The five inaugural sustainability fellows began their two-year appointment on a myriad of environmental based topics.
Anna Vinton attributes a large part of her love of nature to growing up on a Western Nebraska cattle ranch. Now, she’s left the farmland for the lab.
Vinton is part of the inaugural cohort of the Presidential Sustainability Solutions Fellowship. She is currently developing mathematical tools to research how coral reef species can survive environmental change.
The postdoctoral experience falls under USC’s sustainable framework “Assignment: Earth.’’ The intention of the fellowship is for early-career scholars to investigate sustainable challenges through interdisciplinary research.
“With sustainability, no matter what discipline you’re coming from, no matter what research background you have, I think it has ultimately the same amount of goals,” said fellow David Bañuelas. He is investigating models to predict the sea level rise and the effect it will have on Southern California. His research explores ways to protect salt marshes because of their importance to the planet.
In scientific disciplines, postdoctoral studies are becoming increasingly popular.
From 1999 to 2019 there was a 49% increase in postdoctoral appointees in science broad fields, according to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.
Despite this, the income of scholars does not show the same growth.
Labor economist at the University of Kansas, Donna Ginther, compared biomedical Ph.D. recipients who pursued a postdoc to those who hadn’t in 2017. She found that it took postdocs about 15 years to reach the income of their peers.
Furthermore, research shows that in 2015, fellows in a variety of disciplines saw a salary range between $42,000 to $57,000. Adjusted for inflation, the range is approximately $54,000 to $74,000.
The annual salary for the USC sustainability fellows is $75,000 to $80,000 and they can receive up to $3,000 for relocation expenses.
Fellow Matthew Coopilton said, “I have to pinch myself. This is a dream in many ways,” expressing that their childhood self would not believe this is their job.
Coopilton studies and designs games to be used for educational purposes and allow users to create a sustainable world without systemic oppression. After 11 years as a high school teacher, Coopilton began to notice “their imagination of the future was quite bleak.” They saw the students “were hearing the news about climate change and were beginning to see its impacts.”
Coopilton’s designs/games allows users to create a sustainable world without systemic oppression. In the past, they’ve organized game jams, which allow people to prototype video and analog games. Throughout this fellowship, they aim to work with the School of Cinematic Arts and Rossier School of Education.
The fellowship was created with cooperation as a key principle. The fellows must work with two USC faculty mentors that are in different departments. Additionally, they must devote 20% of their time to interdisciplinary collaboration and growth within the cohort, and the USC sustainability community.
“Their work inspires me to think in more creative ways,” said fellow Zhongzheng Niu about his fellow members. Niu studies what he calls a “hot topic.” He’s investigating the effects of heatwaves and air pollution on health, with an emphasis on how these factors impact pregnancy.
Niu categorizes his work under the umbrella of health disparity. In his past research he found that air pollution impacted pregnant women’s health more when they have greater environmental burdens which is associated with lower socioeconomic status.
Katherine Baker is also interested in socioeconomic status and environmental impact.
“We can work to make sure groups that have been systemically and historically oppressed have opportunities to consume diets that are supportive of health and if they want to as well, the planet,” said Baker.
She studies the intersection of nutrition and the climate emergency. Her work also features themes of environmental justice. Baker intends to find pathways for people to start eating more sustainably. Baker said she enjoys the weekly fellowship meetings and looks forward to collaborating with her peers.
There are limited postdoctoral opportunities that focus on sustainability. The Postdoctoral Fellowships for Sustainability Solutions gives those who want to make a positive environmental impact a chance to do so.