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Knight Center grad shows humor in the face of wildfires

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By Kate Habrel

Sarah Coefield. Photo credit: Shannon Edney

Sarah Coefield. Photo credit: Shannon Edney


MSU graduate and former Knight Center employee Sarah Coefield was featured recently as “Monday’s Montanan” in the Missoulian.
The reason? In part: dumb smoke jokes.
Coefield is one of two Missoula County air quality specialists. She wears numerous hats for her job – writing policy and rules for air pollution control and air quality updates. It’s those updates that have recently attracted a lot of attention. Continue reading →

Telling stories to change the world

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CIP scientist Willy Pradel explains his research at a mock press conference. Image: David Poulson

CIP scientist Willy Pradel explains his research at a mock press conference. Image: David Poulson


By David Poulson
Jan Kreuze stood in front of a room full of reporters and began shredding paper.
“This is how a plant attacks a virus,” the researcher explained.
Then he bent over and gathered up the pieces. Reassembling them with a computer program is an easier, cheaper way of getting a picture of the disease than sifting through the genetics of an entire plant, he said. And that could lead to better strategies for fighting it. Continue reading →

Sustainability and community engagement in Northwest Michigan

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By Eric Freedman

MSU Northern Michigan Horticulture Research Center Image: Eric Freedman

MSU Northern Michigan Horticulture Research Center. Image: Eric Freedman


What do a trail system linking Northwest Michigan communities, a small-scale organic vegetable farm that supplies local restaurants with fresh produce, citizen-scientists alert for invasive aquatics, apple researchers and critics of an oil pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac have in common?
All are part of a drive for environmental sustainability and all involve some form of community engagement.
As Knight Chair in Environmental Journalism, I was part of a recent Sustainable Michigan Endowed Project study tour in the Cadillac-Traverse City-Leelanau Peninsula area. Continue reading →

An elusive eclipse

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By Kate Habrel

Watching the eclipse in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Image: Jim Detjen

Watching the eclipse in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Image: Jim Detjen


Even weeks after August’s summer eclipse, people are still talking about it.
I was in Sussex, Wisconsin, with my family when it happened. I’d spent the month leading up to it reading stories of how spectacular it would be, even for those not in the path of totality.
Many looked forward to the eclipse in a similar manner.
Continue reading →