89.9 FM Live From The University Of New Mexico
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Professor Uses Electronic Art To Draw People Into Environmental Data

We are awash in data and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by it or even ignore it, but Andrea Polli’s work strives to make that data visually compelling and even beautiful. 

Polli is Professor of Art and Ecology with appointments in the College of Fine Arts and School of Engineering at the University of New Mexico. Polli is this year’s recipient of the Community-Engaged Scholarship Lectureship Award, which recognizes exceptional scholarly work that embodies UNM’s commitment to community engagement. Her lecture, "STEAM in New Mexico: The Arts In Service," is online here.

She holds the Mesa Del Sol Endowed Chair of Digital Media and directs the Social Media Workgroup, a lab at the University’s Center for Advanced Research Computing. She has worked with numerous organizations including the NASA/Goddard Institute Climate Research Group in New York City, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and AirNow. Her work has been presented at organizations around the world.

A Flickr gallery of her projects is online here.

Also in this episode, Marty Adamsmith speaks with doctoral candidate David Puthoff about his dissertation research on slave rebellions and collective identity.

Megan has been a journalist for 25 years and worked at business weeklies in San Antonio, New Orleans and Albuquerque. She first came to KUNM as a phone volunteer on the pledge drive in 2005. That led to volunteering on Women’s Focus, Weekend Edition and the Global Music Show. She was then hired as Morning Edition host in 2015, then the All Things Considered host in 2018. Megan was hired as News Director in 2021.