Jan Ciborowski
Jan Ciborowski (University of Windsor photo)

When the International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) held its 2020 conference entirely online last week, Teach Me About the Great Lakes was there to stream a live interview—a first for the podcast. In Episode 12, titled “You Never Lose Track of Your Old Friends,” Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s Stuart Carlton and Carolyn Foley speak with Jan Ciborowski, the 2020 IAGLR Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Ciborowski is an entomologist-turned-food-web-ecologist who has studied invertebrates and water quality in streams, wetlands, lakes and more during his over 40 year career. 

Carlton, Foley and Ciborowski discuss how terrifying mayfly sampling can be, the pros to an open-door policy in research labs, and why the key to solving complex problems is “a big enough room and the right kind of beverages.” This episode also features heartfelt testimonies from some of Ciborowski’s over 250 former graduate students, highlighting how appreciative they are for his work and mentorship.

Teach Me About the Great Lakes is a monthly podcast in which Carlton—a social scientist who grew up in the South near the Gulf of Mexico—asks people to explain the biology, ecology and natural history of the Great Lakes. A new episode will be released on the first Monday of each month. The latest episode is embedded below.

Love this episode and want to hear more in the future? Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or use the RSS feed in your favorite podcast player.

If you have questions you want answered about the Great Lakes, reach out to Stuart Carlton at jsc@purdue.edu.


Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.

IISG Instagram

This February marks a major milestone: 30 years of aquatic invasive species outreach by our team! To celebrate, IISG Director, Stuart Carlton, and Strategic Communication Coordinator, Renie Miles, sat down for a Sea Grant Chat with two key figures in IISG’s AIS history: Pat Charlebois, our assistant director and program leader, who spent over two decades leading our prevention efforts, and Katie O’Reilly, who took over that role in 2022. We discussed the evolution of the invasive species issue in the Great Lakes, the shift toward understanding human behavior, and the creative strategies that make this team so effective. Dive into the full interview at the link in bio.
Introducing the Lake Michigan Explorer! Start exploring the varied factors that impact the Great Lakes with our Explorer Series. This searchable database of external resources can help you find hands-on activities that spark curiosity and inspire action. ✨ What’s inside?Lesson plans, fact sheets, and reading materialsEngaging videos and visualizationsEasy-to-use filters by grade level, topic, and time.Perfect for classrooms and informal learning, this resource empowers students to become stewards of the Great Lakes.🔗 in bio for more.
Join is in welcoming our new research and reporting coordinator, Laura Esman, to the team! In her new role, Laura will oversee research competitions and manage IISG’s research portfolio. She will also spearhead IISG data collection and lead the program’s annual reporting process.Esman brings over 30 years of experience in research, project coordination and grant administration. Her most recent positions include managing director of the Indiana Water Resources Research Center, and lab manager and research associate in the Natural Resources Social Science Lab in Purdue’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources.Full story at the link in bio.