UW’s new provost, a geophysicist, plumbs the mysteries of Earth’s deep core
The provost job makes him second in command to President
Before coming to the
"The Earth sciences, perhaps more than most other sciences, often require multiple lines of evidence in order to settle important research questions," he said. That way of thinking "has a good effect upon decision-making in a complicated academic context such as the
Richards has traveled the world looking for clues to the dynamics of the earth's deep interior. His 30-year research partner,
At roughly the same time, an active volcanic area of
The eruptions could have spewed enough sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide into the air to cause a massive environmental catastrophe that the dinosaurs, and many other species, couldn't survive. But the meteor also could have sentenced the dinosaurs to extinction by kicking up a huge amount of dust and other particles, causing a temporary dimming of the sun and global cooling, and generating acid rainfall.
Whatever it was, the event is believed to have wiped out about 75 percent of plant and animal species on earth.
"I think it's almost inevitably true both factors were at play," Richards said. "We're getting closer to the true sequence of what happened."
As an academic and administrator, Richards is known for leading an initiative at
Richards, who grew up in a small town in eastern
Like many other states,
Richards doesn't think most people realize how much higher-education funding has been cut in just the last decade. And universities are often "cast as the villains" by the public because one of the few ways they can make up the difference is by raising tuition, he said.
But it's clear, just by walking around the
"How we've lost sight of that at a time when the need for a college education is greater than ever is a bit of a mystery," he said. Most new construction on the
The university is on precarious footing not only because of money, Richards said, but also because of earthquakes. As a geophysicist and expert on plate tectonics, he says the area is in danger of a real catastrophe, and that "the basic infrastructure of the campus is not only rundown, but seismically unsafe." The
While he was at UC Berkeley, the university fixed almost all buildings in danger of collapsing during a severe earthquake. He thinks that would be a good investment for the
One of the issues he'll address in the coming months is the decline in the number of students majoring in the humanities, and the rush of kids majoring in fields like computer science and engineering. It's a trend at universities across the country. It also causes more budget problems because it's less expensive to teach an English major than a computer-science major -- but both pay the same amount in tuition.
"I can tell you as the parent of high school kids, the college counselors are telling kids to get a STEM degree if you want a job -- whether they have the inclination, or the talent," Richards said. As a way to help students who need STEM skills but still want to major in the humanities, the
Richards plans to engage students on the questions he has sought to answer through his own STEM research. On
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