The future is here.

RMBL has a new executive director. Meet Jenifer Blacklock, PhD. She comes with impressive credentials and achievements, and her enthusiasm for RMBL’s future is infectious. Yet she is quick to acknowledge that she has big shoes to fill. Dr. Blacklock wants it known that she has a deep respect for Ian Billick, our departing ED, for all he’s done to bring RMBL to where it is today.

Now she is poised to take RMBL into the future. In fact, she has already supported collaborations with RMBL, helping to establish advancements in the critical realm of data collection and analysis.

Engineering a partnership

You may remember Dr. Blacklock from the March 2024 Science Story “Engineering the Future.” She launched the Western Colorado University – University of Colorado Boulder Engineering Partnership Program. In collaboration with RMBL, it is putting mechanical engineering and computer science graduates to work developing tools to help scientists collect more types of data and establish enhanced analysis techniques.

Extreme learning

So far, students in the WCU-CU Boulder partnership are creating an advanced sensor suite to analyze the land surface energy balance by measuring radiation, soil temperature, heat flux, and meteorological variables. These measurements provide comprehensive insights into environmental processes.

The students are developing a snowpack measuring device that senses animal weight to assess the snowpack’s load-bearing capacity. They also have created a multi-modal sensing system that combines ground measurements, remote sensing, and modeling to quantify the amount of leaf surface in a given area, a key variable for carbon storage and water use.

Working with Trimble Navigation Systems, the students are working on updating a device that turns a tablet into a precision mapping, navigation, and measurement tool to map RMBL research sites.

This past summer, students collaborated with RMBL’s Ian Breckheimer and Travis Hainsworth of the WCU/CU Engineering Partnership Program to integrate advanced sensors, drone and satellite sensing, and machine learning to revolutionize snow cover monitoring.

All science is based on observation. So creating the means to radically intensify the accuracy and breadth of scientific observation is truly the future of research. And the future of RMBL.

Where science grows

What’s ahead under Dr. Blacklock’s leadership? She envisions RMBL as a center of growth — in K–12 programs, undergraduate and graduate research programs, and science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) programs. She also sees RMBL expanding its partnerships to include not only those with education institutions like WCU and CU but also with state, federal, and industrial entities as well as the community.

At the same time, Dr. Blacklock is firmly grounded in the reality that RMBL’s growth must be rooted in a solid foundation. So the first order of business will be to secure RMBL’s financial foundation to support growth so that our programs, infrastructure, and operations are well-supported and sustainable for the next 100 years.

When Dr. Blacklock stepped down as dean of the WCU/CU partnership program in July, she was proud of the difference she had made in the community at large. But she knew she wasn’t done. Then a door opened at RMBL, and beyond it lay an opportunity wherein her science and engineering background, her leadership skills, and her talent for cementing partnerships could help scientists advance groundbreaking knowledge.

She walked in. And we met the future.

With over a decade of engineering curriculum and industry experience, Jeni Blacklock holds dual B.S. degrees from Miami University in Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management, an M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering, and a PhD. from Max Planck Institute in Germany. As a National Research Council Fellow at NIST, she worked in Boulder, Colorado, before becoming a Teaching Professor at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO. There, she focused on hands-on education and innovation, with many initiatives funded through multimillion dollar NSF grants. Transitioning to CU-Boulder, Jeni helped launch the Student Experiential Education initiative, integrating real-world industry and practical experiences into the mechanical engineering degree program. Returning to Mines, Jeni helped launch the Advanced Manufacturing program as co-principal investigator on a $2M NSF-PEER grant for workforce development. Returning to CU Boulder in 2020, Jeni launched the WCU/CU Boulder partnership program in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, with the first cohort of students graduating in May 2023. Jeni lives in Crested Butte with her husband and two boys.