Distinguished Alum Speaker: Dr. Zachary Adam
Zachary Adam (UW-ESS, B.Sc. ’04) grew up in the Wenatchee Valley and was fortunate to begin his academic training at the University of Washington in 1999. The foundational courses he took there on the intricate connections between the Earth and the life it supports have been usefully applied in the years since. Zach worked for the federal government as a launch vehicle inspector on the Boeing SeaLaunch, Orbital Sciences Cygnus, Boeing Starliner and Spacex Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Dragon programs, evaluating their respective life support systems designs and atmospheric debris burnup calculations. After leaving public service, he studied Precambrian micropaleontology and eukaryote paleobiology at Montana State University and Harvard University, and today he continues to study the chemical origins of life and the environmental circ*mstances that led to the origins of complex life as a Staff Scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The friends and colleagues he gained from his time at UW remain an invaluable source of collaboration, guidance and inspiration.
Graduate Student Speaker: Susannah Morey
Susannah Morey is receiving her doctoral degree from the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington. She is a fluvial geomorphologist interested in the role that events and sediment play in shaping landscapes. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BS in Geology and a BA in Plan II Honors, an interdisciplinary liberal arts program. Arriving at UW in 2017, Susannah spent most of her time in ESS studying megafloods—large dam break outburst floods that have discharges of over a million cubic meters per second. She used hydraulic modeling, field work, sedimentology, geochronology, and landscape evolution modeling to assess the impact that megafloods have had on the eastern Himalaya. She was lucky enough to travel to the eastern Himalaya to perform 4 weeks of field work, working with an ESS undergraduate and doctoral alum. Susannah spent about half of her time as a graduate student teaching and was awarded the Howard A. Coombs Teaching Excellence Award, the highest award for teaching a graduate student in ESS can obtain. She also served many positions on many committees as a member of the ESS graduate student community, including the Graduate Student Representative to the Faculty, the Curriculum Committee, a Faculty Search Committee and she co-founded the ESS Graduate Student Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (JEDI) Reading Group in 2020. For her service to the ESS community, in 2023 she was awarded the Julian D. Barksdale Distinguished Service Award. After defending her PhD in August 2023, she began as a postdoctoral associate at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she is investigating the role that landslides plan in long-term landscape evolution.
Undergraduate Student Speaker: Jinqi (Klay) Wu
Jinqi (Klay) Wu is graduating with a major in Earth and Space Sciences, focusing on Geoscience, with departmental honors. Klay has received several prestigious awards, including the Afton Woolley & James William Crooks Scholarship, the Mary Gates Scholarship, the Julian & Marajane Barksdale Endowed & Joseph A. Vance Endowed Student Support Fund, the Douglas E. Merrill Prize for Excellence, and the “Rising Rockstar” Award for Best Undergraduate Talk. Since sophom*ore year, Klay has been a member of Fangzhen’s lab, conducting research on stable isotopes, particularly Mg and K isotopes, and their behavior during subduction dehydration metamorphism. In addition to his research, Klay has actively mentored junior fellows in the lab and class, serving as a teaching assistant and sharing experiences to support and guide his peers. Klay will continue his studies at Harvard University, pursuing a PhD in cosmochemistry.
College of the Environment Class of 2024 Gift
Honoring College of the Environment Class of 2024 Graduates
In appreciation of the 2024 College of the Environment graduating class, the College is partnering with the Campus Sustainability Fund to fund the Wapato Pond project for the UW Farm, a student powered urban farm that provides locally grown produce to UW students, staff, faculty and the greater community. This gift will help fund the development of Wapato Pond, a new growing space for the cultivation of aquatic, freshwater Indigenous food crops such as wapato, increasing the Farm’s food production and diversity of produce. We are excited to support this project and the increased sustainability of our Husky community.
Land Acknowledgement
The Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip and Muckleshoot nations. Our acknowledgement of the tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip and Muckleshoot nations comes from consultation and guidance by the Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs and Federal regulations and policies. In this phrasing, we are adhering to tribal sovereignty.
ESS Diversity Statement
The Department of Earth and Space Sciences (ESS) values diverse experiences and perspectives, the constructive expression of ideas, and the promotion of intellectual curiosity, creativity, and respect. We believe that science is richer and the community is more vibrant when a diverse group of people is involved. We are proud of our progress in recruitment and retention of marginalized students, staff and faculty in ESS and the role that they play in our community. We are committed to the continual improvement and diversification of our Department. We welcome everyone, regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation. Equity and inclusivity can only reach full potential with continued effort and accountability.
Program
Dean’s Welcome: Professor Maya Tolstoy, Dean, College of the Environment
Chair’s Welcome: Professor Eric Steig, Chair, Earth and Space Sciences
Guest Speaker: Dr. Zachary Adams, Earth and Space Sciences Alum
Graduate Student Speaker: Dr. Susannah Morey, ESS Graduate Student
Conferral of Graduate Degrees: Professor Fang-Zhen Teng, ESS Graduate Program Chair
Undergraduate Student Speaker: Jinqi Wu, ESS Undergraduate Speaker
Conferral of Undergraduate Degrees: Professor Drew Gorman-Lewis, ESS Undergraduate Program Chair
Doctor of Philosophy
- Tristan Graham Bench
- Elizabeth J Davis
- Erich Herzig
- Susannah Morey
- Kelsay Stanton
Master of Science
- Aaron Armstrong
- Jonathan Gates
Bachelor of Arts & Bachelor of Science
- Laurence Htet Aung
- Jonathan Chen
- Nolan James English
- Frederick Grimshaw
- Conner Hickey
- Annika Jorgenson
- Angelo Katigbak
- Katie Lambert
- Nicole Lansford
- James Viet Le
- Trieu Nguyen Le
- Freddie Nathan Leifer
- Ruby Leotta
- Zhenqi Li
- Angie Lopez
- Christian Michael Macazo
- Ayu Mat
- David McGuire
- Melissa Mendoza
- Cade Mohrhardt
- Alyssa Mollnow
- Grace Nice
- Diego Ochoa Galeana
- Elisabeth M Olson
- Mary Orrand
- Ethan Peterson
- Lam Pham
- Benz Poobua
- Rosie Ramos
- Vigash Ravi
- Shay Rice
- Abby Riley
- Fikri Arsyad Roslan
- Aiman Hazmi Shamsul
- Daniel Silverio-Gonzalez
- Anton Igor Teplouhov
- Madeleine Thomas
- Nick Wicklund
- Klay WU
Class of 2024 Alum Profiles
