homenews

Trapa to lead as inaugural vice provost at U

February 21, 2025

As the first to hold this newly created position, Trapa will provide strategic advancement and management of the College of Humanities, College of Science, College of Social and Behavioral Science and the School for Cultural & Social Transformation. Together, these units form the cornerstone of enrollment at the U, positioning Trapa to play a pivotal role in shaping the educational experience of students across disciplines.

Trapa has been a dedicated member of the U community for more than two decades, building a strong record of leadership experience and research excellence. Before serving as dean of the College of Science, he chaired both the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Physics & Astronomy. He has also served as a presidential fellow under former U President David Pershing and was named Fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

During his tenure as dean, Trapa led the merging of the College of Science and the College of Mines and Earth Sciences, a move designed to elevate research and create innovative new degrees in strategic areas of growth. Since the merger, the college has made strides toward advancing student success by implementing programs such as the Science Research Initiative, which provides experiential learning opportunities to majors. He also designed and implemented a robust shared-services model across the merged college, streamlining administrative support while enhancing academic resources. In addition, Trapa spearheaded efforts to secure $99 million in funding for the Applied Science Project, set to open in July 2025. The buildings will house the Department of Physics & Astronomy, the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and the Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy.

“Dr. Trapa is a strategic leader who deeply understands how the liberal arts and sciences advance student success and the university’s research enterprise,” Montoya said. “His leadership in the merger of the College of Science and the College of Mines and Earth Sciences demonstrates his ability to drive complex institutional change with vision and inclusivity. I look forward to working with him as he collaborates with the LAS deans to advance interdisciplinary education, strengthen research opportunities and amplify the university’s impact in alignment with the Impact 2030 strategic plan.”

Trapa was selected after an internal search chaired by Keith Diaz Moore, associate provost for institutional design and strategy.

“I’m grateful for the strong pool of internal candidates who applied for this new role,” Montoya said. “I was impressed by their ideas and their desire to help direct meaningful change.”

As the university continues to elevate its national profile, Trapa’s leadership will be essential in shaping the future of the liberal arts and sciences and advancing its role in fulfilling the university’s mission to drive unsurpassed societal impact. As vice provost and senior dean, Trapa will work closely with the LAS deans to develop a shared vision for the liberal arts and sciences at the U. He will also play a key role in optimizing resources, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and ensuring that students and faculty in these units have the support they need to thrive.

“I am deeply honored to step into this new role at such a pivotal time for the University of Utah,” said Trapa. “The liberal arts and sciences provide an essential foundation for innovation, critical thinking and societal progress. I am committed to leading this effort in partnership with our exceptional students, staff and faculty, whose talents and dedication are vital to our education and research missions. Together, with the LAS deans, we will strengthen our academic programs and advance student success at the U.”

Maybe Earth’s inner core is not so solid after all

February 20, 2025

Keith Koper, University of Utah

The surface of Earth’s inner core may be changing, as shown by a new study led by University of Southern California and University of Utah scientists that detected structural changes near the planet’s center, published Monday in Nature Geoscience.

The changes of the inner core have long been a topic of debate for scientists. However, most research has been focused on assessing rotation. John Vidale, Dean’s Professor of Earth Sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and principal investigator of the study, said the researchers “didn’t set out to define the physical nature of the inner core.”

“What we ended up discovering is evidence that the near surface of Earth’s inner core undergoes structural change,” Vidale said. The finding sheds light on the role topographical activity plays in rotational changes in the inner core that have minutely altered the length of a day and may relate to the ongoing slowing of the inner core.

Redefining the inner core

Located 3,000 miles below the Earth’s surface, the inner core is anchored by gravity within the molten liquid outer core. Until now the inner core was widely thought of as a solid sphere.

The original aim of the research team, which included U seismologist Keith Koper, was to further chart the slowing of the inner core. Their previous findings used seismic data to document how the solid core’s rotation has sped up and slowed in relation to Earth’s rotation, which may be slightly altering the length of a day.

“We found that there were some very subtle differences in these seismic waves interacting with the boundary of the inner core that are pretty shallow, that sample just the top of the inner core,” said Koper, a professor in Utah’s Department of Geology & Geophysics. “Because we had established already that the inner core is librating and then we found it back in the same spot, then these differences couldn’t be due to just the change in rotation. It must be a new thing.”

That new thing appears to be alterations in the core’s shape, according to the new study.

Math’s Kurt Vinhage is ’25 Sloan Fellow

February 18, 2025

Awarded this year to 126 of the most innovative young scientists across the U.S. and Canada, the Sloan Research Fellowships are one of the most competitive and prestigious awards available to early-career scholars. They are also often seen as a marker of the quality of an institution’s faculty and proof of an institution’s success in attracting the most promising early-career researchers to its ranks. Since the first Sloan Research Fellowships were awarded in 1955, 73 faculty from the U have received a Sloan Research Fellowship which includes Vinhage.

“I am honored and humbled to be named as a Sloan Fellow,” said Vinhage upon hearing the news, “and look forward to continuing my work toward understanding classification questions in dynamical systems. Any progress I have made is thanks to many hours of collaborative effort, and I would like to thank my co-authors and mentors, especially Anatole Katok and Ralf Spatzier, for their advice and encouragement throughout my journey. I look forward to continuing my mathematical journey with the help of this fellowship.”

Vinhage’s research in part answers questions about when two flows commute with one another. “Suppose we have a flow A and a flow B,” explained Vinhage. “One could follow flow A for an amount of time, then flow B for an amount of time, or do it in the opposite order, B then A. The flows commute when we end up at the same place.” This special situation is not common and Vinhage’s work aims to describe under what conditions such flows belong to a limited family of constructions, or when they can be more “exotic.”

“There are several seemingly innocuous conditions one can put on the flows which force them to belong to a well-described and well-studied class,” he continued. “This works fit into research programs called "higher-rank rigidity," "the Katok-Spatzier conjecture," or "the Zimmer program."

Said Jon Chaika, a colleague who nominated Vinhage for the Sloan Fellowship, "Kurt shows how some natural assumptions on a system automatically imply it arises from a single family of beautiful constructions. Beyond this, he showed that if one weakens these restrictions there are more examples. Kurt was granted this award on the merits of his outstanding research, but in the time he has been at the U he has made an impact on the department, sharing his enthusiasm for mathematics with undergraduates and graduate students.” Chaika detailed some of Vinhage’s activities in this area, including a summer program Vinhage runs to introduce students to advanced mathematics immediately after calculus, a once-a-semester mini workshop with colleagues at nearby Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University, and multiple successful student seminars, one of which led to a paper. “He is a fantastic colleague, and I am very happy that he has won this much-deserved award."

Vinhage earned his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in 2010 followed by postdoctoral studies at the University of Chicago and Pennsylvania State before arriving at the U in 2021.

“We are thrilled that Kurt Vinhage has received the prestigious Sloan Fellowship,” said Tommaso de Fernex, chair of the Department of Mathematics at the U. “This award recognizes research accomplishments of the highest-caliber by early-career scientists. Kurt’s contributions to Ergodic Theory exemplify the excellence of his scholarship and his potential as a future leader in the field. His dedication to advancing mathematical research, along with his mentorship and collaboration within our department, made him an outstanding nominee. This well-deserved recognition highlights his impact, and we look forward to the continued growth of his work.”

by David Pace

Finding Climate-Water solutions

February 13, 2025

Pearl Kling, international cooperation officer from Université Côte d’Azur, speaking with Dr. William Anderegg, director of the Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy.

The event fulfilled a newly formed U partnership with Université Côte d’Azur in Nice, France. France’s Région Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur will host the 2030 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. Salt Lake City, Utah, will host them in 2034.

The climate solutions hackathon challenges undergraduate and graduate students from any discipline to team-up and develop proposals in a slide deck within 24 hours.

This year, the teams worked from Friday Jan. 31st until Saturday morning, Feb 1st.

The teams of three to five had a day to propose a solution via a slide deck and short presentation promptly due the next morning. The challenge was to propose an innovative, data-driven solution in one of five categories:s surrounding the water resiliency theme.

Municipal Water Supply
Inland and Coastal Flooding
Agriculture
Drought
Water and Energy Infrastructure

Gathered in a bustling event hall in Crocker Science Center, the students engaged with expert faculty from both universities and drew inspiration from a video mentoring space of adept researchers. Mentors touched on important topics; for example, the U’s Marian Rice, associate director of Peak Water Sustainability Engine, spoke on topics such as partnering to protect watersheds and opportunities for green infrastructure. With approximately 88 students participating, 17 total slide decks were ultimately submitted.

On Saturday morning the teams reassembled to pitch their ideas to their peers at the Crocker Science Center, after which the group voted for the most impressive presentations. Two teams tied for this “People’s Choice Award.”

A panel of Wilkes Center staff and faculty, along with Professor Isabelle La Jeunesse from Université Côte d’Azur, deliberated over the weekend to officially select the top three proposals. Teams were evaluated according to four criteria:

Problem definition and analysis
Uniqueness and innovation
Idea feasibility
Implementation and scalability

“The ideas developed, particularly those of the finalists in this Hackathon, are realistic projects and thus potentially feasible,” said La Jeunesse. “It is therefore entirely possible that some of them will decide to get involved in developing their project, which would be fantastic given the great need in this field.”

Meeting of the Mines

February 6, 2025

Pratt Rogers

His term, which began in January replaces Charles Kocsis who saw the department through the pandemic, a merger and a resurgence in recruitment of undergraduates to the department now in the College of Science. But the issues surrounding the shortage of mined critical minerals and materials (CMM) required for society’s vaulting demand for technological devices and the power to run them persist.

To meet the demand, humans will need to mine the same amount of copper between now and 2030/40 as we have in all of humanity. And, in terms of power transmission and distribution, the need for which will only continue to exponentially grow —whether from coal or a green energy source—copper will continue to be required along with a whole host of other critical minerals. To put a finer point on it: More than half of the periodic table goes into producing and running a smartphone, and anything in the periodic table must be extracted from the Earth.

Meeting that demand through mining is something Rogers calls our generation’s “moon shot” referring to NASA’s Apollo 11 program in the 1960s to get humans from the Earth to the moon and back safely. The technology around safe mining and mineral extraction has been the bread-and-butter of the department since it was first established in 1901, and that work continues. But today there are more cooks in the kitchen, not just mining professionals but environmentalists, government and tribal officials and other policy-makers … even cultural anthropologists who look at social and cultural impacts of mineral development.

These stakeholders, many in non-governmental organizations (NGOs, often referred to as “non-profits”), have traditionally been left to their own insulated silos which can turn into an echo-chamber. The result: hard conversations about pressing issues like the permitting of mines either don’t happen or are at intractable cross-purposes. In short, building consensus about how to move forward securing our energy and mineral future responsibly is a daunting task. Moon shot, indeed.

Three 'D's

“In the United States,” says Rogers from his office in the William Browning Building, “we have strong institutions with great environmental and human protections. And that’s phenomenal; it’s a mark of progress. But with institutions that strong, when trying to create industrial projects [new and retrofitted historical mines], the easy path to a 'no' is usually taken and the much more difficult path to a conditional 'yes' is passed over in litigation.”

U mining students (Aaron Young, Ethan Johnson, Trey Robison) with Pratt Rogers (far right) at the Oyu Tolgoi Mine, Mongolia, a joint venture between the Government of Mongolia, Rio Tinto Group, and Turquoise Hill Resources.

The hard conversations about complex issues society needs to have, Rogers believes, are not just about traditional mining. While they include extraction work, more broadly they involve the “three D’s” of this energy future moonshot: density — “a lot of output from little input, like nuclear power”; development and processing of CMM for purer, more concentrated material; and distribution — renewable energy sources like a wind and solar that require larger inputs, or “more stuff connecting all those things together.”

Finding consensus among various stakeholders is essential. “There are different paths you can take to get to carbon-free/neutral future and each of those paths break down minerals differently.”

Wider optimization algorithms

As department chair, Rogers knows that these conversations are not just between the three D’s but among stakeholders who need to arrive at a consensus — sooner rather than later. “It’s hard to break them [different constituents] out of being [animated by] a single issue. It’s hard for anyone to be able to appreciate that there are wider optimization algorithms that society has to take on when you're trying to solve for some sort of equilibrium for development or distribution.”

The university setting, he believes, is the best place for these formal debates in place of the silo-ed arguments staged on social media or even traditional media. As a first-generation college student from Arizona , Rogers remembers as a student working on a proposal with someone from anthropology. “I just went over to his office, and we had such a phenomenal discussion. The conversation was so cool. He was working on some stuff down in Mexico… and I realized that there were so many ways his perspectives could benefit, say, complex mineral development projects impacts on changing social cohesion and power dynamics.”

For mining engineers, there’s also collaboration to be done at the college level with mineral processing, and metallurgy and geological characterization all while making sure that students get full access to these educational moments, either formally or informally around shared social spaces. Sustaining this kind of educational nexus with a premium on student success is a priority for Rogers.

Recruitment

Speaking of students, recruitment has been up year-over-year for the past several years, especially since Covid restrictions have lifted. The department’s import of pit mining into the popular Minecraft sandbox video game has helped in that area. So too have recent open houses for high school students who not only need to know that a mining department exists but that mining has played and will continue to play an important if not critical role in deploying a sustainable green economy for future generations, including their own. So too has recent funding for student experiences. The Wallie Rasmussen Student Experience endowment supports international field trips for mining engineering students. (See picture from Mongolia)

As for administrative work, Rogers hopes to grow the faculty endowed chairs, funding from industry, government and individual donors, especially the departments’ valued alumni. Students will always be at the center of these growth opportunities as the mining contribution to a more sustainable and growth-oriented future. “It’s a great time to work on growing the mining engineering department,” says Rogers. “There is significant interest from the state and federal governments along with university leadership and our industrial stakeholders on the importance of critical minerals. The time is now to focus and grow this strategic workforce for a more sustainable future.”

In all, Rogers says, “working with folks from different backgrounds and trying to solve complex problems . . . I think we just need to not lose sight of that.” Moonshots, after all, are by definition aspirational, but how we actualize a decidedly Earth-bound “program” this ambitious is left to visionaries, technicians and consensus-builders like Pratt Rogers.

And a higher education setting like that at the U is quite literally ground zero.

Dmitry Bedrov, new Chair of the Materials Science & Engineering

February 6, 2025

MSE, with two ABET accreditations, is seated in two colleges: the College of Science (Metallurgical Engineering program) and the College of Engineering (Materials Science & Engineering program).

The merger of metallurgical and material science departments in 2018 was designed to streamline operations for faculty and students with significant funding from the Department of Energy for critical materials research. Metallurgical engineering faculty collaborate extensively with material science faculty. Many MSE students enroll in classes from chemistry and physics, bridging science and engineering.

Bedrov earned his BS with honors in 1995 from Odessa State Academy of Refrigeration in Odessa, Ukraine, followed by a PhD (1999) and postdoctoral work (1999-2002) in Chemical & Fuels Engineering and Computational Modeling of Materials at the University of Utah, respectively. His research interest lies in the area of multiscale modeling of soft-condensed matter systems that exhibit complex, multiscale structure often arising from molecular and super-molecular self-assembly.

New lab, new equipment

Metallurgical engineer and scientist Jiaqi Jin in front of the XRM-900 in the William Browning building. Credit: Todd Anderson

Bedrov’s arrival as chair is happening at an auspicious time for the department which has recently acquired a new, state-of-the-art additive manufacturing research center featuring a multi-million-dollar titanium 3D printing machine. The lab will serve as a hub for the collaboration between Metallurgical Engineering Professor Zak Fang's powder metallurgy research team and the company IperionX as they work to advance metallurgical technologies for producing primary metals focused on titanium.

Other new equipment includes an X-ray Instrument to keep pace with the global-leading high-resolution 3D imaging research in metallurgical engineering at the U.

The X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) in 3D characterization of particulate systems significantly strengthens researcher capability in mineral processing studies. Together, these new acquisitions have helped maintain the U's metallurgical engineering program as arguably the best in the country. Bedrov will lead MSE at a time when extensive collaboration is occurring on campus in the areas of materials informatics, additive manufacturing, and biomaterials and interfaces..

A key project emblematic of the department’s interdisciplinary research involves collaborating with the U’s School of Dentistry to use machine learning to optimize dental materials, like filler composites. Currently the evaluation of dental materials is predominantly qualitative, relying heavily on the experience and subjective judgment. Imaging of extracted teeth with deployed polymers followed by machine learning analysis in MSE can help clinicians, like dentists, understand the best formulations and application practices at work.

Attracting new students

Fronting the interdisciplinary research like that in collaboration with the School of Dentistry, the department aims to attract students who often only learn about what the department offers after they’ve arrived at the U and sometimes after they’ve already declared a major. High school outreach and competitions, highlighting MSE’s small, diverse student body and interdisciplinary research will be a priority for Bedrov along with enhancing faculty support and increasing collaboration with other departments.

Quote from Bedrov on the new appointment. “It is an exciting time to lead the department to address new research challenges, e.g. in critical materials, quantum materials, and biomedical applications, and new learning opportunities for students, e.g. incorporation of AI and machine learning tools into the education process.”

"I am delighted to welcome Dmitry Bedrov as a new department chair," said Trapa. "Dmitry's extensive expertise in materials modeling and commitment to interdisciplinary research positions him perfectly to lead Materials Science and Engineering as the department continues to expand its cutting-edge research capabilities and educational programs."

Trapa continued, "I want to express my deep gratitude to past chair Mike Free for his outstanding leadership. His collaboration between metallurgical engineering and materials science has created a stronger, more integrated department. His contributions have laid a strong foundation for our continued growth and excellence."

by David Pace

Widening Our Cosmic View

February 6, 2025

Gail Zasowski

Teams are valued within scientific communities, but when it comes to broader public recognition it’s rare for anything more than an organization or singular leader to step into the spotlight.

But times are changing at breakneck speeds, the value of these enablers of science becoming more and more apparent as the spotlight grows to encompass them. With the upcoming launch of the Roman Space Telescope we are seeing a shift towards broader perspectives, bringing more voices into decision-making processes to optimize the pursuit of scientific advancement.

Taking a novel approach for NASA’s missions, where observations with telescopes like Hubble and James Webb were largely proposal-based (scientists writing competing proposals to win time using the telescopes’ instruments), Roman will be predominantly driven by surveys designed by the astronomical community as a whole. That community is made up of an extensive structure of committees involving hundreds (if not thousands) of astronomers who have spent years analyzing which observational designs would be the most useful for their community at large. This will create an archive of data which anyone in the world can access to do science.

A wider range of expertise

An undertaking like this requires organizational expertise which is where Gail Zasowski, an associate professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, comes into play. Co-chairing the Roman Observations Time Allocation Committee (ROTAC) alongside Saurabh Jha (Rutgers University), she and the committee of 13 scientists are tasked with taking all of these proposed survey designs and constructing a plan that best balances the scientific goals of the astronomical community. For example, some time will be spent studying black holes and stellar explosions dating back to the early universe, while other observations will focus closer to home, on stars and planets in our own Milky Way and even asteroids in our Solar System. Thus the ROTAC is faced with the challenge (or opportunity) to plan a multi-year observing program that includes everything from solar system formation to dark matter and dark energy.

“Our committee was deliberately chosen to span a wide range of science expertise,” Zasowski explains. “It’s our job to evaluate from a scientific perspective how to maximize the observational output of the telescope. Is there somewhere everybody wants to look, where an observation could kill two birds with one stone? Given other telescope missions around the world, where can Roman have the largest unique impact?”

It’s an impressive task to keep all these plates spinning at once, but that’s the beauty of moving these decisions to a communal level. By enabling collaboration, the community can plan far more efficiently than any one individual team or project could do on its own.

A wider range of voices

Yerkes Observatory Roman Workshop. Zasowski is pictured center left. Credit: Yerkes Observatory. Inset: Nancy Roman.

Zasowski was chosen for her background in ground-based astronomy surveys, a priority shared by the U’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. She explains that “Where many larger institutions will devote their time and money buying into one large telescope, we have elected to spend our time and energy participating in surveys. We feel it gets more bang for your buck, more photons per dollar, as being in these surveys not only grants access to data, but also access to the scientific community who makes the survey happen.”

This pattern repeats across campus, investing in building core skills and wider networking to get a foot into every door, rather than definitively propping only one open. Everything from the Science Research Initiative which builds research connections for students far earlier than most; to the Early Exploration Scholars which broadens those connections for all campus students; and to the ACCESS Scholars program working to eliminate social barriers that have traditionally existed in STEM.

By investing in the community aspect of science so early, the U’s students and faculty are perfectly suited to fill these organizational roles, bring people together and lay the groundwork that enables future science to be conducted.

Zasowski describes an inspiring experience at Yerkes Observatory last year. “We were at the observatory where Nancy Grace Roman [the telescope’s namesake] did her Ph.D.” she describes. ”We were in the rooms where she worked, talking about designing a survey to study the science she was interested in while using a space telescope named after her.”

As a woman in astronomy starting in the 1940s, Roman had faced significant uphill battles in securing her place in the astronomical community. For the “Mother of Hubble” to be honored in such a way — for the first telescope named after a woman to be so organized around working together — it's a beautiful full-circle moment. It's a symbol of progress, of our expanding view of the night sky mirrored in a scientific field expanding to include and celebrate those who historically struggled to find their place within it.

The Roman Telescope is scheduled to be launched in October of next year, to journey around the Sun for at least five years and provide the astronomical community with data to study for many more years to follow.

by Michael Jacobsen

Exploring the frontiers of frozen water

February 6, 2025

As a consequence of its chemical properties, H₂O is one of the most incredible substances, able to form into 20 known separate crystalline ice phases. Now researchers are seeking to expand that number even further.

Ingrid de Almeida Ribeiro, a postdoctoral researcher in chemistry, and her lab partners in the Molinero Research Group at the University of Utah’s department of chemistry have published a study detailing their work advancing the science of amorphous ice using computer simulations. Often characterized as glass, amorphous ice had long been known to appear in either a low-density amorphous (LDA) or high-density amorphous (HDA) state. A recent study demonstrated the existence of medium-density amorphous (MDA) ice through the application of ball milling. Ribeiro’s work expanded upon this by examining the consequences of shear in addition to other variables, including temperature and pressure.

Amorphous ice is distinguished from typical crystalline ice by its non-periodic atomic arrangement. It is still classified as a solid material, which can be alternatively described as “a liquid that has lost its ability to flow.”

“Think about walking into a movie theater. All the seats are lined up in perfect rows and columns. That’s like crystalline ice—atoms arranged in a structured, repeating pattern. Now, picture a music festival, people are just scattered everywhere—some packed closely together, others with more space between them, no clear arrangement. That’s like amorphous ice.” Ribeiro said. “Now, picture a liquid, where atoms move freely. If you were to freeze that disordered structure without allowing the atoms to rearrange into a crystal, you’d get a glass. It’s like a frozen snapshot of a liquid.”

Read the full story by Ethan Hood in @ The U.

GSL Strike Team Update

February 3, 2025

The Great Salt Lake Strike Team — a collaboration of technical experts from Utah’s research universities and state agencies – today released their 2025 data and insights summary. Their authoritative analysis makes eminently clear four critical points:

Benefits of the lake — Utah receives numerous economic, ecological and human health benefits from the lake. The costs of inaction to the economy, human health, and ecological conditions remain significant.
Making progress — The state of Utah continues to make meaningful progress, including water conservation, infrastructure investment (including measurement and monitoring), statutory and regulatory reforms, berm management, and other actions. The state’s multi-year, data-driven strategy to conserve, dedicate, and deliver water to the lake is on track.
Long-term endeavor — Stabilizing and raising lake levels; managing salinity; and protecting economic, human, and species health will require many years of stewardship leading up to the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and beyond. Success requires everyone in the Great Salt Lake Basin to participate in conserving, dedicating, and delivering water to the lake every year.
Utah’s plan — Later this month the Office of the Great Salt Lake Commissioner’s Office will release the 2034 Plan for a Healthy Great Salt Lake. The plan builds upon the Great Salt Lake Strategic Plan, released in January 2024, by identifying actions needed over the next ten years to preserve the benefits Great Salt Lake provides to Utah and the world. This plan is informed by data developed by the Strike Team.3

“All indications demonstrate that delivering more water to the lake is a far more cost-effective solution than managing the impacts of a lake at a perpetually low level,” said Brian Steed, co-chair of the Great Salt Lake Strike Team and Great Salt Lake Commissioner. “We can invest time and financial resources now or pay a lot more later. Fortunately, we have great data and a balanced and workable plan to succeed.”

Utah’s research universities – Utah State University and University of Utah — formed the Great Salt Lake Strike Team to provide a primary point of contact for policymakers as they address the economic, health, and ecological challenges created by the low elevation levels of the lake. Together with state agency professionals, the Strike Team brings together experts in public policy, hydrology, water management, climatology, dust, and economics to provide impartial, data-informed, and solution-oriented support for the Commissioner’s Office and other Utah decision-makers. The Strike Team does not advocate but rather functions in a technical, policy-advisory role as a service to the state.

“Low lake elevations created by rising temperatures and human water depletions continue to put at risk the benefits created by the lake,” said William Anderegg, Strike Team co-chair and Director of the Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy at the University of Utah. “Our review of the data confirms that with steady and deliberate actions we can first stabilize and then raise lake elevation to levels that protect the benefits provided by the lake.”

The Strike Team’s report includes reporting on lake elevation, reservoir storage, salinity, streamflow, human water use, water rights and change applications, and mineral extraction. Importantly, the report identifies over 30 major milestones from 2024, including but not limited to the following:

Lake elevation — Increased inflows during 2024 were spread across both arms of the lake, resulting in a stable elevation for the south arm and larger gains for the north arm (2.8-foot rise). The lake remains well below the healthy range.
Ecosystem recovery/bring shrimp — Brine shrimp populations increased, with egg numbers up 50% from last year.
Invasive species — The state removed 15,600 acres of water-intensive phragmites, plus many more by other entities.
Funding – The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation directed $50 million toward Great Salt Lake preservation projects. Utah awarded $5.4 million to support 6,000 acres of Great Salt Lake wetlands and allocated $22 million for Great Salt Lake water infrastructure projects and $15 million to the Great Salt Lake Commissioner’s Office for planning and water leasing.
Water donations and releases — Jordan Valley Water Conservancy, Welby Jacob Water Users, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released approximately 10,000 acre-feet from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake via the Jordan River. Compass Minerals agreed to forgo 200,000 acre-feet of future water use, and Morton Salt agreed to forgo 54,000 acre-feet of future water use. Both companies also agreed to cease all usage if the lake drops to 2022 levels. Water conservancy districts released stored water during the winter, including approximately 700,000 acre-feet of water that was released through the Jordan and Weber river systems.

The Strike Team acknowledges and appreciates the support of Gov. Spencer Cox and his Cabinet, Senate President Stuart Adams, Speaker Mike Schultz, the full Utah Legislature, Presidents Elizabeth Cantwell and Taylor Randall, and other colleagues and partners who support data-informed solutions for the lake. The leaders of the Strike Team affirmed in their opening letter that “actions to ensure a healthy Great Salt Lake are both necessary and possible.”

Recent average daily elevation of Great Salt Lake north and south arms (1903-2024)

Source: US Geological Survey Historical Elevation at Saltair Boat Harbor and Saline, UT.

The full report is now available online.

Tino Nyawelo, Presidential Societal Impact Scholar

February 3, 2025

Nyawelo is a professor (lecturer) in the Department of Physics & Astronomy. His main area of research is physics education with the focus on equity/access in education. He is the Director of Undergraduate Research and coordinates the NSF Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program.

In 2012, he founded the REFUGES program, a robust STEM-focused refugee and minority student support program with two distinct components: 1) an after-school program for middle- and high-school students; and 2) a summer bridge program for students transitioning to the University of Utah. REFUGES addresses the academic and cultural challenges of refugee youth in fifteen hours of programming per week on the U of U campus. Participants receive individual tutoring and mentoring, science enrichment activities, college and career readiness interventions, and workshops promoting healthy lifestyles. The program has impacted the lives of over 1,000 refugee youth living in the Salt Lake Valley.

In 2020, he joined the High School Project on Astrophysics Research with Cosmics (HiSPARC), a project in which high schools and academic institutions join forces and form a network to observe and measure ultra-high-energy cosmic rays with a ground-based scintillation detector. HiSPARC project started in the Netherlands in 2003, and in 2024 HiSPARC moved to University of Utah under his leadership and provided the initial infrastructure to imagine new research opportunities in K-12 science education. There are currently two projects that deploy HiSPARC cosmic ray detectors with high school students and teachers in Utah: 1) The InSPIRE Program (Investigating the Development of STEM-Positive Identities of Refugee Teens in a Physics Out-of-School Time Experience); and 2) A Research Experiences for Teachers (RET).

He obtained his master’s degree in theoretical high energy physics at the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the Free University of Amsterdam.

Other awardees include David Wetter, professor, population health sciences and adjunct professor, psychology, and director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Population Equity (HOPE); Matthew Basso, associate professor, gender studies and history; Divya Chandrasekhar, associate professor, Department of City and Metropolitan Planning; and Sameer Rao, assistant professor, mechanical engineering.

'Incredible impact'

"As Presidential Societal Impact Scholars, these exceptional faculty demonstrate how public engagement and scholarship can have a broad impact on the world around us,” said President Taylor Randall. “As one of the nation’s leading research universities, we aim to improve the communities we serve by sharing our research and expertise in meaningful ways. The recipients of this award embody this mission, translating their work into efforts that not only shape their fields but also positively transform society.”

Each scholar will receive a one-time cash award of $10,000 and support from University Marketing & Communications to promote their research, scholarship and initiatives.

To be considered, the faculty member’s area of focus must address a major societal issue, such as physical health and well-being, mental illness, poverty, the housing crisis, an environmental problem, etc. The nominee’s work should have the potential to inform public debate and positively impact individuals, institutions and communities.

“This year’s scholars represent the incredible impact that faculty can have beyond the classroom through service and public engagement,” said law professor Randy Dryer, who established the award in 2022 through a gift to the university. “Their work not only advances their respective fields but also demonstrates a deep commitment to improving the lives of individuals and communities. These scholars translate their research and expertise into real-world solutions, making a tangible difference in society, using their knowledge to create a more just and equitable world for all.”

The 2025-26 Presidential Societal Impact Scholars will serve through May 2026 and then continue as members of the permanent scholars’ network. All scholars are highlighted here.

College of Science

Trapa to lead as inaugural vice provost at U

Trapa to lead as inaugural vice provost at U

Maybe Earth’s inner core is not so solid after all

Maybe Earth’s inner core is not so solid after all

New research suggests the surface of the inner core is deformed from contact with turbulent liquid outer core.

Redefining the inner core

Math’s Kurt Vinhage is ’25 Sloan Fellow

Math's Kurt Vinhage, 2025 Sloan Fellow

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation today announced the winners of the 2025 Sloan Research Fellows which includes Kurt Vinhage, assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Utah.

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Finding Climate-Water solutions

Finding Climate-Water Solutions

Meeting of the Mines

Meeting of the MINES

For Pratt Rogers, the new chair of the Mining Engineering Department at the University of Utah, the future of our technological and information-driven society as we are living it now and imagining it in the future is going to require a meeting of the minds.

Three 'D's

Wider optimization algorithms

Recruitment

Dmitry Bedrov, new Chair of the Materials Science & Engineering

Dmitry Bedrov, new Chair of Materials Science and Engineering

New lab, new equipment

Attracting new students

Widening Our Cosmic View

Widening our Cosmic View

A wider range of expertise

A wider range of voices

Exploring the frontiers of frozen water

Exploring the frontiers of frozen water

Water is ubiquitous and seemingly ordinary, possessing no distinct color or odor. Though we often take water for granted, it is by no means a simple substance.

GSL Strike Team Update

making progress on Great Salt Lake

Low water levels at Great Salt Lake continue to threaten Utah’s economic, ecological and human health.

Tino Nyawelo, Presidential Societal Impact Scholar

Presidential Societal Impact Award

'Incredible impact'