I sent this email out today. Want to be involved in some way? Please get in touch.

Friends and colleagues,

Linda Richards, Anna Dvorak (PhD student in History of Science) and I have proposed a project to the National Science Foundation related to the Hanford Downwinders case, a controversial topic touching many lives in our region. It is a hybrid project involving research as well as infrastructural development, the latter being collaboration with SCARC to develop the Downwinders historical collection at OSU.

This summer we learned that the grant has been funded and should last three years, supporting two grad students in the first year (Anna, as well as one of the incoming Environmental Arts and Humanities grad students, Kristina Beggen) and one in subsequent years. They will work in SCARC, and will also help to conduct oral histories of scientists, victims, and other stakeholders related to the Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction (HEDR) project that occurred in the late 1980s and 90s. In addition, we will be planning workshops in which outside visitors will participate. https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1734618

I am reaching out to you to a) publicly thank Linda and Anna for their excellent work, patience, and perseverance in writing and revising this grant proposal, and congratulating them on the accomplishment, and more importantly b) to ask that you get in touch with me if you have a connection to the Downwinders case or the dose reconstruction project in some way and might be able to help us make contacts to make the project as strong as possible over the next three years. Given our location in the Columbia River basin, I don’t want to overlook the valuable resources right here in Corvallis and the region. 

It’s great news, but a lot of work is ahead of us!

Jake