U of A heat policy experts to present at annual Frontiers of Science symposium
Ask Ufuoma Ovienmhada why she’s made the difficulty of heat well being for incarcerated folks a significant focus of her analysis, and her reply is brief, clear-eyed.
“Human dignity matters. That’s kind of the beginning and end of the sentence,” stated Ovienmhada, who joined the University of Arizona last year because the Endowed Postdoctoral Research Associate in Climate Change and Human Resiliency, established in 2023 with a $4 million gift. She will be part of the college of the School of Geography, Development and the Environmentwithin the College of Social and Behavioral Sciencesas an assistant professor in August.
Ovienmhada’s perception in that straightforward fact has fueled her rise as an early-career scientist, from incomes a mechanical engineering diploma at Stanford University earlier than finishing a grasp’s diploma and later a Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics; each graduate levels she earned at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has spent the final a number of years targeted on understanding the unfavorable well being results that excessive heat has on incarcerated folks, specializing in how components corresponding to constructing design and carceral policy exacerbate the results of excessive heat in prisons.
Ovienmhada will probably be one of the up-and-coming researchers presenting her work as half of the National Academy of Sciences’ Frontiers of Science symposium in Irvine, California, March 3-5. Ovienmhada will present in a panel titled “Heat Stress and Human Health: Tackling the World’s Most Dangerous Hazard” alongside Robbie Parks, a frequent collaborator and epidemiologist at Columbia University.
Much of Ovienmhada’s presentation will contact on her latest analysis on excessive heat and incarcerated folks, together with a 2024 study from her time at MIT that used distant sensing to higher perceive air temperature in carceral landscapes. The research discovered that many prisons are experiencing elevated excessive heat and sure traits of prisons make incarcerated folks extra inclined to unfavorable heat well being results.
“To make that more concrete, in the United States, 44 states currently do not have universal air conditioning in their state prison systems,” Ovienmhada stated, including that in her house state of Texas, for instance, 70% of prisons lack air-con within the housing areas. “So, there’s this major infrastructure issue of access to AC that is compounded by a really poor health care system – and even further compounded by harmful power dynamics in some cases.”
Ladd Keith, an professional on heat governance and planning who leads the Heat Resilience Initiative at the Arizona Institute for Resiliencewill introduce the heat well being panel. Keith, an affiliate professor of planning at the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecturewill present a basic overview of excessive heat to preview deeper dives from Ovienmhada and Parks.
“The idea with Frontiers of Science is it brings together people at the forefront of different scientific research areas,” Keith stated. “The fact that the National Academy of Sciences selected two people, out of all of the universities they could have selected from, to both be on the heat panel just speaks to our university’s strength in this area.”
The crowd in Irvine will embrace scientists from a variety of disciplines – a worthwhile viewers for locating extra future collaborators to take the work a step additional, Ovienmhada stated.
“I’m looking forward to the opportunity to share about my discipline and my research, which is likely very different from what other people are doing at this symposium,” she added. “That’s where interdisciplinary work is really impactful – the merging of methods, bringing together different people’s expertise and context to make something even greater.”
