Increasing Washington Impact 2024

Are quakes a bigger risk as sea levels rise?

Salt corrodes buildings. Earthquakes shake them. What happens when an earthquake hits a building already damaged by saltwater?

To answer that question, the National Science Foundation awarded a team of researchers from Western, the University at Buffalo, and the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa $2.7 million over five years to assess such risks in Hawai’i and other regions with low-lying coastal infrastructure.

The issue is especially salient in the context of climate change. “Well before communities are submerged by rising sea levels, they’ll experience new levels of coastal flooding during winter storms, king tides and hurricanes,” says project co-principal investigator Rebekah Paci-Green, associate professor and chair in the Department of Environmental Studies at Western. “These short-term inundations can expose buildings to saltwater deterioration.”

Some of the research will focus on Hilo, Hawai’i. “Hilo faces both earthquake and salt corrosion issues today,” says Paci-Green, “but this issue is also critical for coastal towns in Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska and beyond.”

Paci-Green and a team of WWU graduate students will examine Hilo residents’ risk perception and mitigation preferences.

“Even if we can find a great technical solution, it’s useless if residents aren’t interested or if local planning and policy frameworks don’t support it,” says Paci-Green. “We need to find mitigation solutions that are technically, socially, and financially viable.”

Rebekah Paci-Green

Rebekah Paci-Green

Huge waves crash against a sea wall and buildings against a coastline.

WWU faculty and students are studying how costal residents prefer to mitigate
earthquake risks.

WWU’s economic impact tops $1 billion

a crowd of students walk through campus near the Wright's Triangle sculpture.

Western’s impact on the local economy reaches beyond just those it employs or teaches. The money spent at Western ripples through the economy of Washington, creating external jobs, salaries, and opportunities.

According to the WWU Economic Activity Study by the Center for Economic Business Research, Western’s economic impact is about $1.2 billion a year. The university also brings about 3.4 million visitors to the region each year.

Western students contribute significantly to the local economy, spending about $28.3 million each year on food, and another $66.3 million on personal expenses.

Western’s investment in infrastructure also amounts to about $450 million over the past decade, fueling more community jobs and growth.

All Things Energy

WWU student Megan Bellusci has spent the last two years diving into the properties of coal fly ash, a toxic powder released when coal is burned for electricity.

If it’s not managed correctly, coal fly ash is a pernicious industrial waste. But Bellusci and her mentor, Assistant Professor Deborah Glosser, are studying the pollutant to turn it into a resource, as one sign of hope in solving the climate crisis.

It’s just another day in Western’s Institute for Energy Studies, where faculty and students apply science, policy, economics, engineering and many other disciplines to the task of transitioning away from our reliance on greenhouse gas-producing fossil fuels and into a clean energy future.

“I’ve always felt creativity is a great way to get out of our energy problems,” says Bellusci, a senior completing a Bachelor of Science degree in energy science and technology with a minor in energy policy.

Read more about the Institute for Energy Studies in Window magazine.

A student sits in the middle of a lab, surrounded by electronic equipment.

Megan Bellusci in Assistant Deborah Glosser's lab in the Institute for Energy Studies.

New program aims to get innovative research to market

The new Western Innovation Training Fellowship program prepares promising students and professors to bring new technology to market.

Made possible by a $200,000 grant from Washington Research Foundation, the inaugural cohort includes:

  • Chemistry’s Gregory O’Neil and student Kaden Hekker, designing a device that enables chemists to access air- and moisture-sensitive chemicals.
  • Environmental Science’s David Wallin, Engineering and Design’s John Lund and student Ian Cambridge, developing long range RFID location-tracking technology.
  • Biology’s Jim Cooper and graduate student Abi Lee, finding ways to improve the hatching success and survival of farmed surf smelt.
  • Engineering and Design’s Sura Al-Qudah and student Elliot Eades, building a prototype of a device to help guide surgical rods during bone surgery.
  • Biology’s Anu Singh-Cundy and graduate student David Burgdorf, exploring how the proteins in plant cell walls could be used in textiles and biofuels.

River Views

artistic rendering of the meandering curves of the Duwamish River across five panels

The Seattle Convention Center is now home to a collection of four massive works of art depicting the transformation of the Duwamish River, created by Western Washington University’s John Feodorov, an artist and associate professor at Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies.

Feodorov’s “Four Views on a River” was commissioned as part of the new art collection in Seattle Convention Center’s Summit building. Located in Summit’s sprawling Exhibit Hall Lobby, the four massive pieces are made up of four to six panels 8 feet high and totaling 16 to 24 feet long. And each collection depicts a different point in the history of the Duwamish, from its meandering route before colonization to its current role as a major shipping lane and Superfund site.

“The images are stark and abstract, allowing the viewer to engage with them on their own terms without feeling led by the hand,” Feodorov wrote in his artist statement.

“To me, they are beautiful, yet also uncomfortable and saddening. To the local Native peoples, the river is alive. I want to show that, despite its mutilation and exploitation, it has also survived and retains its power.”

Read more about Feodorov's work in Window magazine

John Feodorov sits in front of a painting and speaks into a microphone to a gallery of seated listeners.

John Feodorov discusses his "Yellow Dirt" exhibition at the Kennedy Museum of the University of Ohio

A creative partnership with Seattle Children’s Theatre

A new partnership between Western’s Theatre Arts Program and the Seattle Children’s Theatre is resulting in several creative projects and profound opportunities for students to experience professional stage productions.

This summer, for example, theater faculty and students worked with SCT’s Artistic Director Idris Goodwin to develop a new stage adaptation of William Steig’s classic picture book, “Doctor De Soto,” which is scheduled to premiere on the SCT mainstage in spring 2025.

people working back stage in a theatre studio

Emily McHugh of String and Shadow Puppet Theatre instructs student Alison Sokoloff on making shadow puppets.