Summary: Sydney Blankers is one of four 2015 ESA Graduate Student Policy Award (GSPA) winners. A Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois-Chicago, she studies urban and environmental planning. In the podcast, Sydney discusses using ecological systems as models for urban planning. She also reflected on her meetings with policymakers on Capitol Hill to highlight how federally-funded research benefits the communities they represent. For more on how organisms within the natural world can inspire technological innovations in urban communities, see the accompanying post on ESA’s blog, EcoTone This is the second in a series of episodes featuring graduate students recognized by ESA in 2015 for their work at the interface of science and society. For more information on the GSPA, click here.
