Connecting to the world through global education page 13

Global Citizens
Views from Four Graduates
Eugénie Euskirchen ’90
We are grateful toEugénie Euskirchen, Seth Rau, Marc Shotten,
and Chris Wyant, some of our alumni who are engaged in
careers and activities in the global arena, for their participation
in our issue on global education.
Tell us about your work.
I am a Research Assistant Professor of Terrestrial Ecology in the Institute of
Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. My research focuses on
understanding the vegetation, soils, snow, and permafrost (permanently frozen
ground) in the arctic tundra and boreal forests, particularly with respect to how
these ecosystems are currently behaving and how they may behave in the future
under potential changes in climate. I perform both field studies outdoors and
simulations with computer models. Field studies help us to understand what is
currently happening in the arctic tundra and boreal forests, and this information
can in turn be incorporated into computer models to predict how these
ecosystems may behave in the future.
How have your experiences impacted or changed your
world view or your sense of yourself as a global citizen?
Arctic science is a collaborative, international effort, due in large part because
many of the scientific questions in this region cannot be solved alone, in isolation.
Furthermore, while the Arctic is comprised of numerous countries with
numerous Arctic scientists, scientists in countries that are not located anywhere
near the Arctic have an intellectual interest in this geographical region. Moreover,