Brenda Konar named Alaska NSF EPSCoR lead
May 25, 2021
Alaska NSF EPSCoR — the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research — has named Brenda Konar as the new principal investigator and project director of its “Fire and Ice” research project.
Konar is a professor of marine biology with the UAF College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. She has served since 2018 as a co-PI of Fire and Ice, an interdisciplinary effort to study climate-driven changes to Alaska’s boreal fire regimes and its coastal ecosystems.
“I’m very excited to take the reins of this important research project,” Konar said. “Fire and Ice has already started to publish some significant findings, and I look forward to helping us continue to make important discoveries and to build Alaska’s research capacity.”
Konar succeeds Alice “Pips” Veazey, who resigned from the university to take a job closer to family. Veazey had been PI of the project since 2019, and had served Alaska NSF EPSCoR in various capacities since 2007. Konar’s position as PI is still subject to confirmation by the National Science Foundation, which is expected to be a formality.
The Fire and Ice project (NSF grant #OIA-1757348) uses remote sensing, fieldwork, laboratory experiments and modeling to examine climate-driven changes, and works with communities to generate knowledge about their potential impacts. The five-year (2018-2023) effort is administered by Alaska NSF EPSCoR, which improves Alaska's scientific capacity by engaging in research projects supported through National Science Foundation and state funds.
Konar holds a B.S. in biology from San Jose State University, an M.S. in marine biology from Moss Landing Marine Labs in California, and a Ph.D in biology from UC-Santa Cruz. She has worked at CFOS since 1999 and been a full professor since 2009. She serves as co-lead of the Fire and Ice coastal margins component and will continue to do so in addition to her PI role.
For more information, contact Tom Moran at tmoran3@alaska.edu or 474-5581, or Brenda Konar at bhkonar@alaska.edu or 474-5028.