Special Episode: FieldSound in the Field at AGU24 in Washington, D.C. with Lisa Graumlich

The UW College of the Environment connected with the global Earth and space science community and showcased the incredible work of our researchers, students and staff at the American Geophysical Union’s Annual Meeting 2024 (AGU24) in Washington, D.C., December 9-13, 2024. The annual gathering of more than 25,000 scientists from over 100 countries is the largest in the world, and gives researchers the opportunity to share their work and connect with friends and colleagues. 

Senior Marketing Communications Director John Meyer also hosted interviews for FieldSound, the official podcast of the UW College of the Environment. Check out John's interview with outgoing AGU President, UW professor emeritus, and former dean of the College of the Environment,  Lisa Graumlich!

https://environment.uw.edu/podcast

Transcript

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From the

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University of Washington College of the Environment.

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This is FieldSound.

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Hello everybody,

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I’m John Meyer, I’m the Senior Director for Marketing

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and Communications with the College of the Environment

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at the University of Washington, we’re at AGU this year

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and we're sitting down with AGU President Lisa Graumlich, who is also a faculty

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member and dean emeritus at our College of the Environment.

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We just thought we'd ask you a few questions.

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I would love it. Excellent. Okay.

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First, introduce yourself a little more

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and describe your role as AGU president.

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What's it like to serve in that role?

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my goodness.

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Well, first of all, I am really a proud husky

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that had the the dream job of my career

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to be dean of the College of the Environment for 12 years.

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And I'm so proud to see AGU hosting

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this booth that tells people the College of the Environment story.

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Kudos to everyone that was part of making

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this story happen, not just telling the story, but everyone.

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So here I am.

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I'm AGU President.

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AGU, if you haven't thought about it, is the world's

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largest earth and space science professional organization.

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It is global.

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There's about 160,000 people

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in this community in 140 countries.

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We publish 24 journals.

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We last year had 38 million

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downloads of our peer reviewed articles.

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And here we are at AGU with 28,000

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Earth and space scientists sharing

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information and convening.

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It's not just the regular like you give a talk.

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There's so much more that goes on here because this is where the engine

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of science happens.

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New ideas are formed, new collaborations happen,

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and we have the ability to have a venue

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for talking to the public about the incredibly important work to do.

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So I'm so glad UW is here representing.

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It makes me thrilled.

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Can you tell me a little bit about one of your one

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or two accomplishments that you've had as president that you're most proud of?

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John, I love thinking about

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because this is the end of a two year term as president.

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Literally weeks away from the end of that.

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When I got into the leadership position at AGU,

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there was

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actually a connection to UW because we had a leadership

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retreat where we asked ourselves, you know, what can we do?

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As the world's largest earth and space science

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professional organization that other organizations can’t?

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And because of my connection to UW, I was aware that climate intervention,

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solar radiation management research was starting to occur.

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And we were asking questions about

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where do we put like ethical guide guardrails on that research?

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Not so much because we were trying to control it,

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but I knew that my faculty, my research staff

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were starting to work in this area and they needed the assurance

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that they had some protocols that followed

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that would be accepted by the community at large.

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So way back three years ago,

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I advocated for AGU to launch an initiative to develop

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ethical principles for research on climate intervention.

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We launched we worked for two years.

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UW faculty were really important in terms of inform informing that process,

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but it was an advisory committee of 40 people that were scientists, ethicists,

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many representatives of indigenous communities.

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We launched that ethical framework a month ago.

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It's had 150 media

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hits outside of just your regular press releases

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Bloomberg News, the World Economic Forum, etc..

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And what we realized that it wasn't just our researchers.

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The community needs and is embracing

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the we've got to look at climate intervention.

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In addition to reducing emissions, and we've got to do it

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with an ethical framework.

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So that's one of the things

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I'm most proud of, but it has my roots in my UW faculty.

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That's really important and that's an important service

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to other scientists that are looking to do that work

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and wondering where to start, what to think about.

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So that's a great sort of service.

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So that is obviously something like that.

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And convening here, all these scientists at AGU,

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it can understand how that's helpful for scientists,

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how in a venue like this, a conference like this is helpful for scientists.

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How does AGU play in sort of the broader sphere?

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So in terms of connecting outside of the scientific community, say,

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to policymakers, to businesses, to folks that are thinking about

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how we use all this great science for society.

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AGU, for a couple of decades now, has had a very

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carefully honed strategy for how we use our precious resources

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because we are a member funded organization, how we use

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our collective resources to advocate for science in a nonpartisan way.

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So we within the U.S.

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context, we have a very active program that we call Voices for Science

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that trains scientists to communicate with their local, state

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or federal decision makers about issues

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that are most salient for that, shall we say, congressional district or state.

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And it's not just a sort of broad brush strategy.

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It's about who are the scientists that have the information

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that can be most useful to congressional staffers that are sitting

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on the brink of trying to make a decision about complex policy issues

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where our science can come in and be helpful.

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We're not preaching to the choir.

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We've got plenty of that going on,

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and we're not getting into battles that we know we're not going to win.

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We are seeking to connect science where it is most useful.

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We're excited because we've been able to expand that to the UK

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and to the EU, the European Union, and we see that as something

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that as we learn more about how scientists and policymakers

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interact in other global venues, we will do that.

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The other piece is four years ago we realized that we were involved

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in the global climate conversations, often by being IPCC,

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Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change authors, and we, you know, publish

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really fat reports that kind of go into these U.N.

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based processes.

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But then what would happen if we were actually on the ground

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in those large convenings that happen

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every November in various places during the real world?

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And we did it four years ago kind of with open eyes

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and were slightly daunted by the scale of these things.

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We have gotten good at it.

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And what we do when we are in these U.N.

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climate conference settings is make sure

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that we are having conversations that are global.

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My favorite story from the most recent cop was, I mean,

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this is the kind of thing that happens at COP.

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I'm walking into the venue, somebody in front of me drops her gloves.

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I pick up her glove.

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I say, You dropped your glove. Hi.

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Who are you?

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She was a activist from the Maldives

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that was in desperate need of science capacity to do her work.

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I said, Hello. We're at you. You.

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And we are working now directly with community

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based groups in the Maldives because of a drop valve.

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So like, every time we can actually make

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a human trusted connection with the global community

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that needs scientific capacity to guide their adaptation

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into the loss and damage world of funding, we are there for them.

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That's really good to here because people need this.

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Communities need this.

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Societies need this.

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And this is, you know, a demonstration of where science has impact.

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So it sounds like those are some new areas of growth for you.

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Where do you hope AGU is in 5 to 10 years?

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I we put a stake in the ground with our strategic plan that we were

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you know, you actually has this odd name, American Geophysical Union.

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And we're not really just in America and we're not just geophysics.

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So like, other than that, it's a great name.

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So that's why we always call it AGU.

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So we put the stake in the ground saying, no, you know, we are not American.

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We're not like an international organization, like we're

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hosting countries of the world to come to the United States.

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We are global.

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And doing that is a commitment that has to do with

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who sits on our board of directors, who is funded to come to these meetings

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ways in which we are actively dealing

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with the vast inequities in resources for science globally.

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And we're looking that straight in the face and finding strategies

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to build the global capacity to do the science

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that's important to steward our planet in the future.

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That's great.

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That's really important, and that's exciting to hear.

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Couple of questions for you.

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What are you looking forward to most this week?

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Okay.

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I'm going to reveal that this is I've been working since I was 16.

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This is my almost last week of paid work.

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Thank you. You tapu.

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I am on the verge of retiring.

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I actually regard this as my 28,000 best friends,

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sort of sending me off into what I hope will be a joyous way

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in which I use all of this science to invest in my community

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during the years in which I'm no longer gainfully employed.

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You asked. I answered.

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I love that.

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I love that.

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Well, and that was the last question

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I was going to have for you, too, which is what's next?

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I mean, you have, what, another week or two as president and then.

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Well, first of all, I hand over I literally like hand over a gavel

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to a absolutely fabulous marine scientist, Brandon Jones,

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who has been a leader at NSF, a leader in the diversity,

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equity and inclusion space, a strong, strong leader.

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And we have worked very, very closely together.

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So it's going to be a seamless trade off.

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I think it's going to be very interesting to have a federal employee

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as president of NSF at a time in which post-election

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we are looking to ensure that science continues to play

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an important role in our federal government processes.

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That aside, It feels incredible and I feel so fortunate

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to be able to have built a career

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in the Earth sciences where

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technology exploded.

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The seriousness of the challenges that we were facing

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just became more and more apparent to me.

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And we came together as an interdisciplinary

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global community to step up to the plate.

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To be honest, it feels like a victory lap.

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Plus for me then for the global science that AGU is all about.

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And I just I'm looking over your shoulder

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at the diversity of people that are at this meeting.

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And what this means to me is so deep and it gives me hope for the future.

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That's awesome. One last question for you.

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For students, graduate students,

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undergrads, maybe postdocs, other folks that this is their first meeting.

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Their first Aigoo, it can be very overwhelming.

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Any advice for how they take in this week?

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my gosh.

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First year attendees.

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You feel like you've got to do everything.

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And if you're one of those

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kinds of people, which many of us are scientists are where you like,

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make a plan, like you wake up in the morning, you drink your coffee,

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you make a plan, and then all sorts of interesting things start to occur.

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And you have this conversation that makes you last lap late for that

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section meeting that you were supposed to be going to go with the flow.

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You're going to meet incredible people.

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You're going to have incredible opportunities and just be flexible.

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Stay hydrated.

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Yes, keep eating, drink coffee, but just take advantage quite seriously.

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Take advantage of the massive networking

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opportunities that this presents to you.

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Excellent.

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Well, thank you for your service both at the University of Washington

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and here at AGU.

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As president, we have

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just so loved having you as part of the UW family and us all being part of it.

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And we appreciate everything that you do.

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But I so am so grateful.

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I love the way UW is represented both in this booth,

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but every time I turn around there's a student or early career person

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like giving a incredible talk, and I just feel so proud

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to be part of the UW family. Thank you, John.

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Thank you.