UNH’s Cameron Wake evolves from researcher to translator of sustainability science
By David Sims,
Science Writer
UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space
SEARCHING FOR RELEVANCE and effectiveness in his scientific career, Cameron Wake zigzagged from big-scale, climate system science down to regional air quality issues and then back up to the biggest picture of all – a sustainable life here on planet Earth. As he did so, he evolved from pure scientific researcher to a translator of science.
It was a risky career move that paid off and, today, Wake is well known as an accomplished practitioner of “engaged scholarship” – a process in which university faculty collaborate with external partners for the purpose of creating and generating knowledge that is of practical use to society at large. For his cumulative efforts Wake was named the 2010 recipient of the UNH Faculty Excellence in Public Service Award.
Back in the late 1980s and 1990s, while a graduate student and then research faculty at UNH, the Canadian-born glaciologist focused his research career on investigating global climate change using ice cores he drilled in the Tibetan Plateau and the Arctic. But over time he realized that picture was in fact too large for most people to fathom, let alone act upon, and this began to gnaw at him.
- Cameron Wake with Research & Discover student Margaret Baber (left), and graduate students Eric Kelsey and Elizabeth Burakowski in the UNH ice core freezer outside Morse Hall.
“As I learned more about climate change through the 1990s, I became very concerned about what I saw as a lack of action on society’s part,” Wake recalls. “On numerous occasions I told people that if policymakers and the general public knew what scientists knew – that climate change is a significant threat to our quality of life – they would act differently.”
So he began to shift toward climate matters on a smaller scale, incorporated concepts of sustainability in his research, and looked for ways he might help push the collective consciousness into a more enlightened sphere.
“I wondered how I could still do research but become more of a translator and began looking for opportunities to get involved with organizations that were representing that role of interpreting and presenting science for the public good.”
The development of the Climate Change Research Center’s – AIRMAP project in the mid-90s provided Wake with some funding that allowed him to refocus his research from being solely on ice cores to climate change in New England. At the same time, a communication/outreach effort launched by the Union of Concerned Scientists – the Sound Science Initiative – gave Wake the opportunity to get directly involved in what was to become his major focus on engaged scholarship.
Around this time he also began to collaborate with the UNH Sustainability Academy and Clean Air-Cool Planet (CA-CP) to develop a Campus Carbon CalculatorTM, now in use by thousands of colleges. This project morphed into a longstanding relationship with CA-CP that resulted in the publication of several reports, including the 2005 “Indicators of Climate Change in the Northeast.” (Clean Air-Cool Planet is dedicated to solving the global warming problem through civic engagement, education, and effective policy.)
When Wake started lecturing on the results of that study he was struck by 
the distinctly different response he received from New England audiences compared to his talks on global climate change.
“I was talking about something that was happening in their backyard as opposed to something in the Arctic or the Himalaya, so there was that context and connection for them. I saw the difference in the response I got – the interest, the questions, and the number of people who would come up and say, ‘I’ve been confused but now I understand this.’ And lots of people asked me to come and talk to their local organization.”
Wake’s evolution to scientist-translator is, he asserts, part of an increasingly important trend that universities as a whole need to help foster. Citing a Kellogg Foundation report that makes this same assertion, Wake notes, “For the most part universities are focused on disciplines and society is focused on problems, and that needs to change. I would argue that universities must focus more on helping solve society’s problems as honest brokers if they are to stay relevant in the 21st century.”
This honest brokering is part and parcel of the work done by Carbon Solutions New England, which Wake directs. CSNE is a public-private partnership based out of UNH whose mission is to promote collective action to achieve a clean, secure energy future while sustaining our region’s unique natural and cultural resources. Adding additional weight to his public service/outreach efforts is his involvement in the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment, which in turn led directly to his being invited to join the Climate Change Policy Task Force, created by New Hampshire governor John Lynch and charged with writing the state’s Climate Action Plan.
Wake says he is “humbled” by the recent recognition from the university “because there is a lot of wonderful public service being done by other people on campus and at [the UNH Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space] EOS.”
True, but it is likely that few on campus have integrated the focus of their public service directly into their personal lives. Wake, at least on weekends, can bask in the sustainability of his own life while relaxing in his 16-foot-diameter, off-the-grid yurt in the mountains of western Maine, and meandering contemplatively through his 22-acre woodlot.
“It’s my attempt to get back to a much simpler life, and I now realize that this has allowed me to answer the question What is ‘the good life’, what is it that sustains you?” says Wake. “If you ask people that they’ll come back with a myriad of answers, but it’s never just about food and shelter, that’s survival. It’s about music and culture, relationships, a sense of place, a sense of belonging, a sense of meaning.”
Wake outside his off-the-grid yurt in the mountains of western Maine
He adds, “For me, being in the woods, paying attention to nature, having the time to sit and think and not multitask, that’s the good life. It has really been a centering experience for me, and this can only help me be more focused and productive in my professional sustainability work.”
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