Newswise — In March 2003, University of Oregon political scientist Ron Mitchell served as a mentor at a newly organized symposium designed to ignite interdisciplinary research among early career scientists on climate change. He was one of two social scientists amid a group of life and physical scientists.
Mitchell and a second invited mentor, Jerry Mahlman, a noted atmospheric researcher who has since retired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration in Colorado, attended the meeting in Guanica, Puerto Rico. Their mission was to help guide 40 participants chosen from an applicant pool of 73 new doctorate holders.
By the time the event ended, Mitchell didn't throw in the towel. He was impressed -- so much so that he became co-principal investigator of the National Science Foundation-funded "DISsertation initiative for the advancement of Climate Change ReSearch" along with founder Sue Weiler of Whitman College, a liberal arts school in Walla Walla, Wash.
The initiative carries the acronym DISCCRS and is pronounced "discourse."
"I realized that what Sue was doing needed to be done," said Mitchell, who separately is working under an NSF grant to analyze the effects of environmental treaties -- the outcomes they target and the indicators of legal, economic, political, and social drivers of those outcomes. "With climate change, you can't get a question right or an answer right if you are not thinking interdisciplinarily. That is the main motivation of my working with DISCCRS."
In an interview after DISCCRS III in Hawaii in September, Mitchell said that the effort is making a splash. "It's exciting, because you see a bunch of very bright people -- the next generation -- who are committing every ounce of their being to address this problem of climate change."
Numbers prove the growth: The second meeting, held in Pacific Grove, Calif., attracted 77 applicants for 33 positions; about one-fourth of those selected were social scientists. In Hawaii, there were 235 applicants for 36 slots; One-third of the spaces went to social scientists. DISCCRS IV will be Nov. 2-9, 2008, at the Saguaro Lake Ranch near Mesa, Ariz. To be eligible, an applicant must have earned a doctorate between April 1, 2006, and March 31, 2008, in any discipline.
"We were quite surprised to see the rapid growth from DISCCRS II to DISCCRS III," wrote Weiler, a biologist and oceanographer, in an email interview, "but it is very personally satisfying to know we are reaching a broad interdisciplinary audience from many countries around the world, and that our efforts are appreciated. Ron has been instrumental to this success. His connections with many disciplines across the social sciences have enabled us to effectively recruit both natural and social sciences. The work being conducted today is amazingly sophisticated, and this new generation is committed to creating and using cutting-edge science to solve socially relevant questions. I am inspired by their dedication and hopeful for a future in their hands."
Mitchell insists the growth of DISCCRS is the result of climate change being a major issue -- former Vice President Al Gore's winning a Nobel Prize for his work on the subject added visibility, too -- and the fact that the program is becoming more widely known. "There now is more synergy among the social, physical and life scientists attending," he said. "I think that's where we got to this year. We are seeing a movement toward mutual respect."
DISCCRS is modeled after another program started by Weiler in 1995, the "Dissertations Initiative for the Advancement of Limnology and Oceanography Program," or DIALOG, which sought to bring together those who study inland waters and those whose minds center on the oceans.
When Mitchell joined DISCCRS, he took along his UO doctoral student Jennifer Marlon, who is studying geography. "Jenn is making incredibly valuable contributions," Weiler said. "We truly work as a team, utilizing the strengths of each person."
As part of the UO's portion of the NSF grant for DISCCRS, Marlon is compiling information from recent doctoral students studying any aspect of climate change.
"This database includes everyone from biogeochemists analyzing the ability of the oceans to absorb carbon dioxide to economists examining how more frequent weather-related disasters are increasing poverty in rural Mexico," Marlon said. "Graduates submit their dissertation abstracts online and provide demographics and information about their educational background and expertise."
The abstracts are filed in a searchable dissertation registry, which had 756 entries as of early November. Registrants receive a weekly newsletter with a broad range of climate-related information relevant to early-career researchers. "The newsletter is compiled from a variety of newspapers, journals, listservs and from DISCCRS members," Marlon said. "It includes news highlights, reports, jobs, grant opportunities and career resources that complement our online archive of career development resources."
The format for the symposia is intense, often featuring 12-hour or longer days, Mitchell said. During the first two days each participant delivers an eight-minute-long presentation on his or her research.
The meetings also involve networking and intellectual exchange, opportunities to discuss career development and mentoring by senior scientists. Mentors are top scientists from various fields, whose role is to help these new scientists forge "an interdisciplinary path while working in a field-specific, academic-tenure driven world," Mitchell said.
Participants also are divided into six groups in which no two members are from the same academic field. They discuss each person's area of expertise and within 48 hours produce interdisciplinary research proposals.
What do the social sciences offer in such an environment?
"People value things differently. People are part of the equation involved in addressing climate change," Mitchell said. "If an issue involves the possibility of a species going extinct, for instance, and nobody knows about it, does it matter? It's only through our valuation system that a bird or lizard gets protected. Scientists need to communicate properly. Scientists and social scientists need to do triage together to determine the best ways to approach a problem and allocate resources. The social process is important. How do you know what's a concern? In some parts of the world climate change is not a concern because people are dealing with serious problems existing now. Social scientists can help drive broader discussions."
Other Links:DISCCRS: http://www.disccrs.org/DISCCRS, dissertation registry: http://www.disccrs.org/search.html
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