Focusing on the Environment, as a Discipline and as an Attraction

In 2014, Matthew Cooper had what many newly minted faculty scientists dream of: his own laboratory and a generous start-up package at a public research university. Then he heard about an opening at a liberal-arts college in rural northern Wisconsin and decided to give it all up.

Today, Cooper is an assistant professor of biology and natural resources at Northland College, where he has helped build a freshwater-research program staffed almost exclusively by undergraduates. He was drawn by the opportunity to work with students whose scientific careers are just starting, and by the lure of Lake Superior. Both he and his wife grew up on Lake Michigan and wanted to raise their children in a similar environment...