Category: Campus Seminar Announcements

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Blog Campus Seminar Announcements Climate Change Environmental Justice Food & Agriculture Global Change Newsletter Other Sponsored Lectures Special Events

Thirteenth Annual Sustainability Week kicks off

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From VT News | September 13, 2019

The 13th annual Sustainability Week, an interactive partnership among Virginia Tech Office of Sustainability, the Town of Blacksburg, and local citizens group Sustainable Blacksburg that highlights sustainability efforts in the community and on campus, is underway.

Sustainability Week 2019 kicked off on campus on Sept. 14 with Green Tailgating at the Virginia Tech Furman University football game. More than 20 events are scheduled through Sept. 22.

As part of Virginia Tech’s commitment to sustainability, the Game Day Green Team recycling initiative hands out green recycling bags to tailgaters during home games and strives to build awareness around recycling, waste reduction, and sustainability.

Some of the other events being held during Sustainability Week 2019 on campus and in the community include:

  • Tech Sustainability Open Forum (Sept. 16, 1–2:30 p.m.): This event will provide a brief overview of Virginia Tech’s successful campus sustainability program and will seek audience ideas for continued improvement. Representatives from the Office of Sustainability, Student Affairs, and the Alternative Transportation Department will highlight current programs and initiatives and explore future opportunities. RSVP.
  • Active Commute Celebration (Sept. 19, 8 a.m.–1 p.m.): This event offers an opportunity for the Virginia Tech community to learn more about available alternative transportation options around campus. There will also be giveaways and snacks. RSVP.
  • Sustainable Eats Bike Tour – A Glimpse of Sustainable Practices at Virginia Tech’s Dining Halls (Sept. 17, 12:30–2:30 p.m.): Join the first-ever “Sustainable Eats Bike Tour.” Sample and learn more about our delicious, local, and sustainably sourced eats all while taking a scenic bike tour around campus.
  • Electric Car Display (Sept. 21, 1–3 p.m.): Join the nationwide celebration to heighten awareness of today’s widespread availability of plug-in vehicles and the benefits of all-electric and plug-in hybrid-electric cars, trucks, motorcycles, and more. RSVP.
  • And many more.

Click here to view the full schedule of Sustainability Week 2019 events.

Sustainability Week Blacksburg

CONTACT:

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Categories
Blog Campus Seminar Announcements Climate Change Environmental Justice Food & Agriculture Global Change Newsletter Other Sponsored Lectures Special Events

Best-selling author Roger Thurow to speak about the global food crisis

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From VT News | September 12, 2019

On Sept. 16, the Virginia Tech College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Global Programs Office will host best-selling author Roger Thurow for a series of public events, as part of its Global Agricultural Productivity Initiative.

Thurow is an expert on agricultural development and speaks often on high-visibility platforms related to nutrition, hunger, and agriculture in the United States, Europe, and Africa. For 20 years, he was a foreign correspondent based in Europe and Africa. His coverage of global affairs spanned the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the release of Nelson Mandela, the end of apartheid, the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and the humanitarian crises of the first decade of this century – along with 10 Olympic Games.

In 2003, he and Wall Street Journal colleague Scott Kilman wrote a series of stories on famine in Africa that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting. Their reporting on humanitarian and development issues was also honored by the United Nations. Thurow and Kilman are authors of the book, “ENOUGH: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty.” In 2009, they were awarded Action Against Hunger’s Humanitarian Award.

Roger Thurow, a former foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal is noted for his writing about the politics of world hunger.

 

He is also the author of “The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change,” and his most recent book, “The First 1,000 Days: A Crucial Time for Mothers and Children—and the World,” was published in May 2016. Thurow joined the Chicago Council on Global Affairs as senior fellow on global food and agriculture in January 2010.

 

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Events open to the public: Sept. 16

Politics of Food Security and Nutrition: 9 – 10:30 a.m., Newman Library Multipurpose Room
The global food price crisis of 2007-08 was a wake-up call for the global community, demonstrating that the world is unprepared to sustainably produce enough nutritious food for a growing population.

Thurow will provide insights into how policymakers are addressing the complex environmental, economic, and human challenges to achieving food and nutrition security. He will also share stories about the people whose lives and livelihoods hang in the balance, including African smallholder farmers and undernourished mothers and children around the world.

This event is co-hosted by the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and the Community Change Collaborative.

The Last Hunger Season: 12:30 – 2 p.m.,
Fralin Hall Auditorium
Africa’s small farmers are living and working essentially as they did in the 1930s. Without mechanized equipment, fertilizer, or irrigation; using primitive storage facilities, roads, and markets; they harvest only one-quarter the yields of Western farmers. In 2011, a group of farmers in Kenya came together to change their odds for success — and their families’ futures. Thurow spent a year following the progress of four women farmers in this community and recorded their struggles and aspirations in his book, “The Last Hunger Season.”

He will share the stories of these remarkable women and their determination to end the hunger season. His presentation will be followed by a panel discussion about the challenges and opportunities for smallholder farmers in Africa.

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Categories
Blog Campus Seminar Announcements Climate Change Global Change Interfaces of Global Change IGEP Newsletter Other Sponsored Lectures

Climate Journalist Sara Peach Set to Visit Blacksburg September 26-27

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From Virginia Water Resources Research Center | September 12, 2019

The Center for Communicating Science is thrilled to welcome Sara Peach, climate journalist and speaker, to Blacksburg this month!

Peach, who holds a master’s degree in journalism and a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from UNC-Chapel Hill, has been reporting on climate change and other environmental issues for nearly a decade. Her experience is vast, with work published in National Geographic, Scientific American, and Environmental Health News, among others.

[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Peach serves as the Senior Editor of Yale Climate Connections, a multimedia service providing daily reporting, commentary, and analysis on the issue of climate change. This is also where she writes the “Ask Sara” climate advice column.

On September 26 at 5:30 p.m., Peach will be joining us as our September Science on Tap speaker at Rising Silo Brewery, sharing her talk “What to Expect When You’re Expecting Climate Change.” At this event, Peach will share her insights on climate change, how it affects you, and what you can do about it. She will also share some of the interesting questions she’s addressed in her advice column, “Ask Sara,” and open the discussion to questions from the audience.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

Peach will also lead a lunchtime workshop, “The Humorous Side of the Climate Story: A workshop on the bizarre, unexpected, and delightfully weird side of climate change,” on September 27 at 12 p.m. Peach’s Friday workshop will allow her to share experiences from her years of communicating about climate change issues.

Peach will tell some of the stranger stories she’s encountered as a climate journalist – for example, did you know climate change could mess up homicide investigations? She will also discuss some new approaches to discussing climate change with friends and family.

Lunch will be provided at the Friday workshop; please RSVP here. The talk and lunch will be held in the Steger Hall Conference Center, 1015 Life Science Circle.

Peach’s visit to Virginia Tech is sponsored by Virginia Tech’s Center for Communicating Science, the School of Public and International Affairs/Urban Affairs and Planning, and Center for Humanities, with support from the Department of Communication, the Global Change Center, and Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.

Both of these events are open to the public free of charge. We look forward to seeing you!

By Lauren Holt, Center for Communicating Science student intern[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Campus Seminar Announcements Other Sponsored Lectures Water

Federal Water Resources Agencies – Panel Discussion

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Thursday, April 4, 2019

3:30 pm
HABB1 room 108

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Hear about what it is like to work for various federal water resources agencies. Panel members will talk about their work, career path, and their agency. Afterward, there will be plenty of time for discussion/questions from the audience. Undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, and faculty with interest in freshwater science and/or working for the federal government are encouraged to attend. Refreshments will be served.

For more information, contact GCC Faculty: Jon Czuba, Biological Systems Engineering, jczuba@vt.edu.[/vc_cta][vc_column_text]

Panel members:

 

Rob Hilldale, Civil Engineer

Bureau of Reclamation, Technical Service Center, Sedimentation and River Hydraulics

Denver, Colorado

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Roger Kuhnle, Research Hydraulic Engineer

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, National Sedimentation Laboratory, Watershed Physical Processes

Oxford, Mississippi

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Jim Selegean, Hydraulic Engineer

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Great Lakes Hydraulics and Hydrology Office

Detroit, Michigan

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Molly Wood, National Sediment Specialist

U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Mission Area, Observing Systems Division

Boise, Idaho

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Tim Straub, Hydrologist

U.S. Geological Survey, Central Midwest Water Science Center & Chair

Federal Interagency Sedimentation Project

Urbana, Illinois

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Categories
Campus Seminar Announcements Conservation Research Seminars, Workshops, Lectures Water

Candidates for Fish Ecology Faculty position to present seminars on campus

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation within the College of Natural Resources welcomes three candidates to campus in the coming weeks as part of the search to fill a new Fish Ecology Faculty position. Each will present a seminar during their visit, all of which have strong interdisciplinary research expertise in fisheries conservation and management. Seminar details and more information about the candidates available below.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator style=”shadow”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1542403040313{border-radius: 4px !important;}”]

DR. HOLLY KINDSVATER

Information from adaptation: using traits to conserve and manage fish and fisheries

Monday, November 26th

9:00 – 10:00 am in Fralin Hall Auditorium

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”26537″ img_size=”200×300″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_border”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Dr. Holly Kindsvater is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of Rutgers University.

She studies the connection between life histories of fishes and their vulnerability to overfishing, particular in sex-changing fishes like groupers. Her research goal is to predict the consequences of female-first sex change for population demography and productivity, and how this interacts with fishery selectivity. Dr. Kindsvater’s inquiry expands to understanding how life history complexity interacts with fishing in other species, including salmon, tunas, and sharks and rays.

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DR. ANDRIJ HORODYSKY

Understanding the organism-environment interface in a changing world: a vision for the future of fisheries conservation and management at VT

Thursday, November 29th

9:00 – 10:00 am in Fralin Hall Auditorium

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”26538″ img_size=”200×300″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_border”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Dr. Andrij Horodysky is an Assistant Research Professor of aquatic ecology in the Department of Marine and Environmental Science of Hampton University.

Dr. Horodysky is a broadly-trained aquatic ecologist with research interests centered on the ecophysiology, behavior, and conservation of fishes and other living marine resources affected by anthropogenic activities in the world’s aquatic habitats. He uses comparative interdisciplinary approaches that integrate laboratory and field techniques with tools ranging in scale from microscopes to satellites.

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DR. FRANCESCO FERETTI

(seminar title forthcoming)

Monday, December 3rd

9:00 – 10:00 am in Fralin Hall Auditorium

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”26539″ img_size=”200×300″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_border”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Dr. Francesco Ferretti is a Basic Life Science Research Associate with the Hopkins Marine Station at Stanford University.

Dr. Ferretti is a quantitative and computational marine ecologist specialized in research synthesis. His scientific work is on marine conservation, fishery sciences, population dynamics, and quantitative ecology with a special interest in sharks and rays. Dr. Ferretti combines ecology, statistical modeling, and computer science to approach questions on animal abundance and distribution, species interactions, large marine predators, top-down control, structure and functioning of large marine ecosystems.

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Categories
Campus Seminar Announcements Science Communication Special Events Video

Geosciences to host film screening to challenge science gender stereotypes

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Friday, September 21

4:00 pm
Derring Hall 4069

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From VT News

The Virginia Tech Department of Geosciences is sponsoring a screening of the short documentary film “The Bearded Lady Project: Challenging the Face of Science,” followed by a panel discussion. Filmmakers say the movie challenges preconceptions about what a scientist looks like, focusing on the field of paleontology, seen as dominated by men.

The 30-minute film screens at 4 p.m. Sept. 20 at the Lyric Theatre in Downtown Blacksburg and will be followed by a discussion panel that includes the project and film’s originator, Ellen Currano, an associate professor at the University of Wyoming. Joining Currano will be Meryl Mims, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, and Tina Dura, a postdoctorate researcher at Humboldt University in California, who will join the geosciences department in 2019.

The event is free and open to the public.

“We are privileged to welcome Dr. Currano herself — the originator of the Bearded Lady project — to Blacksburg to host both a showing of the film and a panel discussion,” said Steve Holbrook, head of the Department of Geosciences, part of the Virginia Tech College of Science. “Currano and her colleagues have created an inspiring short film whose main message is that anyone can become a successful scientist, regardless of gender or body type. People of all ages are invited to attend, regardless of facial hair status.”

According to the film’s promotional website, “paleontologists are typically depicted as rugged, burly men, invariably with beards.” With this in mind, paleontologist Ellen Currano, filmmaker Lexi Jamieson Marsh, and photographer Kelsey Vance set out to turn the stereotype on its head by interviewing real-life female paleontologists who don false beards while on camera. Supported by a National Science Foundation grant, the movie seeks to change “the face of science and encourage a new generation of women to focus on a career in this field of study.”

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In the process of filming, Marsh, Vance, and director of photography Draper White traveled across the United States and the United Kingdom, interviewing female paleontologists and, of course, taking bearded portraits of scientists in their field, laboratory, museum, and classroom settings.

The film premiered last year and is available only for special screenings, such as the Lyric event. “I was fortunate enough to attend the premier of this film to a packed house in Laramie, Wyoming, last year, and I can attest that the film is wonderful,” Holbrook said.

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CONTACT:
Steven Mackay
540-231-5035

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Categories
Campus Seminar Announcements Climate Change

Former Brazilian minister of the environment to speak at Virginia Tech

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Thursday, September 27th

12:30 pm
Fralin Hall Auditorium

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From VT News

A global leader and authority in sustainability efforts and the development of environmental and climate change policy will be speaking at Virginia Tech and discussing future avenues for collaboration.

Izabella Monica Teixeira, the former minister of the environment for Brazil, will discuss land use and Brazil’s challenges in the global climate change agenda on Sept. 27 at 12:30 p.m. in Fralin Auditorium on the Blacksburg campus. Her presentation is open to the public.

Stella Schons, assistant professor of international forest economics and management in the College of Natural Resources and Environment, is coordinating Teixeira’s visit to campus through the Mentoring Program for New Faculty Members. It’s the first step in what Schons hopes will be an ongoing mentoring relationship that will allow her and her students to benefit from Teixeira’s 30 years of experience as a Brazilian public servant and global advocate for sustainability.

“Amongst the stewards of the Amazon rainforest and, as such, of the interests of Brazilian society, Izabella Monica Teixeira has played a prominent role in improving policies to curb deforestation and forest degradation in Brazil and in contributing to the negotiations of the Paris Agreement internationally,” Schon said.

Izabella Monica Teixeira

Teixeira served as Brazil’s minister of the environment from 2010 to 2016. During her tenure, she played a major role in the development and adoption of the new Forest Code at the National Congress in 2012. She also achieved the lowest deforestation rates in the Amazon up to that point and, consequently, a large impact on a global scale in relation to the reduction of carbon emissions.

Internationally, she has been recognized numerous times by the United Nations for her knowledge and experience in environmental policy, serving as a key leader at the 2012 U.N. Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development and leading the Brazilian delegation for negotiations of the Paris Agreement at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in 2015. The U.N. named her a Champion of the Earth in 2013.

Currently, Teixeira works as a consultant on environmental and climate change issues, serving as a senior fellow at the Brazilian Center for International Relations and co-president of the International Resource Panel of UN Environment.

Because of Teixeira’s unique combination of knowledge and direct experience, Schons sees her as a mentor who can guide her in finding her own niche and developing a research program centering on deforestation reduction and forest restoration aligned with development in tropical regions. Schons is also interested in the possibility of collaborating with her mentor on future articles related to land-use policy in the Amazon region of Brazil.

One area that is of specific interest to Schons is incentives to land-use change and their impacts on individual and community welfare and resource conservation. Here again, she sees Teixeira as an authority with much to share, as she was instrumental in working with different stakeholder groups in Brazil to address the challenges of deforestation.

“She was able to connect the different sectors of society, truly understand the problem, and tackle it,” Schons said.

Teixeira’s presentation on Sept. 27 will be part of the curriculum for Schons’s Natural Resource Economics course in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation. Teixeira will also visit the Climate Change and the International Policy Framework course taught by Carol Franco, a senior research associate in the department, as well as talk with individual students and faculty and attend a dinner with college and university leadership.

Schons hopes that the seminar and additional opportunities for engagement will be the beginning of an ongoing relationship between herself and Teixeira, as well as with Virginia Tech, that will aid in sustaining and advancing land-use policy and deforestation and carbon emissions reduction efforts in Brazil and other tropical regions.

Parking information

The Fralin Auditorium is located in Fralin Hall at 360 West Campus Drive. With a visitor’s pass, parking is available in the Wallace, Hillcrest, and Litton Reaves Lots, which can be accessed from Washington Street or Duck Pond Road. A visitor’s pass may be obtained Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Visitor Information Center located at 965 Prices Fork Road, near the intersection of Prices Fork and University City Boulevard next to the Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center. Find more parking information online or call 540-231-3200.

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CONTACT:
Krista Timney
540-231-6157

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Categories
Campus Seminar Announcements Climate Change Global Change Other Sponsored Lectures

Friday, March 23: Mapping Climate Change Vulnerability Hotspots to Anticipate Migration and Resettlement

Please mark your calendar for the upcoming interdisciplinary speaker series presentation organized by Coastal@VT: 
Dr. Alex de Sherbinin 
Mapping Climate Change Vulnerability Hotspots
to Anticipate Migration and Resettlement 
Friday, March 23
11am – 12pm
Assembly Hall, Holtzman Alumni Center
The event is sponsored by the Fralin Life Science Institute and the Global Systems Science Destination Area.
 
Dr. de Sherbinin is Associate Director for Science Applications at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (The Earth Institute at Columbia University) and the Deputy Manager of NASA Socioeconomic Data and Application Center. He is renowned for his work on climate change vulnerability mapping and population migration, urban resilience, environmental indicators, and remote sensing applications for environmental international agreements.  You can view de Sherbinin’s bio and CV on Columbia University’s site here.
Categories
Campus Seminar Announcements Seminars, Workshops, Lectures

Seminar–Dr. Kate Calvin: The Influence of Land on Energy, Water, and Climate

Katherine Calvin

Dr. Katherine V. Calvin will be speaking on March 24th at 11:15 a.m. in Fralin Auditorium, as part of the FREC seminar series. Her talk will be titled, “The Influence of Land on Energy, Water, and Climate”.

Dr. Calvin is a research economist working at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Joint Global Change Research Institute (JGCRI) in College Park, Maryland. Her work has been featured in the latests IPCC reports and she was recently appointed to the National Research Council study team.

Her research focuses on the influence of biofuels on land-use decisions, the interaction between agriculture and climate systems, measuring the consequence of delayed climate change regulation as well as predicting future energy-economy-land-climate interactions.

At JGCRI, Dr. Calvin works with the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM). GCAM enables researchers to explore the drivers, consequences, and responses to global change, taking into account all sectors of the economy and all regions of the world.

For more information about Dr. Calvin, please see her website.

If you would like to meet with Dr. Calvin while she is on campus, please contact Ben Ahlswede (bswede@vt.edu) in the department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation.

SEMINAR FLYER (PDF)

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Categories
Campus Seminar Announcements Interfaces of Global Change IGEP

Dr. Jill Welter discusses alternative careers in academia with IGC students

The EEB Seminar on November 3, 2016 featured Dr. Jill Welter, an ecosystem scientist from St. Catherine University in Minnesota. Dr. Welter’s work focuses on understanding how environmental change, including climate warming and eutrophication, influences species interactions and nutrient cycling in stream ecosystems. Her seminar talk was titled:

“Start seeing nitrogen fixation: the potential impact of cyanobacteria on river ecosystems in a changing world.”

During her visit, Dr. Welter led a brownbag discussion for fellows in the Interfaces of Global Change Program where they discussed alternative careers in academia. She also visited the Carey Lab’s Falling Creek Reservoir research site for a hands-on demonstration of water quality research techniques.

Dr. Welter’s visit to Virginia Tech was hosted by Cayelan Carey and graduate students in the Carey Lab.