Society and science – Alaska Voices

Partnering with communities for reciprocal research

December 29, 2025

Two women smile in front of a photoshopped background of a Sitka marina.

“There’s this history of research happening, disregarding those pieces, and I’m really excited about this as a mechanism to shine a light on that, and ask those questions: does this work really need to be done? Are you willing to invest in the relationships with the community to ensure that your work is meaningful to the people who live here, and if not, then maybe we need to think twice about it.” -Lauren Bell

Supercomputer as stepping stone

December 22, 2025

Two men wearing similar glasses and t-shirts smile in front of a photoshopped background of the Mount Katmai volcano.

“I was always interested in technology, ever since I was a little kid. I remember the first computer my dad bought us was an old Compaq and he thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.”
-Bob Torgerson

Weathering winter rainstorms

May 17, 2021

Jim and Eric smile in front of a Denali.

“An actual inch of rain between November and March had only happened one other time in the climate record.” – Eric Stevens

When the ice dam fails

May 10, 2021

Eran and Gabe smile in front of a lake and mountains.

“We landed and when we landed the basin was finishing draining. So the glacier ice where we landed was still settling and cracking, it was very disconcerting.” – Eran Hood

What faces tomorrow’s climate scientists

April 26, 2021

Shawn, a man with dark hair, and Emily, a woman with short hair and bright smile, in front of a patterned kelp background.

“Once we destroy those natural areas it’s very difficult to get them back.” – Emily Fort

Reaching passersby through poetry

April 19, 2021

Naomi and Rebecca, two young women, smile in front of snowy trees.

“Creating doesn’t have to be a scary thing where you have to go into your special corner and turn a light on and turn the world off and think about how awful life is.” – Rebecca Lawhorne

Learning as a scientist when to say “I don’t know”

October 1, 2020

“I was always the kid getting outside and getting lost and grimy and playing with frogs and cutting trees.”

Designing accessible research for rural communities

September 28, 2020

Erica, a young woman with short brown hair, and Ryan, a man with a goatee and glasses, smile in front of an orange sunset sky.

“I think that the first thing that agencies have to acknowledge is there’s an extreme power imbalance between what value we put on scientific knowledge and what value we put on local knowledge.”

Navigating oceans and grad school

July 27, 2020

Two women stand close together, smiling in front of Denali.

“Antarctica, it’s fascinating from the scientific point of view, but you don’t have a community that depends on the sea ice in Antarctica.”

A different world

May 25, 2020

Megan and Sorina put their arms around each other in front of snowy mountains.

“When we went back, again, we just listened. We didn’t have any questions, we didn’t have any ideas, and that space for communication grew back.”