10/23/18

By Kristin Sleeper

Complex adaptive systems. Nonlinear feedbacks. Multiscalar. Tightly-linked social-environmental systems. System thinking. Data. Interdisciplinary. Transdisciplinary. I could go on forever with a list of jargon in attempts to wrap my head around how best to do socio-environmental synthesis science.
Instead, I spent a week at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) in Annapolis, Maryland, at a graduate workshop with highly interactive sessions and facilitated discussions on S-E synthesis science with 23 PhD students from around the world and across scholarly disciplines. SESYNC provides the support to make use of existing but underutilized data, knowledge and expertise to answer difficult questions and tackle wicked problems (Learn more about SESYNC here).

Over the course of fivedays we ran through a myriad of topics:

• The science of team science
• Boundary objects
• Science communication
• Proposal writing
• Identifying and integrating data
• Socio-environmental synthesis in practice

After the S-E skill-building and training, the workshop shifted to networking with others to lead or participate in a Graduate Pursuit to conduct collaborative, socio-environmental synthesis research. I am stoked to say that I working with a team of five PhD students to put together a Graduate Pursuit proposal on water quality and inequality!

The workshop was an overwhelming success, challenging the way I think about problems, pushing me outside my comfort zone and collaborating with peers outside my discipline. I recognize that interdisciplinarity is the only path forward to address the wicked problems riddled with uncertainty.