Today we’d like to introduce you to Lily Bosworth.
Hi Lily, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was privileged to grow up on the foothills of the Wasatch Mountains, in the transition zone between Tintic Quartzite crags and the open, sagebrush-lined Salt Lake Valley. My parents were both deeply involved in my community, and I felt deeply connected to all of Ogden’s inhabitants: the people who foster culture and support, the flora and fauna who remind us of our home in the West, and the ever-grinning face of Mt. Ben Lomond watching over us.
As an undergraduate at the University of Utah searching for a major and reflecting on my home, I landed on the water as the entity and issue I wanted to commit to. Water connects the living to the nonliving at the molecular scale, sculpts our landscapes by moving mountains’ worth of sand grains, and determines the structure of our community’s design, economy, and outdoor play. In Utah, our water supply is limited and becoming ever more stressed by a burgeoning population paired with climate change. The beauty and spirit of water in the West, along with its complex science and integration into all aspects of our lives was the enigma I resolved to focus my career on. With water in mind, I chose Honors Geological Engineering and Environmental Geosciences degrees, which apply math and observational science to earth systems and human problems.
Terry Tempest Williams writes that our desert landscape teaches us that erosion, or undoing, is our becoming. For me, while I was learning about water as one of Earth’s most forceful agents of erosion through my undergraduate programs at the University of Utah, my personal life eroded and exposed the form it holds now, surely changing as time wears on. In my first year of college, my dad died by suicide, a cornerstone of my life dissolving, getting swept away, and resettling as strata of grief, altered relationships, and uncertainty. I was fortunate to have my Ogden community rally around me and my mom after my dad’s death, bolstering us with everything from meals to new friendships, which enabled me to stay in school. The next major erosional event was my mom’s diagnosis of bone marrow cancer a few years later. Since that time, my mom has had a bone marrow transplant, and receiving my stem cells, and our family has practiced resiliency and reshaped itself once again.
I’ve spent the last two years away from home, in Golden, Colorado, which mirrors Ogden in many ways: an arid mountains-edge town sculpted by rivers and geological shifts with a tight-knit and generous community, but in Golden the mountains rise to the west not the east, which has taken a long time to adjust to. In Golden I’ve worked through a Master’s degree in Hydrologic Science and Engineering, focusing my geology base more closely on water, and learning different watersheds and their unique characters and struggles. This fall, I’ll return home to Utah to start an engineering position focused on managing the waters of the Colorado River in a responsible and equitable way, exploring the evolving contours of our growing state and its distinct ecosystems and communities as I go.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As I discussed in the previous section, my family has changed drastically over the last ~7 years. We’ve faced the loss of my dad, that will be with us for the rest of our lives, and experienced permanent shifts in my mom’s health while she’s been treated for bone marrow cancer. These changes have changed my relationships with all of my family members and friends, the institutions I’ve attended, and the landscapes I live in. Some relationships have completely eroded, while others have been sculpted into more precious, resilient forms.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
For the last seven years, I’ve been a college student. My studies were in science and engineering, but I rounded out my coursework with socially-focused work and engagement, serving as a resident advisor for four years to support myself through undergrad, and volunteering with numerous community organizations. Now I’m finishing graduate school, and looking forward to professional engineering work for the state focused on the urgent and sweeping issues of the Colorado River.
In both undergrad and grad school, I’ve done research focused on human-made analogs for natural systems that address water issues in a natural but predictable way. My undergraduate work looked at how beaver dam analogs, or human-made beaver dams, can restore the natural hydrology of degraded streams, and enable streams to revitalize themselves by reinstating natural river processes. My graduate work looked at the design of engineered wetlands for passive water treatment that simultaneously provides green space and habitat. Looking ahead at my next job, I view the Colorado River as a large-scale, semi-engineered, semi-natural system that will need a deeper understanding of its natural processes paired with engineering solutions to ensure its resiliency as our climate changes. For me, merging humanity and our range of disciplines with nature’s web of systems, processes, and beauty is what sets my work apart. Water issues are multifaceted, and require intersectional approaches for long-term solutions that meet the needs of all people.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
My relationships with others are continually recentered. In academia and STEM, it’s easy to hyper-focus on my own goals and projects and tune out the people in my life, but each new challenge I’ve faced has highlighted the ways that my connections with my family, friends, and landscapes are my greatest priority.
