A faculty directory for the College of the Environment
The University of Washington’s College of the Environment has 11 schools and departments that bring together a wide swath of the University’s natural science subjects from fisheries, forests and atmospheric sciences, to environmental policy and more. For prospective graduate students interested in interdisciplinary topics like climate change, conservation or resource management, cutting across these academic silos is increasingly important.
Together with Darin Reid at Elegant Contraption, we helped the College build an all-new website that celebrates the people, synergies and collaborative opportunities at the College. A core component of the project is an interactive directory that profiles all 200 faculty members. A searchable and sortable grid of faces displays everyone working on any of 13 cross-disciplinary research themes such as freshwater, climate or conservation.
We needed a cohesive series of portraits of all faculty members to make the directory effective. During three visits over the last year, Sara and I set up a small studio in the University’s “Halibut Garage” to make 200 10-minute portraits. It felt a bit like we were speed-dating professors, but we had a blast working with some familiar faces and getting to know new ones in this amazing academic community.