LeeAnn Munk and Mary Beth Leigh Inducted into the Innovators Hall of Fame

By Tasha Anderson

The State Committee for Research is an advisory body formed to promote “research and development as an enterprise and as an engine for economic development in Alaska.” To further that goal, it established the Alaska Innovators Hall of Fame in 2014, honoring and celebrating both individuals and inventions in Alaska that “contribute to the state’s growing culture of ingenuity.”

The original 2014/2015 cohort included more than a dozen innovators, such as Cathy Cahill, who invented an air-sensing system that alerts pilots that they are encountering volcanic ash particles; Elden Johnson, one of the engineers that found solutions for how TAPS would carry hot oil over frozen ground; Mark Gronewald, who contributed to the development of fat tire bikes; and Tim Meyers, who used innovative farming methods to improve the agricultural output of Alaska’s tundra.

Just short of a decade later, two more exceptional Alaskans are being inducted into the Alaska Innovators Hall of Fame: LeeAnn Munk and Mary Beth Leigh.

The Integration of Art and Science

Dr. Mary Beth Leigh, a professor of biology at UAF, was nominated by Dr. Diane O’Brien, interim director of the Institute of Arctic Biology.

In her nomination, O’Brien writes that she nominated Leigh for her work in building public engagement and understanding of the science of climate and the environment. She writes: “These efforts reached a new and greatly increased level of impact with the first

Arctic Fest, a community celebration featuring the arts, sciences, and indigenous cultural and knowledge systems focused on the changing environment. This festival built on over a decade of innovation led by Dr. Leigh and her partners through the In a Time of Change (IToC) program, which brought together scientists and artists as part of the Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research… These efforts have resulted in multiple shows, performances, and other artistic expressions of the science of the environment and climate change, which in turn have increased public engagement with and understanding of that science.

This is a highly innovative approach to diversifying the perspectives of science and improving the accessibility of science for all.”

According to O’Brien, Leigh started innovating art/science integration early in her position at UAF, utilizing her background in dance and her involvement in a local band. At Arctic Fest, which took place in September 2022, forty-five artists created works of music, dance, photography, sculpture, storytelling, puppetry, textile arts, painting, printmaking, collage, book making, science illustration, poetry, and essays that illuminated aspects of boreal forest science, including nutrient cycling, insect outbreaks and damage, fire ecology, plant dispersal, and plant phenology.

Leigh says she has a “brilliant collaborator in this work, Dr. Lissy Goralnik.” Goralnik is a social scientist at Michigan State University who studies the impacts of arts/humanities/ science collaboration on participants and audiences. Her work “helps us understand how building relationships between people and place can inspire care for communities and landscapes,” Leigh explains. She says Goralnik’s insights have helped the IToC program evolve over a decade and help steer it in exciting new directions.

While Arctic Fest was a culmination of years of work, it wasn’t a conclusion. Leigh’s vision is for Arctic Fest to become an annual event, attracting visitors from around the world and engaging stakeholders in the Interior “in a shared conversation about our changing environment,” O’Brien writes. “Her work is bringing tangible benefits to the quality of life for Alaskans, in a way that is poised to spark economic development and impact the conversation about the changing Arctic environment.”

She continues, “Dr. Leigh’s insight into what brings people together across the spectrum of human expression, her unique vision, her commitment to the work, and her skill in building communities is truly innovative.”

When asked how she views herself as an innovator, Leigh says: “I suppose my work is viewed as innovative because it's reaching across the disciplinary silos that structure our prevailing academic systems. This is by no means a new idea, it's an ancient one, harkening back to the days before the arts and sciences became so separated in Western culture—and to Indigenous culture and