD in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and collaborated with CU Boulder faculty and students and community partners to bring the idea of the first orchard on CU Boulder campus to fruition.

“It represents how so many people on campus, so many people in the community, have come together to plant this orchard that will be a place to learn and a place to preserve a really neat part of Boulder’s history.”

In search of old apple trees

The new apple orchard grew from the Boulder Apple Tree Project, an initiative that began almost 15 years ago with a simple observation: There seemed to be a lot of old apple trees in Boulder.

Katharine Suding, a professor of distinction in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, had recently moved to the area, “and I was really surprised to see so many old apple trees everywhere,” she recalled during the 2022 Apple Symposium. “I realized I had no idea about the histories and particularly the history of apples, so looking into it a little more, it was clear there are trees here that are remnants of past histories starting in the turn of (20th) century.

Amy Dunbar-Wallis (left) and Tiffany Willis (right, EBio'22) consult a chart designating where each tree would be planted in the new apple orchard in front of the 30th Street greenhouse Saturday morning. Willis, who lives in Boulder, took EBIO 1250 online during Covid lockdowns and was a lab assistant for the class in 2021.

“There are apple trees in Colorado and in Boulder that are remnants from old orchards that still exist. There are also remnants of trees that were planted when people came and built ranches or had farms here, and often they were bringing along apple trees from where they came from, whether it was Germany, whether it was the Midwest, whether it was Scandinavia.”

In fall 2017, the Boulder Apple Tree Project (BATP) sprouted, combining historical sleuthing with cutting-edge genetic testing and grafting to not only locate and catalog Boulder’s historic apple trees, but also to revive its legacy of apple growing. In the ongoing project, researchers gather data on the age and health of the trees, as well as the type and flavor of the apples, and the genetic diversity that the trees offer to future populations.

Suding and BATP co-principal investigator Lisa Corwin, an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, have worked with undergraduate and graduate students not only to gather data, but also to develop the EBIO 1250 course, during which students conduct research on Boulder’s apple trees; curricula and materials in partnership with the CU Museum of Natural History; a database and app in collaboration with computer science students; an interactive map of apple trees that have been tagged and studied; and the A Power of Place Learning Experience and Research Network (APPLE R Net), a multi-institution research network directed by Corwin that introduces students to field research by involving them in a project examining apple trees across the Rocky Mountain region.

BATP also is part of the Historic Fruit Tree Working Group, which connects Colorado researchers with other apple-exploring groups and researchers across North America.

Mia Williams (left) waters a newly planted apple tree Saturday morning. Williams, who will graduate this summer, is double majoring in ecology and evolutionary biology and environmental studies.

“This project has grown so much since our initial community engaged Apple Blitz in 2018,” says Dunbar-Wallis. “We've tagged over 1,000 trees and created a database, taught multiple course-based undergraduate research experiences at CU and at colleges across Colorado and northern New Mexico, started a data-collection app and interactive map in collaboration with CU computer science capstone students and installed a demonstration orchard in collaboration with Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks.”

The demonstration orchard, planted two years ago, functions as a teaching and research laboratory to explore how biodiversity affects the functioning of apple orchards and their services to human well-being, including efficient water use, pollinator habitat and structural complexity supporting natural pest control.

A part of the narrative

The idea for the 30th Street orchard was revived by a group of six undergraduate and two graduate students almost two years ago, who proposed resubmitting a grant application that hadn’t been accepted in 2019.

“We’re a group who really love what we do and love apple trees and working with the soil,” says Katie Mikell, an ecology and evolutionary biology student who is graduating today and who was a member of the team that crafted and submitted the grant proposal.

“Before, (the orchard plot) was a lawn full of monoculture turf grass, so part of our argument was that if we put in an apple orchard, it would create a carbon sink (a system that absorbs more carbon than it releases), it would save the school money and anyone walking by could pick an apple. Plus, once the trees are producing, we can donate apples to the food pantry. Everyone can benefit from an apple orchard.”

Deidre Jaeger (right, PhDEBio'22) and her sons Sage, 4 (left), and Cedar, 1 (center), plant apple trees at the 30th Street orchard Saturday morning. Jaeger was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and an advisor for the Center for Sustainable Landscapes and Communities and is a researcher with the Boulder Apple Tree Project.

Students prepared the 30th Street site during fall semester, working with departments and organizations across the university, as well as many community partners. The trees planted Saturday are about three years old and were obtained from Widespread Malus and Benevolence Orchard in Boulder.

“Our students are at the core of the university, and their passion and ingenuity are critical to our values around infusing sustainability throughout CU Boulder. This orchard exemplifies that pursuit in so many ways,” says Vice Chancellor for Sustainability Andrew Mayock.

“It is not only helping to protect biodiversity in our community. It will help feed those in need on our campus and create a living-learning laboratory space where sustainability leaders of the future will learn and develop strategies for urban agriculture planning.”

Fifteen varieties of apples are represented in the orchard, including locally grown historic cultivars like Wolf River and Colorado Orange. A beloved apple tree on the Bobolink Trail is even represented in a newly planted graft.

“There’s so much learning that can happen in an orchard,” says Manuela Mejia, an ecology and evolutionary biology PhD student who will conduct her doctoral research, which will include studying insect diversity, at the orchard. “So many facets of science are represented here.”

In addition to trees, the orchard will include an understory of native, drought-tolerant grasses and pollinator-friendly wildflowers, notes Mia Williams, who is majoring in environmental studies and ecology and evolutionary biology and will graduate this summer.

“It’s really exciting that this orchard will become a part of the story of agriculture in this area,” Dunbar-Wallis says. “We’ve tagged more than 1,000 trees (through BATP) and some of them are a hundred years old, so you think about everything they’ve seen and been through, the history that they hold, their stories, and now these trees—which are little now and probably won’t produce fruit for two or three years—are part of that narrative.”

Sophie Small (left) and Amy Dunbar-Wallis (right) fill a wheelbarrow with compost Saturday morning to prepare for planting an apple orchard in front of the 30th Street greenhouse. Small, a freshman who is studying biomedical engineering, learned about the project through the CU Farm and Garden Club.

Sophie Small (left), Isaac Kou (center) and Kyrie MacArthur dig a hole Saturday morning before planting an apple tree in it. Small is studying biomedical engineering, Kou just graduated with a major in computer science and a minor in ecology and evolutionary biology and MacArthur is studying history and education.

Amy Dunbar-Wallis (PhDEBio'25) digs a hole for a young apple tree Saturday morning.

Amy Dunbar Wallis (left, black vest) educates student and community volunteers Saturday morning before they plant 30 apple trees in front of the 30th Street greenhouse.

The apple trees planted in the 30th Street orchard Saturday morning, one of which even bloomed, are three years old and should begin producing fruit in two or three years.

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Newly planted apple orchard on CU Boulder campus is a nexus of university and community partnerships and will be a living classroom for students and educators.

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Scholars aim to build community for women in quantum

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 19:46:50 +0000

Scholars aim to build community for women in quantum Rachel Sauer Fri, 04/25/2025 - 13:46

Rachel Sauer

Quantum Scholars Emily Jerris and Annalise Cabra started CU Women of Quantum to help women interested in careers in quantum to network and share experiences

First, the good news: Between 1970 and 2022, the percentage of U.S. women workers in STEM jobs grew from 7% to 26%.

The obvious and not-so-good news is that while women represent almost half the U.S. workforce, they hold only a quarter of STEM jobs. And the numbers get even more stark in quantum fields. A 2022 report from the London School of Economics and Political Science found that fewer than 2% of applicants for jobs in quantum fields are female.

Quantum Scholars Annalise Cabra (left) and Emily Jerris (right) gave a presentation about CU Women of Quantum at the December Quantum Scholars meeting attended by CU President Todd Saliman. (Photo: Casey Cass/CU Boulder)

However, in the 100 years since German physicist Werner Heisenberg submitted his paper “On quantum-theoretical reinterpretation of kinematic and mechanical relationships” to the journal Zeitschrift für Physik, a July 1925 event that is broadly credited with kick-starting the quantum revolution, the possibilities and potential of quantum science and engineering have grown enormously.

Recognizing that potential, a group of ��Ƶ18 scholars wants to help ensure that women participate equally and fully in quantum science and engineering.

CU Women of Quantum, founded last semester by Quantum Scholars Emily Jerris and Annalise Cabra, aims to be a community of support, connection, mentorship and networking for women interested in pursuing careers or research in quantum fields.

“Our primary focus,” Cabra explains, “is just to create a space where we can come together, share our experiences and create relationships that are lasting.”

100 years of quantum

Both Jerris and Cabra say that this is an exciting time to be in quantum science and engineering. Not only did the United Nations declare 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, and not only did Colorado Gov. Jared Polis last week announce the Blueprint for Advancing K–12 Quantum Information Technology, but research happening on the CU Boulder campus and in Colorado is swiftly expanding the boundaries of quantum technology.

However, they also add that as exciting as this time is, women in quantum fields still face some of the same roadblocks that women in STEM always have.

“I think if you asked most of the women in the club or just in a STEM major if they’ve had a moment where a peer or coworker has talked down to them or they felt not necessarily fully included in a project because they were the only woman in the group, I think most probably have,” Jerris says. “So, it’s nice to have a space to talk about that—how to navigate situations like that. A lot of us do research, too, and those types of situations are also really prevalent in the research space.”

Jerris and Cabra worked with Michael Ritzwoller, a physics professor of distinction and Quantum Scholars co-founder, and physics Professor Noah Finkelstein to create CU Women of Quantum, which is open to all students, as a place for not only female Quantum Scholars, but for women across campus who are interested in pursuing careers in quantum science, technology or engineering.

Annalise Cabra (left) works with Brooke Nelson (right), a career advisor for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, on her resume during a recent CU Women of Quantum meeting.

Supporting women in quantum

One of the group’s aims is creating networking and mentorship opportunities for members by asking professors and women working in quantum fields to speak at group meetings. This has included Alex Tingle, a CU Boulder physics alumna and senior technical project engineer at Quantinuum, who was named one of the Wonder Women of the Quantum Industry by the Quantum Daily.

CU Women of Quantum gatherings also focus on skill-building, including a recent meeting at which Brooke Nelson, a career advisor for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, gave a presentation on creating and honing a resume.

“One of our goals is to help (CU Women of Quantum members) narrow in on their interests and build connections,” Cabra says. “And then also having opportunities to see how women in their shoes were able to navigate and build careers in quantum. I think it’s important for a lot of women in the field, too, to go back and encourage other women who are just starting out or just getting interested in quantum.”

The members of CU Women of Quantum also get together for study sessions, “because even if we’re not taking the same classes, with other women you can feel more open and not like you’re the outlier in the group.”

Both Cabra, who is graduating next month, and Jerris, who is completing her third year, are interested in pursuing careers in a quantum field, bolstered by the support they’ve found in CU Women of Quantum.

“It’s so fascinating because it’s just so unintuitive,” Cabra says. “It makes your brain think in such crazy ways, from the ways particles behave to the ways stars don’t collapse or do collapse, to parallel universes, and it all goes back to quantum. I think it’s just so exciting to study.”

Jerris adds that often the common perception of quantum science and technology is that “it’s kind of magic or something we don’t totally understand, but we actually do have a pretty good understanding of quantum. We know what’s going on and can model it, and we’re maybe just one step behind with how we can actually manipulate things. So, it’s not magic; it’s something we do know a lot about and we’re learning more every day.”

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Quantum Scholars Emily Jerris and Annalise Cabra started CU Women of Quantum to help women interested in careers in quantum to network and share experiences.

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Top image: Casey Cass/CU Boulder

How was it for you? Women are finally being asked

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 20:10:57 +0000

How was it for you? Women are finally being asked Rachel Sauer Thu, 04/24/2025 - 14:10

Pam Moore

CU Boulder scientist Chelsea Kilimnik is one of a handful of researchers looking at the correlation between sexual trauma and ‘duty sex’

Driven by a long-held interest in the ways in which unwanted and nonconsensual sexual experiences can shape individuals’ future sexual experiences and overall well-being, Chelsea Kilimnik, a licensed clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the ��Ƶ18 Department Psychology and Neuroscience and the Renée Crown Wellness Institute, teamed up with researchers at the University of Texas at Austin to study that very topic.

It’s not surprising that research has largely neglected how women’s trauma shapes their sex lives, considering that, as a culture, “we’ve only recently acknowledged that women are sexual beings,” says Kilimnik, who is the director of the Growth, Identity, and Sexual Trauma (GIST) Lab at CU Boulder.

CU Boulder researcher Chelsea Kilimnik, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, notes that that, as a culture, "we’ve only recently acknowledged that women are sexual beings."

Kilimnik’s and her colleagues’ research, published recently in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, provides foundational insights into women’s motivations for sex—an area of study that has long been overlooked by the scientific community.

An overlooked area of research

Although the tides are beginning to turn, for many healthcare providers, the idea of prioritizing women’s sexual pleasure is still novel. Many times, when women come to the doctor reporting pelvic pain or pain during sex, their experiences are invalidated and their healthcare needs ignored, says Kilimnik. Not only is this frustrating, but the lack of belief, offered agency and validation can exacerbate mental health difficulties for those with past experiences of sexual trauma.

Meanwhile, the body of data on women’s mental health and its connection to sexual health and well-being is “still in its infancy,” says Kilimnik, who is part of a small community of researchers studying it.

“Sexual trauma affects women at disproportionately higher rates than men and has a significant influence on their sex lives, yet this connection to sexuality is something that was ignored by the literature for centuries, so we need to document it in the literature,” she explains.

While we may think of sex as something that doesn’t affect our lives beyond the bedroom, our sexuality affects many aspects of our day-to-day lives, says Kilimnik. That’s because psychological and sexual well-being are deeply linked.

Psychological well-being encompasses multiple factors, including the presence or absence of mental health disorders, general mood and overall quality of life, says Kilimnik. Sexual well-being, on the other hand, can include your sexual satisfaction, how you feel about yourself as a sexual person, the way your body operates in sexual encounters, body image and the presence or absence of sexual disorders, she says.

“While psychological and sexual well-being are two distinct constructs, they are almost always related,” says Kilimnik. For example, if you’re depressed, that will impact your sex life. And if your sex life is unsatisfying or you struggle to view yourself as a sexual being, that can impact your self-esteem, and in turn, your mental health, she explains.

What the data say

The team of researchers explored the relationships between the frequency of duty sex (the act of engaging in sex out of a sense of obligation or duty), sexual functioning and nonconsensual sexual encounters (NSEs).

"Sexual trauma affects women at disproportionately higher rates than men and has a significant influence on their sex lives, yet this connection to sexuality is something that was ignored by the literature for centuries."

While duty sex is consensual, it’s motivated not by desire but by “the feeling that you have to,” says Kilimnik. That might be for reasons ranging from not wanting your partner to be angry to the fear that they might leave you, or the sense that you have a responsibility to your partner to engage in sex.

The data revealed that people with NSE histories reported higher frequency of duty sex. They also found that people with lower levels of sexual satisfaction and higher levels of sexual pain reported more frequent duty sex.

“These relationships can be bidirectional,” Kilimnik points out, particularly with regard to duty sex and sexual pain and dysfunction. In other words, people may have more duty sex because they don’t enjoy sex due to pain or discomfort, but it’s also true that people may not find their sex lives satisfying because they’re frequently engaging in duty sex.

When the researchers controlled for sexual functioning, they found that NSEs “have this unique impact on engaging in duty sex above and beyond what sexual functioning can account for,” says Kilimnik. This is consistent with existing research that indicates those with NSE histories often have more difficulty asserting their sexual boundaries, she says.

While this paper alone can’t tell us how to improve our sex lives—and, consequently, our overall well-being—it does support the existence of an important pattern, says Kilimnik. “That pattern supports this idea that if the primary reason you’re engaging in sex is out of a sense of obligation, it can be harmful for your sex life and well-being.”

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CU Boulder scientist Chelsea Kilimnik is one of a handful of researchers looking at the correlation between sexual trauma and ‘duty sex.’

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Top photo: iStock

How we can, why we must transform food systems

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 19:07:24 +0000

How we can, why we must transform food systems Rachel Sauer Mon, 04/21/2025 - 13:07

Laura Vang Rasmussen , Ingo Grass , Claire Kremen and Zia Mehrabi

Evidence shows that diversified farming is key

If you had to pick the single most important thing driving the overshooting of multiple planetary boundaries, it would be the food we eat and how we produce that food. The environmental grand challenges of our day—biodiversity loss, climate change, freshwater use and pollution—all tie back to our food systems.

So also do our social challenges: As of writing, one in four people around the world does not have reliable access to nutritious food. Our food systems need transformation. They must become environmentally safe and socially just.

For years, ecologists have advocated for designing our food systems to be diverse, like ecosystems, to help bring the planet into a safe operating space for humanity. And despite clear examples of both innovative farmers and more traditional ones around the world doing this in practice, governments have remained skeptical due to the opposition this idea poses to mainstream agricultural-development policy.

As we undertook our published research, we set out to explore if mainstream thinking surrounding agricultural development was wrong and, if so, what adding diversity back into agricultural systems might do to correct farming systems around the world.

We worked with more than 50 researchers, who in turn worked with thousands of farmers across 11 countries covering five continents, to test the idea. We covered vastly different food systems, from maize production in Malawi to silvopastoral cattle farming in Colombia, winter wheat production in Germany, strawberry cultivation in the United States and more.

One unique feature of our approach was that all co-authors participated actively in the study design to interweave the many data sets spread across the world. Our project was far from a standard research initiative; it was highly interdisciplinary, involving the co-production of knowledge among researchers from various fields and farmers.

Further, a stakeholder committee, including representatives from different levels of government, U.N. organizations, NGOs and various national farmers’ organizations, was involved in co-production through workshops and engagement activities.

We all worked together to answer a basic question: If more diversity is added into, or kept on, farms, what happens to the environmental and social outcomes we care about? Do we create a better world for people and nature?

CU Boulder scientist Zia Mehrabi and his research colleagues found that across systems, a general rule emerged: the more diversification done at a farm, the better. (Photo: California Strawberry Commission)

The outcomes we looked at were directly related to planetary boundaries on reducing environmental pollution, land use, biodiversity loss and the disruption of biogeochemical flows.

But, unlike earlier studies, we also assessed social outcomes at the same time, including human well-being, crop yields and food security. This integration allowed us to assess whether both positive environmental and social outcomes can be achieved at the same time, something that had never been done before in this way.

What we produced was novel: the first-ever cross-continental, multi-farming system and culturally contextual evidence from real food systems that diversifying agricultural systems helps move agriculture toward where we want it to be. We found that the benefits of diversification differed depending on the practices and farming systems they were tied to. But saliently, we found that across systems, a general rule emerged: the more diversification done at a farm, the better.

And even more promisingly, this was especially true when it came to improving food security and biodiversity at the same time—two outcomes that have previously been juxtaposed in policy and that need the world’s urgent attention now more than ever.

Critically, our study was not theoretical or abstract, nor was it run on field stations or in laboratories. It was conducted with farmers on real-world farms. The main effects we identified held up to a range of different analyses.

We even came up with a list and typology of on-farm interventions, all clearly defined, for practical implementation and support by governments, NGOs, research for development organizations and civil society groups. Importantly, the significance of these interventions is already recognized as a possible pathway toward change and was a key focus of the U.N. Food Systems Summit.

Our work provides robust evidence that investment in these areas will yield the desirable outcomes, bolstering ongoing initiatives by governments and the private sector to support these transformative actions.

Our research demonstrates that diversification represents a significant, tangible and policy-relevant step towards achieving more sustainable food systems globally: one not just grounded in theory or anecdotes but also supported by rich data, covering a vast range of farming systems across the world.

Other observations made during our research project include the insight that farmers in many locations have already been actively working against the odds, finding ways past barriers to diversification. We’ve found this in Malawi, Brazil and the United States, where grass-roots communities of farmers and social networks are mobilizing knowledge, land, seeds, equipment, processing infrastructure and markets to support this movement. Policymakers and practitioners can now support these groups by lowering the structural barriers that have limited their growth and the growth of diversified farming to date.

We are now at a critical juncture where agricultural-development policy requires urgent attention. While the action will be location dependent—diversifying systems that have been made far too simple to function properly and retaining diversity in systems where it is threatened—the time has come, and the options exist, to ensure that the damages and losses done in the past do not continue into the future.

Laura Vang Rasmussen is associate professor of geosciences and natural resource management at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Ingo Grass is professor and head of the Department of Ecology and Tropical Ecological Systems at the University of Hohenheim in Germany. Claire Kremen is the president’s excellence chair in biodiversity at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Zia Mehrabi is an associate professor of environmental studies at the ��Ƶ18.

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Evidence shows that diversified farming is key.

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Farm-diversification research wins high kudos

Rachel Sauer — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 19:03:22 +0000

Farm-diversification research wins high kudos Rachel Sauer Mon, 04/21/2025 - 13:03

Clint Talbott

CU Boulder’s Zia Mehrabi and an international group of researchers are named national champion of the Frontiers Planet Prize for research that finds environmental and social benefits of agricultural diversification

Widespread agricultural diversification could improve the health of the world’s environment and that of its people, a landmark study published last year found.

Zia Mehrabi, assistant professor of environmental studies at the ��Ƶ18, alongside a large group of international researchers, has been named the U.S. national champion for the Frontiers Planet Prize, the Frontiers Research Foundation announced today.

As one of 19 national champions, Mehrabi and team are in contention to be named one of three international champions, each of whom will receive $1 million in funding to advance their research. The international champions will be announced at the Frontiers Planet Prize ceremony in Switzerland in June.

Zia Mehrabi, a CU Boulder assistant professor of environmental studies, has been named the U.S. national champion for the Frontiers Planet Prize.

The Frontiers Planet Prize celebrates breakthroughs in Earth system and planetary science that “address these challenges and enable society to stay within the safe boundaries of the planet’s ecosystem.” The prize puts scientific rigor and ingenuity at its heart, helping researchers worldwide accelerate society toward a green renaissance, the Frontiers Research Foundation says.

Professor Jean-Claude Burgelman, director of the Frontiers Planet Prize, said the planet faces immense threats that require bold, transformative solutions rooted in evidence and validated by science.

“Innovative yet scalable solutions are the only way for us to ensure healthy lives on a healthy planet,” Burgelman said. “By spotlighting the most groundbreaking research, we are helping scientists bring their work to the international stage and provide the scientific consensus needed to guide our actions and policies.”

Mehrabi, who leads the Better Planet Laboratory, was recognized, alongside his co-authors, for an article published last year in the journal Science titled “Joint environmental and social benefits from diversified agriculture.”

Laura Vang Rasmussen of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Ingo Grass of the University of Hohenheim in Germany were lead authors of the paper, which had 58 co-authors. Claire Kremen of the University of British Columbia was a senior author and co-principal investigator on the study.

The researchers found that diversifying crops and animals and improving habitat, soil and water conservation on individual farms can improve biodiversity while improving or, at a minimum, not coming at a cost to yields. Additionally, diversified farming can yield social benefits and improve food security—showing improved food access or a reduced number of hungry months, for example, particularly in smallholder systems.

The more diversification measures farms employed, the more benefits accrued, researchers observed. Essentially, the team found evidence to move toward agriculture that more closely reflects natural systems.

“If you look at how ecosystems operate, it’s not just plants growing alone. It’s not just animals or soil,” Mehrabi said last year. “It’s all of these things working together.”

Using data from 2,655 farms across 11 countries and covering five continents, the researchers combined qualitative methods and statistical models to analyze 24 different datasets. Each dataset studied farm sites with varying levels of diversification, including farms without any diversification practices. This allowed the team to assess the effects of applying more diversification strategies.

Diversified farming differs from the dominant model of agriculture: growing single crops or one animal on large tracts of land. That efficient, “monoculture” style of farming is a hallmark of agriculture after the Green Revolution, which reduced global famine by focusing on high-yield crops that rely on fertilizers and pesticides.

“The Green Revolution did many, many great things, but it came with a lot of costs,” Mehrabi says, noting that synthetic fertilizers and pesticides harm the environment.

Also, to increase labor productivity, large farms rely on mechanization, which tends to “replace people with machines.”

“If you look at how ecosystems operate, it’s not just plants growing alone. It’s not just animals or soil. It’s all of these things working together,” says Zia Mehrabi.

“So, the idea of trying to engineer nature into our agricultural systems is somewhat antithetical to the whole way we think about agricultural development,” Mehrabi says.

Making a case for a different way of doing agriculture is one thing. Implementing it on a widespread basis is something else. The dominant view, fostered by “big ag” (short for agriculture), is that “if you want to do ag, you’ve got to do it this way,” Mehrabi says.

“Our work challenges that idea, but it’s a bit of a David-and-Goliath situation,” he adds. “We have the stone, but it hasn’t yet landed.”

But it’s necessary to confront Goliath, Mehrabi contends, noting that agriculture affects all the things people care about environmentally, including climate change, water security, biodiversity, pollution, land use and habitat destruction.

A third of the Earth’s land is used for agriculture, and about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions stem from agriculture, he notes. Climate change has reduced agricultural yields by as much as 5% to 10% in the last four decades, research has shown.

“If we want to do something about environmental issues, agriculture is one of the big buckets that we need to really, really start in.”

Separate from the research published in Science, Mehrabi has done modeling of the future state of agriculture globally if the world continues business-as-usual farming. He found that in the next century, the number of farms is likely to be cut in half and the average size of farms would likely double.

Given that, along with what scientists know about the loss of natural ecosystems as farm sizes increase, “the future looks a little bit bleak,” Mehrabi says. But this new research shows it could be different.

Though he does not suggest that all farms must be small farms, he does advise that agriculture strive to diversify systems that have been “massively depleted and massively simplified.”

��Ƶ18 the Frontiers Planet Prize, Mehrabi says he’s gratified to be recognized as one of 19 national champions. Additionally, he underscores the importance of the Frontiers Research Foundation’s financial commitment to this kind of research, calling it a “signal” to other funding entities that might follow suit.

Launched by the Frontiers Research Foundation on Earth Day 2022, the prize encourages universities worldwide to nominate their top three scientists working on understanding and putting forward pathways to stay within the safe operating space of nine planetary boundaries that are outlined by the Stockholm Resilience Center.

These nominations are then vetted at the national level, and the top scientists face an independent jury of 100—a group of renowned sustainability and planetary health experts chaired by Professor Johan Rockström—who vote for the National and International Champions.

Read a guest opinion by Zia Mehrabi and co-authors at this link. See a Q&A with Mehrabi about adding carbon-footprint labels on food at this link.

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Climate change is transforming how scientists think about their roles

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 15:08:35 +0000

Climate change is transforming how scientists think about their roles Rachel Sauer Fri, 04/18/2025 - 09:08

Sarah Kuta

CU Boulder researcher Pedro DiNezio emphasizes solving the problems of climate change in the here and now

When Pedro DiNezio began studying El Niño and La Niña roughly 20 years ago, human-caused climate change was still a future problem. At that time, researchers spent much of their energy trying to show that humans were, in fact, influencing the world’s climate.

Flash forward two decades, and climate change is no longer some far-off, eventual phenomenon—it’s happening now. Communities and businesses are factoring climate change into their yearly, monthly and even weekly decisions.

Against this backdrop, climate scientists are starting to transition away from purely theoretical research and pivot toward more applied work and consulting. DiNezio, a ��Ƶ18 associate professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, for example, is embarking on a new partnership with WTW, a global insurance broker and risk advisor—an exciting prospect for putting research into practice.

“We can’t stop the drought and the heatwaves, but we can do things to become more resilient, so they don’t affect us as badly—at least for a while,” says Pedro DiNezio, a CU Boulder associate professor of atmospheric and oceanic sciences.

“I’m going through a career transformation right now because I’m more and more interested in solving problems in the here and now,” says DiNezio. “Because we now know so much about the climate system and about the impact it could have on society, many of us in academia are feeling that it’s time to act.”

Resilience is key

As global temperatures continue to rise, world leaders are taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Whether their actions will be enough to stave off catastrophic warming remains to be seen. But, in the meantime, communities and businesses must prepare for and adapt to the unprecedented extremes caused by climate change.

Drought, heatwaves, wildfires, rising sea levels, coastal erosion and other ripple effects are already causing big problems—and scientists like DiNezio might be able to help solve them.

“We can’t stop the drought and the heatwaves, but we can do things to become more resilient, so they don’t affect us as badly—at least for a while,” DiNezio says. “And hopefully we can win that time we need to stabilize the climate.”

For example, research has linked hot weather with an increased risk of accidents and injuries in the workplace. Employees are more likely to suffer heat-related illnesses on hot days. But they’re also more likely to be involved with other seemingly unrelated accidents, too.

From an ethical perspective, companies want to keep their workers safe and healthy. But, from a business perspective, they also want to keep costs down—and workers-compensation insurance is a major expense.

“We’re only starting to learn the full extent of the impact of heatwaves and how we can mitigate them,” says DiNezio. “This is having a huge impact on businesses. So, how do we prevent these accidents?”

As the climate shifts, supply chains are also becoming increasingly vulnerable. When vital waterways like the Panama Canal’s Gatun Lake dry up during droughts, ships cannot reach their intended destinations on time. And those delays cost money.

“You cannot avoid these things, but at least you can know there’s a risk and plan an alternative shipping route,” DiNezio says.

Reinsurance companies are particularly interested in anticipating disasters because they already take a long-term, big-picture view of risk. While a company in one part of the world might be worried about drought and another might be focused on sea level rise, global reinsurance companies see what’s happening around the world and connect the dots.

“Reinsurance companies look for our knowledge because their scale makes them more sensitive to the aggregated effect of climate change over large swaths of the world,” says DiNezio. “They are some of the first businesses to think, ‘How do we anticipate this new climate that is continually changing and prepare for it?’”

Why now?

Climate science is a relatively new field. But, in recent years, it’s matured enough to allow researchers to make predictions that are applicable to communities and businesses.

When vital waterways like the Panama Canal’s Gatun Lake (above) dry up during droughts, ships cannot reach their intended destinations on time. And those delays cost money. (Photo: Valiant/Shutterstock)

“We are starting to see these climate events happening, we have the tools to better predict them, and the climate sector is recognizing this as a problem, as a need,” says DiNezio. “As academics, we cannot ignore them because this is no longer a theoretical exercise.”

Teaching has played an important role in DiNezio’s transformation. After joining the CU Boulder faculty four years ago, DiNezio began teaching an introductory-level class on climate change for non-science majors.

Every semester, DiNezio updated the curriculum because the climate was changing so fast. That process has been a bit of a reality check.

“When you talk about it with students, especially non-science majors, they are interested in what effect this could have on their lives and their careers,” says DiNezio. “You have to think about these things more concretely.”

Concrete problems

DiNezio, like other climate scientists who are experimenting with consulting, is approaching this new career chapter with a mix of enthusiasm and anticipation.

“I’m diving into something that I haven’t done before,” DiNezio says. “Sometimes, I describe it to my friend like I’m doing another PhD. … A lot of people in my field are going through this transformation and is entirely new.”

But, in some ways, DiNezio suspects solving real-world problems may be easier than solving theoretical ones. Either way, DiNezio is looking forward to the new challenge.

“When you move away from the purely academic, the problems become really concrete,” DiNezio says. “It’s really simple: How do you prevent heat deaths or help farmers mitigate drought? For me, the new thing is the action. The transformation is, how do we act with all this information about weather and climate? It’s very different from the academic approach. Now, we have a goal.”

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CU Boulder researcher Pedro DiNezio emphasizes solving the problems of climate change in the here and now.

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Don’t fear the fungi

Rachel Sauer — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 13:30:00 +0000

Don’t fear the fungi Rachel Sauer Thu, 04/17/2025 - 07:30

Bradley Worrell

CU Boulder mycologist Alisha Quandt says there’s little reason to fear a fungi-zombie apocalypse like the one imagined in the HBO hit TV series ‘The Last of Us’

Alisha Quandt prepared herself in advance to be asked by students and others about Sunday’s season 2 premier of “The Last of Us”—the hit HBO series that imagines a post-apocalyptic future where a fungal infection on a massive scale turns the majority of humanity into zombie-like creatures seeking to infect the last pockets of civilization.

It’s not that Quandt is a super-fan of the TV show (“I’m not into zombies, honestly,” she confesses), but as a mycologist—a scientist who studies fungi—she is used to getting asked about the TV show, specifically whether the grim future it imagines is anything people need to be worried about, or whether it’s simply harmless entertainment.

“I’m happy if it gets people excited about fungi. They’re so incredible,” says Alisha Quandt, a CU Boulder assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.

“Especially when the TV show first debuted, it was definitely a topic people wanted to discuss,” says Quandt, a ��Ƶ18 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology assistant professor.

“And it seems like the topic (of infectious fungi) comes up in popular culture every five to 10 years. When I was starting my PhD, people were fascinated by the ‘Planet Earth’ TV series by David Attenborough, where this ant infected by Ophiocordyceps unilateralis staggers around, being controlled by the fungus. Then later, the Last of Us videogame came out, which really got people excited about (zombie) fungi.”

Quandt did her PhD research studying Cordyceps-like fungi, which is the type of pestilence the TV show identifies as the culprit for turning civilization into a hellscape populated by zombies controlled by the spiky fungi tendrils sprouting from their heads. For the record, Quandt finds that scenario very unlikely, for a variety of reasons.

No need to panic

For starters, the TV show imagines a worldwide outbreak is caused by Cordyceps-contaminated food. However, Quandt says most fungal infections in humans are caused by inhaling spores or through contact with the eyes or skin—and not through the digestive tract. She notes that in many parts of the world, people have been ingesting Cordyceps fungi for decades without incident, because they believe they contain beneficial properties.

“I’ve eaten Cordyceps in Asia, in Korea and China,” says Quandt, who remains unzombified. “It’s considered a part of traditional Chinese medicine, especially certain species. Even here in the U.S., you can find Cordyceps in coffees and teas, for example. They sell them at stores in Boulder.”

Quandt says another reason not to be overly concerned about Cordyceps is that many of them are “specialists” that have a very narrow range of hosts that they infect, down to a specific family of ant or spider. While some Cordyceps can transition from infecting one type of arthropod to another, or to jump from infecting an insect to another fungus, she says making the leap to a healthy human being is remote.

What’s more, the average human body temperature of 97 to 99 degrees Fahrenheit is not an environment that’s hospitable for many fungi, although Quandt acknowledges there are exceptions. “The Last of Us” imagines a future in which global warming has raised Earth temperatures to a point where mutated Cordyceps zombie fungi could live comfortably in human hosts, but Quandt notes that ambient temperatures of even 90 degrees Fahrenheit are still cooler than the human body.

“That’s a hard path for me to follow,” she says of an environmental change that would allow Cordyceps to evolve in such a way. “There’s a lot of assumptions that would go into that trajectory.”

CU Boulder scientist Alisha Quandt finds the scenario from "The Last of Us" in which a Cordyceps-like fungi causes worldwide zombification very unlikely, for a variety of reasons. (Photo: HBO)

Beyond those arguments, Quandt says there is an even more important one as to why humans don’t need to start doom prepping for a fungi apocalypse.

“My argument about why we shouldn’t be worried about a fungal pandemic is that our bodies, when fully immunocompetent—meaning healthy human bodies—are extremely well equipped to deal with fungal propagules (spores) that come into contact with our bodies, mostly through our lungs,” she says. “Fungi have this cell wall that is made up of stuff that our bodies do not make. So, our bodies are really good identifying and dealing with that.”

Quant says fungal infections do pose a risk to people whose immune systems are compromised—particularly if they have taken a heavy dose of antibiotics, because those can kill off good bacteria, which can lower resistance to harmful fungi.

“Once our immune system goes away, which could handle those types of (fungi), we have so few antifungal drugs to treat fungal infections compared to the myriad of antibiotics that we have to treat bacterial diseases,” she says.

For the immunocompromised, Quandt says one of the most concerning fungi—which just cropped up in recent years and has spread worldwide—is Candida auris.

“It is a really concerning human pathogen because it is what we call nosocomial, meaning it is hospital related. People get these infections in hospitals, and once it’s in a hospital, it can be almost impossible to get rid of it,” she says.

“People will use all kinds of bleach and ethanol but it’s very hard to get rid of the yeast once it gets into a hospital room. And the fully immunocompetent, like nurses and doctors who are not sick, can end up spreading it from room to room to sick, often elderly, patients. Unfortunately, there’s not a good defense on the ground, so to speak, once Candida auris takes hold.”

But while “opportunistic pathogens” like Candida auris can pose a risk to the immunocompromised, the number of fungal diseases that could be described as “primary pathogens”—meaning they can infect and potentially cause serious health issues for healthy individuals—is less than a handful, Quandt says.

One primary pathogen that can be found in the United State is Valley Fever, which is primarily located in New Mexico, Arizona and southern California. Farming, construction or other practices that disrupt the soil can release the fungi’s spores, which people can then breathe into their lungs. Once inhaled, Valley Fever can potentially cause fever, cough, tiredness, shortness of breath and, in limited cases, serious conditions such as pneumonia and meningitis.

“But those are the rarer things, and I’m still not worried about them becoming common because they’re still not being spread from person to person,” she says.

In contrast with the way “The Last of Us” portrays fungi as an existential threat, Quandt sees a type of virus that’s already well-known to the scientific community and the public alike as a much greater risk for causing a global pandemic. The World Health Organization estimates the COVID-19 pandemic killed 14.9 million people worldwide between January 2020 and December 2021.

“As we’ve recently seen, unfortunately, there are a lot of other places to look for more likely suspects for (global pandemics). Things that were predicted by a lot of great investigative journalists and epidemiologists, like coronavirus and other zoonotic diseases (which jump from animals to humans), pose a much greater threat to mankind,” she says.

“As we’ve recently seen, unfortunately, there are a lot of other places to look for more likely suspects for (global pandemics). Things that were predicted by a lot of great investigative journalists and epidemiologists, like coronavirus and other zoonotic diseases (which jump from animals to humans), pose a much greater threat to mankind.”

And now, back to the show

Even beyond the fact she’s not into zombies, Quandt says her training as a mycologist can get in the way of her enjoyment of “The Last of Us” as entertainment, based upon the few episodes she has watched.

“I’m probably a little too close to watch the show—especially the fruiting bodies,” she says. “Sometimes they would show a person who is dead up against a wall, and the fruiting structures look life shelf fungi,” she says.

“Those are related to mushrooms—they’re not related to (fungi) that are molds, like Cordyceps. The artistry was beautiful, so they did a good job visually, but it’s just completely inaccurate. So, it does take you out of it a little bit to watch as an expert; you have to really suspend belief.”

Another scene that inspired disbelief for Quandt was a flashback episode—prior to the fungal pandemic—when a mycologist in Jakarta is asked by representatives of the country’s military to provide guidance on how to proceed after a group of workers in a building are found to be infected with early cases of the Cordyceps contagion. After surveying the infected, the mycologist gives the military members a chilling one-word answer: “Bomb!” (As in, bomb the entire country to try to prevent the infection from spreading.)

“My husband was watching the show with me. He paused it there and he’s like, ‘What should they do?’ I was like, ‘Get all the antifungals that you can. Get all the major ones and then get the rare ones—and start pumping these people with IVs, or all the people that you think might be exposed and get going on it.’ But the fact she said ‘bomb!’ I almost found it funny, but I was also like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s so dramatic.’ Still, it’s a TV show, and I acknowledge that.”

While Quandt may opt not to watch more episodes of “The Last of Us,” she says if the TV show raises public awareness about fungi—even if the details in the show are not entirely correct—she is all for it.

“I’m happy if it gets people excited about fungi,” she says. “They’re so incredible.”

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CU Boulder mycologist Alisha Quandt says there’s little reason to fear a fungi-zombie apocalypse like the one imagined in the HBO hit TV series ‘The Last of Us.'

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Top image: HBO

CU grad Erin Macdonald makes it so

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 22:18:50 +0000

CU grad Erin Macdonald makes it so Rachel Sauer Tue, 04/15/2025 - 16:18

Bradley Worrell

The 2009 math and astrophysics double major has successfully transformed herself from a scientist to an educator to a storyteller sailing with the enterprise known as Star Trek

As she worked toward completing her bachelor’s degrees in astrophysics and mathematics at the ��Ƶ18 in the late 2000s, Erin Macdonald often enjoyed watching Star Trek: The Next Generation with her college friends. Today, she is a science advisor for the entire Star Trek franchise.

“I don’t think I could have ever conceived it, that being able to work in television and movies was a real thing that people could actually do,” Macdonald says in retrospect. “And if you told me that I would see my name in TV credits—not to mention in the Star Trek font with the Star Trek theme playing—it’s almost unbelievable.”

It’s been a remarkable journey from academia to Hollywood, Macdonald acknowledges. Still, she is quick to add that in a multiverse of possibilities, the outcome was never assured, and it did not happen at warp speed.

CU Boulder alumnus Erin Macdonald, who double majored in mathematics and astrophysics, is a science advisor for the Star Trek franchise and author of Star Trek: My First Book of Space. (Photo: Bradley Worrell)

Raised in Fort Collins, Colorado, Macdonald did not grow up watching Star Trek. However, she was deeply motivated to study science after being inspired by the protagonist astronomer Ellie Arroway in the movie Contact, as well as by fictional FBI agent and medical doctor Dana Scully in the popular TV show The X-Files.

“I watched The X-Files growing up, and Dana Scully for me was just the coolest woman who ever existed. That really sparked an excitement to be a scientist,” she says. “And then when Contact came out, watching Dr. Ellie Arroway use a telescope to find aliens, and seeing her legitimately work as an astronomer was the first time I ever saw that as a career.”

Still, there were some obstacles to overcome, Macdonald says, including the fact that math did not come naturally to her.

“In high school, I had friends who were taking classes that seemed to get it. And for me, I felt like I was trudging through mud trying to understand things—but knowing that I had to get through the math,” she says. Finally, when taking a Calculus 3 course at CU Boulder, she says she experienced a breakthrough when she came to understand how math worked with physics, and then “everything just clicked.” It prompted her to immediately declare a double major in mathematics and astrophysics.

Gaining another role model

It also was in college that Macdonald was first exposed to Star Trek through a tightknit group of fellow students who were big fans of the TV shows.

“In the Venn diagram of physics majors and Star Trek fans, there is a big intersection,” she says with a laugh. “I was in my early 20s and (fictional) Voyager Captain Catherine Janeway became my new Scully. She was someone who had gone from being a science officer to a captain. At that point, I knew I wanted to get my PhD, but I didn’t necessarily want to be a researcher as a career. So, Janeway was a role model, how she was a leader and a problem-solver and a mentor. It was something I aspired to.”

After graduating from CU Boulder in May 2009, Macdonald enrolled at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, where she earned her PhD in astrophysics in 2012. Normally, a master’s degree would be the next educational step after obtaining an undergraduate degree, but Macdonald credits the quality of the education she received at CU Boulder—and particularly the research opportunity and mentorship of astrophysics and planetary sciences Professor Jeremy Darling—with allowing her to immediately advance to working toward a doctorate.

After obtaining her PhD, Macdonald spent two years doing post-doctoral research at Cardiff University in Wales, United Kingdom. She later moved back to Colorado, where she worked as an adjunct professor in the community college system and as an educator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science for about a year, then transitioned to work as an aerospace engineer for a contractor based in the Denver area.

“In the Venn diagram of physics majors and Star Trek fans, there is a big intersection,” says CU Boulder alumnus Erin Macdonald. (Photo: Bradley Worrell)

It was during her time working for the contractor, and while attending pop culture conventions for fun, that Macdonald hit upon the idea that she could combine her deep knowledge of astrophysics with her love of science fiction to give talks on the science of science fiction TV shows, movies and videogames at fan conventions.

“After a while in the private sector, I found I really missed teaching. I was already going to conventions, so I proposed giving talks,” she says, adding that event organizers were receptive to the idea. “For topics, a popular one is physics and Star Trek. I’d say, ‘I did my PhD in gravitational physics, so let me explain how (theoretically) warp drives work, because I actually know the science of how warp drives work.’”

To boldly go …

In 2017, Macdonald moved to the Los Angeles area, where she continued to work in the aerospace industry while also giving science/science fiction talks at fan conventions, or as she describes herself in that time: “rocket scientist by day, warp engineering expert by evening.” It was during that period that she began meeting actors and writers at fan events, which ultimately led to industry connections with executives at CBS, the producer of all things Star Trek.

Macdonald was initially hired to give talks at CBS-sponsored events, including Star Trek Cruises. That led to an introduction with the co-executive producer of Star Trek ��Ƶ18y, who asked Macdonald to serve as a science advisor for the show as season 3 began production.

“I believe I did a good job on that season, so I think the executives saw value in hiring a science advisor to be available to all of their shows to maintain consistency across the franchise, to understand all of the made-up technologies that we have in Star Trek and to be able to communicate that to the writers as well,” she says. “That’s been going on since 2019, so almost five years now.”

Meanwhile, Macdonald has written four screenplays, and she has done voice acting for Star Trek Prodigy, an animated Star Trek show, during which she had the opportunity to work with Kate Mulgrew, the actress who played Captain Janeway on Star Trek Voyager.

“When I started working on Star Trek Prodigy, they were bringing Captain Janeway back as a teacher for young kids. I was going to help write some of her lines, and that was when I had this huge epiphany of—I’m not meant to become Captain Janeway; I’m meant to write Captain Janeway and create characters that inspire kids to become scientists.”

“When I started working on Star Trek Prodigy, they were bringing Captain Janeway back as a teacher for young kids. I was going to help write some of her lines, and that was when I had this huge epiphany of—I’m not meant to become Captain Janeway; I’m meant to write Captain Janeway and create characters that inspire kids to become scientists,” she says. “And so now, I find that storytelling lets me sort of inspire and motivate the next generation of STEM professionals, and that’s what I want to do as a career.”

Macdonald has found her voice as a storyteller in several different ways. In 2022, she published Star Trek: My First Book of Space, an illustrate children’s board book that uses Star Trek to talk about science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM), and she wrote and narrated the Audible Original “The Science of Sci-Fi” in collaboration with The Great Courses.

Additionally, in 2021, McDonald created Spacetime Productions, a film development and production company devoted to giving representation to traditionally marginalized voices, including those in the LGBTQIA+ community. The company has produced two short films including Identiteaze, released on the streaming service Nebula earlier this summer.

Reflecting on her journey from scientist to educator to storyteller, Macdonald says her success is the result of recognizing good opportunities, trusting her instincts, perseverance and, most importantly, putting in the time and work to achieve her goals.

“You know, I didn’t quit my PhD and move to LA with no plan. I took those important steps in between,” she says. “And it took me until well into my 30s for me to realize what I wanted, to be a storyteller and create those Dana Scullys and Captain Janeways, as opposed to becoming one of those characters. And that’s OK. All of those steps along the way helped inform the work I do now.”

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The 2009 math and astrophysics double major has successfully transformed herself from a scientist to an educator to a storyteller sailing with the enterprise known as 'Star Trek.'

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Professor John Cumalat wins 2025 Hazel Barnes Prize

Rachel Sauer — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 22:19:58 +0000

Professor John Cumalat wins 2025 Hazel Barnes Prize Rachel Sauer Fri, 04/11/2025 - 16:19

Cumalat ‘literally re-shaped our understanding of the fundamental particles making up the known universe,’ colleagues note

John Cumalat, professor of distinction in the ��Ƶ18 Department of Physics, has been awarded the 2025 Hazel Barnes Prize.

Established in 1991 by former chancellor James Corbridge to honor the late Hazel Barnes, CU Boulder professor of philosophy from 1953-86, the $20,000 Hazel Barnes Prize celebrates the enriching interrelationship between teaching and research and is the largest and most prestigious award funded by the university.

“Professor Cumalat is an exemplary educator and researcher whose contributions to his students, this university and the field of physics are highly deserving of recognition,” said Chancellor Justin Schwartz. “His selection as the Hazel Barnes Prize winner reflects his dedication and ingenuity, and I am so proud of all the ways he utilizes these qualities in service to CU Boulder and to humanity.”

Cumalat completed his PhD in physics from the University of California Santa Barbara in 1977 and his postdoctoral work with Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, in 1979. Since joining the CU Boulder physics faculty in 1981, he has garnered multiple honors, including the Best Should Teach Award in 2003, the Robert L. Stearns Award in 2010 and the BFA Excellence in Service Award in 2013. He became a professor of distinction in 2014.

“John is an educator in the broadest sense and has had a lasting impact on his students and colleagues. He leads by example, he leads from the front, and he leads with integrity and compassion.”

Best known for his research in particle physics and for his development of state-of-the-art particle-detector technology and instrumentation, Cumalat is a member of five professional organizations: Sigma Xi, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Astronomical Society and the American Physical Society.

He is also a member of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the current principal investigator of the CU High Energy Physics Department of Energy Grant and the principal investigator of the Professional Research Experience Program with the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Cumalat has authored or co-authored more than 1,500 publications and has been cited nearly 200,000 times, according to INSPIRE, an online hub that collects scholarly work in the field of high-energy physics. He has also served on several dozen graduate-student committees and on approximately 150 undergraduate-student thesis committees.

In their letters supporting Cumalat’s nomination for the Hazel Barnes Prize, several of his colleagues noted the significance of his contributions to the field of physics.

“John Cumalat has literally re-shaped our understanding of the fundamental particles making up the known universe,” wrote CU Boulder Professor of Physics James Nagle. “His research focuses on the fundamental building blocks of matter and his leadership has led to critical advances in our understanding of quarks as well as the discovery of the Higgs boson.”

“John is one of the very best physicists that I know,” said Joel Butler, a distinguished scientist at Fermilab. “He is well-known and greatly respected throughout the U.S. and in the world. I consider it one of the most fortunate aspects of my own career that I have had this long and productive association with him.”

Other colleagues brought attention to Cumalat’s role in expanding and improving physics education at CU Boulder.

“John’s leadership was critical in the expansion of the number of physics degrees in the College of Arts and Sciences,” said CU Boulder Professor of Physics Paul D. Beale. “I believe that John’s most important and lasting contribution to teaching and learning is his leadership in expanding the number of physics students engaged in undergraduate research, especially conducting honors research projects with members of the physics faculty and other scientists and engineers.”

“John is an educator in the broadest sense and has had a lasting impact on his students and colleagues,” said Patricia Rankin, former physics professor at CU Boulder and current chair of the Physics Department at Arizona State University. “He leads by example, he leads from the front, and he leads with integrity and compassion.”

“I am honored to be selected by previous Hazel Barnes winners as the 2025 Hazel Barnes Prize winner,” says Cumalat. “I particularly value my colleagues in physics nominating me for the award and for soliciting external supporting letters from students and national and international colleagues. I am humbled by the entire process.”

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Cumalat ‘literally re-shaped our understanding of the fundamental particles making up the known universe,’ colleagues note.

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