I read somewhere recently that the melting of ice in Greenland is exposing vast quantities of sand. I am not sure if this will make a difference as transporting the sand would then be a problem.
Williams, Harvey-Mudd, Reed...These places exist. But more people would like to go to Duke, Harvard, Berkeley,... Why is that, I am not sure but the market values the latter better.
I'd say this is true. It wouldn't be UW nor at the same salary he currently has but, idk, Texas Tech, North Dakota State or some such place would think he would be a high profile catch at least in the next two or three years.