Had a great time discussing #SciComm, #lobbying and #ClimateChange with @VTSuN @globalchangevt and Water IGEPs today! @VTGradCommunity
— Marina E Vance (@marinavance) September 11, 2015
Three Virginia Tech interdisciplinary graduate education programs (IGEPs) recently met in Torgerson Hall to discuss the documentary film, “Merchants of Doubt”. This discussion followed a visit from the book’s author, Dr. Naomi Oreskes, ...
The Interfaces of Global Change Program will begin its third year with a banner recruitment class of eight new Ph.D. students! A private reception to welcome the incoming class of 2015-16 was held on August 26, 2015 in the Fralin Hall Atrium.
BLACKSBURG, Va., Aug. 25, 2015 – Naomi Oreskes, a world-renowned science historian who focuses on understanding scientific consensus and dissent in relation to environmental science, will visit Virginia Tech on Wednesday, Sept. 2.
She will give a 4 p.m. distinguished lecture entitled “Should We Trust Science? Perspectives from the History and Philosophy of Science” at the Lyric Theatre, followed by a question and answer period and book signing.
The event, coordinated by the Global Change Center ...
Read More →As the new academic year starts, it is timely to reflect on characteristics that help make a student successful in graduate school. Raw intellect is only one part of a more complex recipe for success.
“Graduate school can be a traumatic experience. Some graduate students spend their time complaining about a heavy work load, uncaring attitudes of faculty, or constant pressure of being evaluated. These students quickly begin to devalue their graduate education, deny its ...
Read More →August 6, 2015
IGC Fellows Tamara Fetters and Heather Govenor recently hosted a research tour in Derring Hall for a group of summer campers from the Science Museum of Western Virginia (SMWV). The K-5 summer camp, called “Science Girls!”, featured women working in STEM-related fields, and included field trips and presentations from women who currently work in those fields.
Tamara and Heather showed the girls around the Derring Hall “lizard room”, a brown anole colony, and talked about anole ecology ...
Read More →Jon Doubek has received the Leo Bourassa Award from the Virginia Lakes and Watershed Association for his research on the effects of anoxia on water quality in Virginia reservoirs. This award was chosen based on his contributions to the field of water resources in the commonwealth of Virginia and goes to the top graduate student doing water research in VA!
Jon has been monitoring the water quality of several reservoirs in southwestern VA the ...
Read More →August 1, 2015
Postcard from Angie Estrada
“Hi All!
For the past six weeks, I have been working on collecting data for my first season and it has been super exciting! Fieldwork is much more intense and exhausting than you can imagine, but at the same time it is really fun and I have learned so much. I got to see amazing frogs, snakes, monkeys, birds, sloths and even humpback whales during my visit! I also realized that I am the luckiest person to be able ...
Read More →July 12, 2015
Postcard from Maya Wilson
“I am just finishing up my four-month field season in The Bahamas! Overall, it has been a success!
I am here studying the Bahama Swallow, a poorly known and endangered bird species that only breeds on three islands in the northern Bahamas. I was here last summer for two months, but this is my first full season as a PhD student. I have spent most of the time on Abaco Island with my field ...
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A project proposal submitted by IGC graduate student, Tony Timpano, to the Department of Interior’s Office of Surface Mining has been successful! This funding will support one full-time research associate for 12 months and one graduate student for two semesters to continue research on salt pollution (salinization) and selenium in headwater streams affected by coal mining in VA and WVA. Congratulations, Tony!
TITLE:
Stream Ecosystem Response to Mining-Induced Salinization in Appalachia
PROJECT GOALS
Video: In the rainforests of Central America, a research team studies a skin disease that may be the tipping point for amphibian life on the planet.
As the clock ticks, populations of endangered species decline and threaten the functioning of healthy ecosystems.
Pollution, hunting, habitat degradation, climate change, and invasive species have dealt blows to global biodiversity. Climate change alone is putting one in six species on Earth at risk of extinction, according to a meta-analysis of 131 ...
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