Lunchtime Talks

The Alaska Energy Data Gateway is an online database that ISER, the Alaska Center for Energy and Power at UAF, and other partner organizations established in 2011, to provide communities across Alaska with data they can use as they develop and improve their energy systems. Information in the database comes from many sources, can be downloaded in various file formats, and is mostly at the community level.

This summer Rachael Teter, an intern sponsored by First Alaskans Institute, has been working at ISER, updating and expanding the information available in the database. Kyle Borash, ISER's computer programmer, is developing an interactive map that will allow users to see at a glance what kinds of information are available for individual communities. That map will be launched on the data gateway in September. Join us at ISER to hear Rachael Teter and Kyle Borash discuss their work on the data gateway.

Download the presentation (PDF, 1.3MB)

Many coastal Alaska Native communities are seeing rapid erosion, flooding, and other serious problems related to climate change, and a number plan to move to safer ground. Robin Bronen, a senior research scientist at UAF's Institute of Arctic Biology and the executive director of the Alaska Institute for Justice, has been studying the climate-induced need for relocation of these communities since 2007.

At ISER, she talked about her current work with 15 coastal Alaska Native villages, to design and implement a community-led approach to making decisions about relocating their communities in the face of climate change.

When: Friday, May 19, 12 to 1
Where: ISER conference room, Third floor, 1901 Bragaw St., Suite 301

Much of the natural-resource development in Alaska happens in isolated, rural areas. Do local residents get jobs and other benefits from those developments? Mouhcine Guettabi, an assistant professor of economics at ISER, is assessing that question in two papers he is currently working on.

In the first paper, he is using employment by place of work and by place of residence to determine whether local residents of an isolated borough with oil development get a share of the new jobs created when oil prices spike up. In the second, he is looking at the causal effects of the Red Dog mine on employment, wages, and other measures in the Northwest Arctic Borough, where the mine has been operating since the 1980s.

Please join us at ISER to hear what he has found so far.

When: Friday, April 28, 12 to 1

Andreas Pflitsch is a professor of physical geography at Ruhr University in the German city of Bochum. He has studied climatic conditions in ice caves in a number of U.S. states since 1996.

At ISER, he’ll talk about his research in ice caves in Alaska and in glacial caves on volcanoes in Oregon and Washington. Many glaciers have far-reaching cave systems in the ice, and Dr. Pflitsch's work is some of the first to assess climatic conditions in those caves. Join us at ISER to hear what he's learned.

When: Thursday, March 23, 12 to 1

Commercial and recreational fisheries are very different: the commercial fishery is a resource extraction, processing, and retailing industry; the recreational fishery is a form of outdoor recreation, influenced not only by the availability of fish but by the environmental setting and other factors aside from fish. How can we make a fair comparison of their economic value?

Gordon Gislason, a fisheries economist from Vancouver, British Columbia, talks about a framework he has developed for analyzing and comparing the economic value of the two kinds of fisheries. As a case study, he estimated the commercial and recreational values of Chinook salmon in Pacific Canada. Please join us to hear what he found.

The Alaska Department of Administration contracted with the Center for Alaska Education Policy Research (CAEPR) at ISER to study teacher salary and tenure issues in Alaska. As part of that broad study, CAEPR and ISER researchers explored attitudes and opinions about teacher tenure in Alaska. Please join us to hear what these researchers learned about how much teachers and principals understand (or misunderstand) about tenure policy in Alaska.

When: Tuesday, December 6, 2016, 12 to 1

Many countries are now using emissions-trading schemes as a policy to reduce pollution cost-effectively. But what incentives do tradable-permit markets offer companies to make investments in advanced pollution-abatement technology? Timothy Cason, the Rasmuson Chair of Economics at UAA this semester, and a colleague from the UK recently investigated that question through experimental economics.

The researchers used a laboratory experiment to assess how two methods of allocating tradable permits—auctioning permits or grandfathering them—might affect businesses’ decisions about investing in new technology to reduce pollution. Please join us at ISER to learn what they found.

When: Thursday, December, 1, 12 to 1
Where: ISER conference room,
Third Floor, 1901 Bragaw Street, Suite 301

Those who can’t attend in person can stream the talk live at: http://stream.iseralaska.org

The Anchorage School District and Providence Alaska Medical Center have made wearable activity trackers available for Anchorage school students who choose to use them. Mouhcine Guettabi, an assistant professor of economics at ISER, is assessing how wearing these devices affects physical activity among school kids. In a recent experiment, he gave students in grades three through six different levels of access to feedback from the activity trackers. Some students could go online any time to get information, but others could get feedback only once every two weeks. Join us at ISER to hear Dr. Guettabi discuss whether having more access to feedback made kids more active.

In this presentation, Davin Holen, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, will discuss his dissertation, which examines the intersection of commercial and subsistence fishing in Alaska for food security, culture, and community well-being. His multi-year project documents how the economic and cultural value of salmon promotes the long-term viability of coastal Alaska communities.

When: Friday, November 4, 12 to 1
Where: ISER Conference Room ,
Third Floor, 1901 Bragaw St, Suite 301.

Note: Those who can’t attend in person can stream the talk live at: http://stream.iseralaska.org

In his first seminar as ISER's director, Ralph Townsend will discuss knowledge accumulation in the social sciences, and why thinking about that topic is important for ISER and other research organizations that study social problems. Please join us for this talk.

When: Friday, October 21, 12 to 1
Where: ISER Conference Room ,
Third Floor, 1901 Bragaw St, Suite 301.

Note: Those who can’t attend in person can stream the talk live at: http://stream.iseralaska.org