PLU announces Carol Sheffels Quigg Award winners
Pacific Lutheran University is pleased to announce the winners of The Carol Sheffels Quigg Award for Excellence and Innovation, established by alumna and regent Carol Quigg, whose endowment funds the awards. The Quigg Awards provide support for faculty, staff, and students who have demonstrated unusually…
PLU interns combat climate change one tree at a time
A group of PLU students interning with the Tacoma Tree Foundation spent the summer increasing the number of trees in the city to reduce polluted stormwater runoff and heat during the summer months and improving the livelihoods of those who live in urban areas. The…
Saving the World with a Starship
On day one of PLU Professor of Mathematics Daniel Heath’s Designing a Starship class, students have no idea what they have signed up for — and that’s exactly how Heath wants it. The course is part of PLU’s International Honors Program (IHON), which means it…
Music and Medicine: Elizabeth Larios ’21 returns to Namibia to research infections and teach marimba
Elizabeth Larios ’21 decided she was going to be a neurosurgeon in the fourth grade. That’s when her class took a field trip to a science museum and Larios saw an exhibit about the human brain. Returning home that day, she told her mom: “I’m…
Adrian Arrives
During his senior year, computer science major Adrian Ronquillo ’22 filled out 203 job applications. Despite already having a job offer from a tech company he was interning with, he wanted to see what other opportunities were available to him. One of those applications included…
Information, Technology and Leadership: an interview with Port of Tacoma’s Mark Miller ’88
When Mark Miller ’88 enrolled at PLU he planned to become a math teacher, but he soon discovered he had a passion for technology and business. He’s followed that passion ever since. His career in information and technology has spanned three decades and included chapters…
PLU receives a major gift to fund environmental issues programming
Pacific Lutheran University is excited to announce the establishment of the Steen Family Symposium on Environmental Issues. David ‘57 and Lorilie Steen ’58 have generously donated funding to the PLU Environmental Studies program to support this new annual symposium. The gift is being invested in…
PLU biology professor Amy Siegesmund receives national teaching award
Pacific Lutheran University Professor of Biology Amy Siegesmund is the recipient of the American Society for Microbiology’s 2023 Carski Award for Undergraduate Teaching. The award recognizes a university educator for outstanding teaching of microbiology to undergraduate students. What I love about teaching microbiology is that…
Summer Internship: Environmental Studies major works as a bio tech at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge
Fiona Ashton-Knochel ’24 is spending her summer on a bird refuge in Brigham City, Utah. The Environmental Studies major sat down with us to discuss her exciting internship and to offer suggestions for anyone looking to land their own internship working in conservation. Why did…
City of Tacoma environmental scientist Tom Chontofalsky ‘03 loves asking questions
From an early age, Tom Chontofalsky ‘03 always thought he’d be a wildlife biologist. He’d pore over issues of National Geographic and One World magazines his dad purchased, studying photos and text of exotic animals. Chontofalsky is now an environmental scientist with the City of…
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