Olivia DrakeEllen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in December. Thomas joins 502 other fellows from across the country. These individuals will be recognized for their contributions to science and technology at the Fellows Forum to be held Feb. 19 during the AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. Thomas will receive a certificate and a blue and gold rosette as a symbol of her distinguished accomplishments.
Wesleyan, in conjunction with the Price Carbon Campaign, an umbrella organization of climate-policy advocates, is convening a conference to discuss and develop new approaches to pricing carbon emissions that are destabilizing Earth’s climate and driving global warming. “Pricing Carbon: The Wesleyan Conference” will be held Nov. 19-21 at Wesleyan. Headline speakers include climatologist and Columbia University Professor James Hansen, author-activist Bill McKibben, and environmental-justice lawyer and advocate Angela Johnson Meszaros. “Wesleyan University’s College of the Environment was established in 2009 to help students become better stewards of our fragile Earth,” says Barry Chernoff, director of the College of the Environment and professor of biology. “We…
Dana Royer, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, assistant professor of environmental studies, accepted the gold Donath Medal at the Geological Society of America’s (GSA) annual meeting in Denver, Colo. Nov. 1. The award came with a cash prize of $10,000. The award recognizes a scientist, aged 35 or younger, for outstanding original research marking a major advance in the earth sciences. On a GSA press release, Peter D. Wilf of Pennsylvania State University said, “Dana is a true innovator who successfully tackles extremely important questions in paleoclimatology and paleoecology, in part using paleobotanical proxies calibrated with a remarkable…
James Greenwood, research associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, received a grant worth $494,517 from NASA. The grant will support his research titled “Water in Lunar Rocks: Petrologic and Isotopic Analyses of Phosphate Minerals in Apollo’s Samples” through June 30, 2014.
David PesciWesleyan’s architecture design class and its Research-Design-Build Studio have been recognized by the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) 2010 Small Projects Practitioners Awards. They were recognized for the observation platform “SplitFrame” they created for the Helen Carlson Wildlife Sanctuary in Portland, Conn., in 2008. The studio and class are overseen by Elijah Huge, assistant professor of art, assistant professor of environmental studies. Last year the class and studio created the Sukkah on campus as one of their projects.
Suzanne O’Connell, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences, associate professor of environmental studies, director of the Service Learning Center, received a $21,850 grant from the Keck Geology Consortium to support the “Connecticut River Project.” The award is effective through June 30, 2011.
Michael Singer, associate professor of biology, associate professor of environmental studies, is the co-author of “Triptrophic effects of host plants on an herbivore-pathogen interaction,” published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 2010.
Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, is the co-author of several new articles including: “High-resolution deep-sea carbon and oxygen isotope records of Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 and H2 and implications for the origin of early Paleogene hyperthermal events,” published in Geology, 2010; “Export Productivity and Carbonate Accumulation in the Pacific Basin at the Transition from Greenhouse to Icehouse Climate (Late Eocene to Early Oligocene),” published in Paleoceanography, 2010; “Cenozoic record of elongate, cylindrical deep-sea benthic Foraminifera in the North Atlantic and equatorial Pacific Oceans,” published in Marine Micropaleontology, 74: 75-95, 2010; And “Cenozoic Record of Elongate, Cylindrical,…
James Greenwood, visiting assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, was mentioned in a June 14 BBC News science article on “Much More Water Found in Lunar Rocks.” Greenwood and Professor Lawrence Taylor from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, have come up with evidence on the origins of lunar water: comets. According to the article, they believe there were a lot of comets flying around at the time of the Moon's formation, "hitting the little, nascent, early Moon some 4.5 billion years ago.”
Although Japan lacks large national environmental advocacy organizations, it has one of the best records of environmental policymaking in the world. Japan is one of the top producers of clean energy technology and hosted the global Kyoto Protocol that has set the standard for climate change policy worldwide. For the next 12 months, Mary Alice Haddad will use Japan’s experience of environmental activism to build a broader theory of civic participation. She will test and refine a theory through the examination of environmental politics and civic participation in China, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and Singapore. Her research is supported by the…
Dana Royer, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, has been awarded the Donath Medal by the Geological Society of America (GSA). The Donath Medal is presented to "a young scientist (35 years or younger) for outstanding achievement in contribution to geologic knowledge through research which marks a major advance in the earth sciences." Royer's research interests include global change, paleoclimatology, carbon cycle, paleoecology, paleobotany, plant physiology and light stable isotope geochemistry. He has done extensive studies which have established evidence on how plants affected ancient ecosystems, drawing parallels and evidence from current plant life and conditions. The presentation of the Donath…
Barry Chernoff, the Robert Schumann Professor of Environmental Studies, professor of earth and environmental sciences, professor of biology and director of the Environmental Studies Certificate Program, is the co-author of "A new species of suckermouth armored catfish, Pseudancistrus kwinti (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from the Copename River drainage, Central Suriname Nature Reserve, Suriname," published in Zootaxa 2332:40-48, 2010.