BIOSCIENCES
One Wild World
Scott Solomon’s new podcast gives us all a chance to learn from specialists out in the field.
BIOLOGIST SCOTT SOLOMON is, at heart, a science communicator. He says, “I am very passionate about sharing my knowledge and enthusiasm for science with as many people as possible.” In recent years, he has produced documentaries, created online courses, and written a notable book and numerous articles for major magazines, but his podcast, “Wild World with Scott Solomon,” is giving him a completely new way to reach an ever-growing audience. Each episode focuses on an expert doing fieldwork in a remote location. The first season includes episodes about a biologist working with macaws in Belize, an underwater cave diver studying lemur skeletons in Madagascar and an entomologist digging deep in the Brazilian Cerrado to study ants. “There’s just all these different perspectives on science,” Solomon says, “and
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each [researcher is] doing something out in the field that is fascinating.” Solomon is no stranger to fieldwork. A big part of his research background has involved travel to remote places, and one of his favorite classes is his summer course on tropical field biology. “We go for two weeks down to Belize and spend a week at a field station in the rain forest and another week on an island off the coast doing coral reef ecology,” he says. “An integral part of the experience is seeing and touching and doing and experiencing nature.” While Solomon knows from experience that this kind of hands-on research can be life-changing for students, he laments, “It’s only a small number that gets to do that.” His podcast is inspired in part by a desire to give more people a sense of fieldwork, even when they lack the opportunity to go in person. Season 1 of “Wild World with Scott Solomon” was released in early 2023, and Season 2 will become available in 2024. Episodes can be found anywhere podcasts are available. — HILARY C. RITZ Scott Solomon is an associate teaching professor in biosciences, focusing on ecology and evolutionary biology. Read more about “Wild World” at magazine.rice.edu/wild.
Materials scientist and engineer Lane Martin has joined Rice as the director of the Advanced Materials Institute and the Welch Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering in the George R. Brown School of Engineering. The institute, which will be housed in the new Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering Science, will integrate chemistry, materials science, machine learning and artificial intelligence to revolutionize energy systems, sustainable water systems, space systems and more. Martin comes to Rice from the University of California, Berkeley, where he held several appointments, including the Chancellor’s Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. “He is a gifted scientist with the boldness and vision to build this new institute into a research powerhouse,” said Ramamoorthy Ramesh, Rice’s vice president for research.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ALESE PICKERING
MARTIN TO LEAD NEW INSTITUTE
WISDOM
