Biomaterials Lab
Plastic insulation like Styrofoam is commonplace in seafood packaging and buildings. But plastics never completely disappear, instead they break up into ever smaller particles or microplastic. These tiny particles are harmful to the soils, marine environment and wildlife, and may affect human health.
Researchers with the Biomaterials Lab seek to better understand the effects of these stray plastic bits. The team is working to solve the global plastic pollution problem by developing insulation that is recyclable, reusable, and biodegradable. Researchers combine design-thinking, microbiology, and physics to dream-up scalable biological materials that store carbon and provide a sustainable vital barrier from the elements.
Their key ingredients to de-carbonizing industries include beetle-kill spruce trees and renewable cellulose that is literally grown in a lab. The Biomaterials Lab is an active innovation platform for new bio-based materials and circular bio-economy solutions in the Circumpolar North. The lab uses norm-critical design thinking as a framework to tackle some of the most pressing environmental and public health problems facing the Arctic today.
NEWS & Stories
UAA Justice Center Professor, Sharon Chamard provides expertise on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), emphasizing the importance of design elements like natural surveillance, access control, and maintenance in creating safer communities.
UAA’s Alaska Justice Information Center researcher, Rus’sel Sampson is quoted in an Alaska Beacon article about merit-based Alaska Performance Scholarships.
The Alaska Victimization Survey (AVS) released a new report about the health of women who have experienced Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Physical violence is a part of IPV, but it also includes things like controlling behaviors, threats of harm, and inflicting harm against people and things an intimate partner cares about. Dr. Ingrid Johnson with AVS told the Alaska Beacon these sorts of behaviors can have a lasting impact.
This year's annual Crime in Alaska report was recently released. Brad Myrstol, Justice Center Professor and Alaska Justice Information Center Director, discussed the data compiled from police agencies across the state with Anchorage Daily News.
UAA Justice Center Professor and Alaska Justice Information Center Director, Brad Myrstol, spoke with KNBA about the disproportionally high number of Alaska Native and American Indian inmates in the Alaskan and U.S. prison system.
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Phone: 907-786-6574
Email: nbbeckage@alaska.edu
