Peter Thais and Dr. Charles were featured in a recent article by the Cornell Chronicle titled “Through community, Indigenous students thrive in STEM”.

The article highlighted both of their work with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) along with some of their perspectives on being Indigenous scholars in STEM.

The following excerpt highlights some of the contributions from Peter Thais and Dr. Charles to the article:

…“Sustainability is at the core of a lot of Indigenous communities and always has been,” said Heaton, former president of AISES-Cornell and now the events chair.

Heaton gave as an example the Tlingit value “Wooch Yáx,” which means balance, reciprocity and respect. Thais referenced the Haudenosaunee’s “one dish, one spoon” principle of taking only what is needed from the land. And Charles has framed concepts in chemical engineering through the Navajo worldview embodied in “hózhó,” meaning beauty and balance.

“Within our culture, we’re very much taught within a reciprocity framework, within a community framework, rather than any individual goal or focus,” Charles said. “When we start thinking about how to balance what we give back to landscapes, to nature and what we’re taking and receiving, that fits within these pretty basic sustainability concepts.”

Many students’ work reflects this community focus: Cline hopes his research on saltwater intrusion modeling will help policymakers protect vulnerable agricultural coastal communities as extreme weather events increase. Thais studies the impact of land dispossession on Indigenous food systems in Charles’ lab; he hopes the story his data tells can shape policy to protect and restore the land and provide justice to those whose lands were dispossessed.

“I’ve learned over time that not only is there room for both traditional knowledge and academic or institutional knowledge in the same conversation, but they can go hand in hand to promote one another and be able to push each system forward,” said Thais, a biological engineering major in CALS…

Read the full article here!

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2024/04/through-community-indigenous-students-thrive-stem