This month, NAU researchers made headlines for their work in Arctic permafrost, a host of space research, including alien life, and mapping clean water on the Navajo Nation. To read more about high-impact research happening at the university, read The NAU Review’s coverage.
- Ted Schuur, a Regents’ professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, has done significant research on the climate effects of the thawing permafrost in Arctic Alaska. His research was recently covered in AP News.
- Cristina Thomas, an associate professor in the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, who led the research team in NASA’s 2022 DART mission, spoke to Space.com about the European Space Agency’s Hera mission. The mission is collecting data about the effects of DART, which involved crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid in an attempt to knock it off course as a possible defense mechanism if an asteroid is headed toward Earth.
- A team from the Department of Anthropology and NAU’s Radiant Center for Remote Sensing has partnered with the National Park Service on the architectural documentation and digital mapping of Wukoki Pueblo to make it accessible to people throughout the world. Read the coverage in KJZZ.
- Ecoinformatics professor Chris Doughty’s research into alien life was covered in Popular Science and Universe Today, among others. The research looks at the likelihood of other planets having more advanced life than Earth does.
- Regents’ professor of chemistry Jani Ingram led a team to create a map showing which wells on the Navajo Nation are safe to drink from, which was covered by the Arizona Republic and MSN, among others. Much of the groundwater in the Navajo Nation has been poisoned as a byproduct of uranium mining.
- Doctoral student Anastasia Morgan led a study into Trans-Neptunian Objects that was covered in Space.com. The study was one of the first in history to harness the joint power of NASA’s Hubble and Webb telescopes.
- Doctoral student Darby Bergl led a study, picked up by MSN, that found that temperate forests may not be absorbing and storing carbon at the same rate they had in the past. The research examined data from 20 years of a New Hampshire forest.
- Doctoral student Bryan Carlin from herpetologist Erika Nowak’s lab is leading an effort to reintroduce the narrow-headed gartersnake into Oak Creek following the 2014 Slide Fire. Though the work was interrupted by the Pocket Fire this summer, Carlin had several reporters visit Oak Creek for the release of snakes. Read the coverage in the Arizona Daily Sun.
- Doctoral student Sam Hopkins from Zach Lerner’s Biomechatronics Lab was interviewed on KJZZ for his work into creating an ankle orthotic to help people walk and live more independently. Hopkins recently won a fellowship from the National Institutes of Health to continue this work.