Professor of Computer Science David Chiu taught his first class at age 22, in grad school, and immediately fell in love with teaching. Since coming to the university in 2014, he’s taught everything from introductory to advanced classes, and in 2022, he received the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. We talked with Chiu about the golden age of dial-up internet, his research on data management, and creating an inclusive, student-centered classroom experience.
University of Puget Sound announced today that it is creating a new academic department to house its environmental programs starting in Fall 2024. The Department of Environmental Studies & Sciences will allow students to explore the evolving issues of environmental studies through an interdisciplinary approach combining natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.
Environmental Studies & Sciences will offer four academic options:
Tacoma, Wash. — Tanya Erzen, associate professor of religion, spirituality, and society and director of crime, law, and justice studies and gender and queer studies, has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Public Scholars grant for $60,000. The NEH Public Scholars program supports nonfiction authors in producing well-researched books for a broad public audience.
When Drew Kerkhoff left Ohio, to follow his future wife to New Mexico, he had no plans of ever heading back east. The western landscape and ecology fascinated him, and Kerkhoff—who at the time made a living building custom furniture—spent his downtime exploring his surroundings. It was out in nature that he found a new career path, a path that would eventually lead him to become Puget Sound’s new provost.
University of Puget Sound philosophy professors Ariela Tubert and Justin Tiehen have been recognized for their work on the intersection of existentialist philosophy and artificial intelligence. The two have been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Collaborative Research Grant of $147,840 for their project, "Robot Existentialism: Artificial Intelligence and the Limits of Rationality."
Once every two years, a small group of Puget Sound students studying geology spend one to two weeks immersed in rigorous experiential learning on trips known as Georneys—pronounced “journeys” with a nod to the geological sciences. On these trips, students get to do hands-on science, learn from experts, and experience some of the most stunning geology on the planet. Since 2007, students have visited Ecuador, Hawai`i, Iceland, New Zealand, and Tanzania.
TACOMA, Wash. — University of Puget Sound announced that it has selected a new director for the Puget Sound Museum of Natural History. Professor of Environmental Policy & Decision Making and chair of the Department of Geology Kena Fox-Dobbs will assume leadership duties from Professor Emeritus Peter Wimberger. Wimberger has served as director of the museum since 2005, during which time he greatly expanded the museum’s outreach programs, including a pivot to online programming during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Megan Mooney ’23 stepped onto campus in 2019 a declared biology major—unusual, since students usually take the first year to decide—and high expectations for her college career. The valedictorian of her high school in Arvada, Colo., Mooney was determined to do just as well, if not better, at Puget Sound. “I just hit the ground running,” says Mooney on a bright April afternoon, sitting in the courtyard outside Oppenheimer Café.
Laura Krughoff, associate professor of English and director of gender and queer studies, is a fiction writer and essayist. She won a Pushcart Award for her short story “Halley’s Comet” in 2007 and her debut novel, My Brother’s Name, was a finalist for a 2014 Lambda Literary Foundation Award. A more recent book, Wake in the Night, is a collection of short fiction about women in rural Indiana. We asked her about her work.
