Shahera Omar is a Fulbright Scholar and a Master of Public Affairs student in SPEA. She is interested in psychology and development, and she is from the beautiful country of Sri Lanka. She is a foodie and loves to squash cute things, especially her cats, Molan and Pakeer, which translate to "Idiot" and "Fool." Broadly, she will be working with Kurt Waldman et al. on understanding which decision science theories can be used to study smallholder farmer decision making in Africa.
Warm welcome to Tyler Marghetis!
Tyler Marghetis joins our Lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow in SPEA and the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. He studies the limits of human imagination — how we [fail to] understand concepts that lie beyond the reach of perception and action — and implications for mitigating climate change, educating STEM experts, and creating a more just society. Before becoming a card-carrying Scientist, he was a child detective, then a professional magician, and finally a national team wrestler. Today, he likes bikes, books, and bourbon.
Party in the woods - celebrating the end of semester
Human Behavior & Energy Consumption (HBEC) course with our fantastic TA - Keane Gleeson
As the partying continues, a more blurry picture of our lab :) - What a fantastic group of researchers, colleagues, adventurers, and friends!
Leader for the greater good!
Just received this award from SPEA undergraduate students - 2016-2017 Leader for the greater good! Love our students (and love that they trust me with a solid glass ball!!). Thank you.
Shahzeen receives Outstanding Junior Faculty Award
Shaz receives the award from Eliza Pavalko, IU's Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs
"The Outstanding Junior Faculty Award is designed to identify our most promising untenured tenure-track faculty from throughout the campus. It provides resources to enable these faculty members to further develop their scientific, scholar or artistic activities. Those selected to win this prestigious honor have begun to develop nationally recognized research programs, and devoted productive time to the teaching and service missions of the university."
Congrats to Janine, Adam, and Daniel!!
Janine, Adam, and Daniel receive a Sustainability Research Grant from IU's Office of Sustainability to investigate why people think of ineffective actions to decrease resource use. Congrats!!! Go Labbers!!!
Shahzeen gives keynote at undergraduate cognitive science conference
Looking forward to hearing and meeting these stellar midwestern undergrads! See you Saturday.
Shahzeen gives plenary talk on water use at Michigan State University
Claire presents her research at IU's Sustainability Symposium
Kudos to Claire Dorner, presenting her research as a Freshman and 2020 Sustainability Student!
Shahzeen heads to her alma mater - UIUC
Shahzeen will be presenting her water research at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), her alma mater where she earned her BS in Engineering Physics. See you there!
Shaz receives SPEA Student Choice Award
Professors Shahzeen Attari and Beth Cate have been selected by the School of Public and Environmental Affairs’ undergraduate student community to receive the Leader for the Greater Good Award - Undergraduate for 2017 SPEA Student Choice Awards. This award was created to recognize the professor who best embodies SPEA’s spirit by giving back, spending time outside of class supporting students and student organizations, volunteering to help out at student events and supporting the school monetarily.
Colloquium at CU Boulder
Shahzeen will be giving the Environmental Studies Colloquium on Friday March 24 at University of Colorado Boulder. She will be discussing her new work with Dave Krantz and Elke Weber on ad hominem attacks on climate researchers. See you there.
Steven receives the A. James Barnes Scholarship
Steven is a recipient of the A. James Barnes Scholarship, named after Jim Barnes, a SPEA faculty member, who is a nationally recognized environmental law and policy expert. Jim also participated in the formation of the EPA. This award honors students who have demonstrated leadership potential and a strong interest in public service. Congrats!
Shaz will be a CASBS fellow at Stanford University
"Imagine a place where great minds are brought together to confront the problems of the day, where original interdisciplinary thinking is the norm, where extraordinary collaborations become possible, where ideas can change our world." That is the mission of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
Yep, that is where Shaz will be for Fall 2017 and Spring 2018! :)
Shaz awarded IU Outstanding Junior Faculty Award
The award, presented by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs, celebrates tenure-track faculty working on nationally recognized research or creative programs.
Janine heads to Taiwan!
Janine Tang will be heading to Taipei, Taiwan this summer (2017) for the International Chinese Language Program at National Taiwan University. She is completing this program as a part of her Chinese studies through the IU Chinese Flagship program.
NSF Award: Understanding and correcting misperceptions of energy use
Shahzeen Attari (PI) and David Landy (co-PI) receive an NSF award for their proposed work to understand and correct misperceptions of energy use.
More details on the NSF website:
Shahzeen invited to serve on Nature Sustainability editorial advisory board
Nature Sustainability is interested in research about sustainability from across the natural and social sciences as well as from engineering and policy fields. It is launching in January 2018.
Annual Holiday Party
Our annual holiday party with the usual crazy shenanigans: games, jokes, laughs, fire, mulled cider, spicy food, peeps, Savannah cuddles, and Seth's serenade.
Above L to R - Kurt, happy Steven, Shaz (rockstar pose), Janine, Seth (fake strangle), Adam being carried by Daniel (he is very strong), Claire (thumbs up), and Erich (aka Dexter) in the bottom corner.
Lab alums, wish you were here. Happy holidays! - Attari Lab.
New paper: Preferences for species conservation
Warm congratulations to Dr. Michelle Lute on our paper Public preferences for species conservation: choosing between lethal control, habitat protection, and no action published in Environmental Conservation. Here is the news release on our work. Michelle is now continuing to protect wildlife at the Montana-based WildEarth Guardians organization. She is a former postdoctoral fellow in our lab.