Messy Problems and Collaboration

As a student it is easy to become so engulfed in your own field that you lose touch of the larger picture.  As your studies take up more of your life your vision becomes tunneled around the issues which directly relate to your field.  This summer I have found that this easily happens in research as well. 

This week we have begun analyzing the data we collected from the field.  We have spent nine-hour days in the lab doing repetitive tasks to prepare our samples for analysis.  One day, I spent hours weighing 75 tiny pieces of filter paper to the fifth decimal place.  Keeping the broader context in mind is what motivates me to push through the frustration and repetition of such precise work.  My colleagues are a refreshing reminder of the holistic objective of our combined work. 

Viewing life from a solely scientific lens can be exhausting in our world.  In the environmental field in particular, it is easy to become a pessimist.  I often find myself wondering what our research matters if it does not inspire meaningful policy or societal change.  That is why it is crucial that natural science research is coupled with strong social understanding.  This is what I find so hopeful about the LAKES project; our aim is to go beyond understanding the science of the water pollution issue, we also want to engage with the community and understand how PEOPLE can solve it.  To do this we are approaching the problem from a range of perspectives: economic, social, biological and geological. 

My colleagues Lucia and Tara are working on understanding the social context for the phosphorus problem.  Their goal is to understand what motivates farmers and lake front owners to engage in conservation practices.  They have interviewed nearly 20 people in the watershed in order to gain a nuanced understanding of local attitudes and drivers of behavior.  One of their questions dealt with attitudes about wetland restoration which is a topic we have dived into this summer as well.  In this way, our research compliments each other, while we are trying to understand the biological feasibility of wetland restoration, Tara and Lucia are informing us about the social feasibility of restoration.  Our research would be incomplete without the social context that Tara and Lucia are providing. 

As scientists, we can describe problems to infinity, but the next step of actually solving the problem is more challenging.  Solving problems requires social buy in and collaboration.  Problems are rarely (if ever) solved from the laboratory alone.  The world is complex dynamic system, to vast to be understood by a single discipline.  The issue is that passionate driven people become so immersed in their own work that they lose touch with the messy complexity of reality.  Our only hope for fixing anything (especially our dirty environment) is through strong collaboration.  I believe that finding commonality between disparate world-views and building a movement fueled by shared values is the most important work of our generation.

This REU has offered a glimpse at what this type of collaboration could look like.  I am amazed by the sense of community that has grown in our little group in the last five weeks.  This community has made, what would otherwise be agonizingly long lab days, fun.  I recognize that I am the type of person who can easily become so sucked into my own work that it consumes my life. This summer has given me a more holistic idea of the type of work environment I want.  I recognize that working as a team is much more fulfilling.  I hope I always have the opportunity to be part of a community and contribute to a team of diverse passionate people.

Pictured below is a pie that my coworkers and I made from handpicked blueberries.  A more concrete out-put of our collaborative efforts (it was one of the best things I've ever tasted)!