Mutel, Connie

Senior Science Writer (Retired)
IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering

Office: 423-2 Stanley Hydraulics Lab (SHL)

Phone: (319) 335-5315

Email: connie-mutel@uiowa.edu

Education: BS, Oberlin College, 1969
MS, University of Colorado, 1973

Research Areas
Connie Mutel, retired IIHR historian and Senior Science Writer. Connie Mutel was educated in biology and music at Oberlin College, and received an MS degree in plant ecology at the University of Colorado. She then used that training to write a widely-used book on the natural history of Colorado, initiating a career in scientific writing and interpretation. She came to the University of Iowa in 1975 and to IIHR in 1990 to assist then-director Jack Kennedy with a biography of noted hydrologist Hans A. Einstein (son of Albert Einstein). In 2014, she and co-author Robert Ettema completed Hans Albert Einstein: His Life as a Pioneering Engineer (ASCE Press). She has completed fifteen books and many articles on a variety of science-based subjects, including a history of IIHR (Flowing Through Time). In 2000, she established IIHRs Archives. Her most recent writing, A Sugar Creek Chronicle
Observing Climate Change from a Midwetern Woodland, has reflected the increasingly complex interaction between Iowas altered natural environment, the states hydrology, and the consequences of climate change. She also lectures extensively on these subjects. Connie and her husband (a retired UI astronomy professor) live on 18 acres of oak-hickory woodland near Iowa City that they are working to restore to biodiversity and health. Connie remains active in groups and volunteer efforts that work to educate Iowans about the interactions of nature and human activity, and the multiple benefits of restoring Iowas native ecosystems.