Pictured here at the Bryan Glacier are Thomas Sharkey,
Martha Grabowski, Marie Lowe, and Gwendolyn Morgan.
Last month PhD student, Gwendolyn Morgan attended the NSF Navigating the New Arctic Emergency Response in the Arctic Advisory Board Meeting. The meeting involved individuals from the US Coast Guard, NW Arctic Boroughs, University of Alaska, Alaska Maritime Prevention and Response Network, and NSF Awardees Martha Grabowski, PhD, Thomas Sharkey, PhD, Thomas Birkland, PhD, Marie Lowe, PhD, and William Wallace, PhD. The meeting revealed that more human capital solutions were needed than technological. A few of the many challenges that remote communities in Alaska are facing include water, food security, energy, and health. Climate change is magnified in the Arctic, and this is visible with permafrost melt which is contributing to water, sewer, and infrastructure issues. Gwendolyn is passionate about developing solutions for remote communities such as Alaska and Hawaii that are on the frontlines of climate change. Her goals for her doctoral program at RPI are to continue her research and focus on how Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) can inform processes for Emergency and Disaster Response. Gwendolyn’s research will evaluate different case studies and develop a framework that can be applied to human decision-making processes to improve communication, logistics, and resilience for safety-critical systems.