By any measure, Aradhna Tripati is a brilliant scientist. She began college full-time at the age of 12, has been on the faculty at UCLA since 2009, and received tenure in 2014. Her lab focuses on the role of the carbon cycle in a changing climate and climate change impacts, and she and the group have published prolifically.

In the last several years, she has turned her attention to creating more opportunities for students like her – those that faced similar barriers. Tripati's upbringing is indeed one unusual for her field. She says, “My parents are from Fiji with Indian ancestry. They immigrated and dealt with racism, incarceration, and homelessness in...

When we think about golf courses, we tend to picture miles of well-watered, uniformly clipped, and perfectly manicured grass, not drought-tolerant native grass, wildlife habitat, and ecological restoration. However, for Maggie Reiter, a UC Cooperative Extension Turfgrass and Environmental Horticulture Advisor based in Fresno County, this is par for the course.

“I've always worked in the turfgrass and golf course management domain,” says Reiter. “Since I began twelve years ago, the proportion of naturalized areas on golf courses has increased. Now native grass stands and wildlife habitat are projected to make up 26 percent of golf course facilities. From a research and extension perspective, there is...

“When I came face to face with beaver dams for the first time, I had what can only be described as a transformative experience,” says Emily Fairfax, an assistant professor of environmental science and resource management at California State University, Channel Islands. While leading a canoe trip through the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota, she encountered what she describes as “just these enormous, impressive features” – created by beavers. “You truly realize how sturdy beaver dams are while dragging your canoe over them,” she adds, laughing. “They are incredible from an engineering...

The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, is affecting people across the globe, in states and cities, in our backyards, and our own living spaces. Unlike many other kinds of disasters, which are relatively geographically and temporally limited, this one is hitting many millions of people around the world at essentially the same time. However, the experience of COVID-19 is not the same for everyone – it varies by many of the same factors that affect other disaster and public health outcomes including race, income, employment type and status, household responsibilities, and housing status.

Like many...