Doctoral Dissertation Research: Integrating Academic Innovation: Professional Networks and Scientific Regionalism

研究生内森·伍兹，由迈克尔·布林博士指导，将对环境科学家在三个跨学科环境科学研究生项目中建立区域网络的努力进行定性和定量的人类学研究（由NSF通过综合研究生教育和研究培训或IGERT计划资助）环境研究承担着为跨越各种专家和生态系统的问题提供多学科解决方案的负担。对于像太平洋斜坡这样的地区来说，与自然管理有着密切的联系，对自然设施的依赖也在不断变化，环境科学的创新具有特殊的意义。为了了解专业环境网络如何在区域内整合，以及这如何影响研究和环境实践，该项目的重点是科学知识是如何从科学家传播到专业实践者，并研究如何以及在多大程度上建立科学创新作为新的专业知识程度之间的文化关系。采用混合方法的方法，研究者将研究科学家的专业关系的培养作为对创新的回应。利用社交网络调查和参与者观察，他将研究如何引入创新转化为学术科学家和专家之间的关系。他将利用档案研究和访谈来研究对环境研究中具有区域重要性和创新性的科学项目不断变化的期望。并探索在区域变化的条件下，科学家利用网络开拓专业化道路的轨迹。这项研究很重要，因为它提供了一个比较分析环境专家如何利用现有的研究基础设施来动员科学项目。将通过强调通过维持和利用专业关系将创新纳入环境研究的机构规模，加强进一步的研究和教育。这项研究也将大大有助于社会科学家的教育。

Graduate student Nathan Woods, supervised by Dr. Michael Blim, will undertakequalitative and quantitative anthropological research on efforts by environmental scientists to build regional networks amongst three graduate interdisciplinary environmental sciences programs (funded by NSF through the Intergrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship or IGERT program) on the Pacific Coast of the U.S. Environmental research bears the burden of providing multidisciplinary solutions to problems spanning a diverse array of experts and ecosystems. For regions like the Pacific Slope, with strong ties to the administration of nature, and a changing reliance on natural amenities, innovation in environmental sciences holds a special significance.To understand how professional environmental networks are regionally integrated, and how this affects research and environmental practice, this project focuses on how scientific knowledge is communicated from scientists to expert practitioners and examines how and to what extent innovation in science is built as new cultural relationships between degrees of expertise. Employing a mixed method approach, the researcher will examine the cultivation of professional relationships by scientists as a response to innovation. Utilizing a social network survey and participant observation, he will examine how the introduction of innovation translates into relationships between academic scientists and experts. He will use archival research and interviews to examine changing expectations regarding regionally important and innovative scientific projects in environmental research. and to explore the trajectory of networking scientists use to carve out a course of professionalization under conditions of regional change.This research is important because it provides a comparative analysis of howenvironmental experts utilize the existing research infrastructure to mobilize scientific projects. Further research and education will be enhanced by highlighting the institutional scale at which innovations are incorporated into environmental research through the maintenance and use of professional relationships. The research also will contribute significantly to the education of a social scientist.