First Edition
A Message From The Director
Welcome to the first edition of the Interfaces of Global Change newsletter, part of our effort to keep you informed about the activities and accomplishments of our growing global change community at Virginia Tech. Now in its second year, the graduate program is thriving with 15 Ph.D. fellows and 22 faculty members. We opened the academic year in August with a Meet & Greet Reception at the Hahn Garden, and welcomed 5 new students to the program. The Global Change Seminar class (FIW 5004) now meets weekly, and the student-driven syllabus reflects our community’s strong interest in the science/society/policy interface. Faculty members are always welcome to join us for these lively discussions.
This fall, we are working to raise our collective research and education achievements to a higher level of cohesion and recognition. With support from the Fralin Life Science Institute and the Virginia Tech Graduate School we are actively making strides towards establishing The Global Change Center at Virginia Tech. This large cross-campus initiative will capitalize on VT’s strengths in science, engineering and the social sciences, in a wide array of academic units at our University. We have already gained considerable traction towards this unified vision through our work on the IGC IGEP and by rallying the enthusiasm of additional faculty members across campus. We now have office space in Fralin Hall, have hired a full-time Global Change Center Coordinator, and are working on our official Center charter. With this current momentum, I believe the months ahead promise to be full of exciting developments. Stay tuned!
-William A. Hopkins
New Course- Biology 6064: Freshwaters in the Anthropocene
BIOL 6064: Spring Semester 2015
2 credits- M/W 9:05-9:55am
Dr. Cayelan Carey is teaching a new special topics graduate course in the spring, ‘Freshwaters in the Anthropocene,’ which will…
Laura Schoenle receives a 2014 EPA STAR Fellowship
Laura Schoenle, a fellow in the Interfaces of Global Change Program, was recently awarded a EPA STAR Fellowship for 2014. This very competitive graduate fellowship program from the Environmental P…
Amy Pruden receives the 2014 Busch Award
Amy Pruden, professor of civil and environmental engineering and associate dean and director of interdisciplinary graduate education in the Graduate School at Virginia Tech, is the 2014 recipient of t…
Vertebrate species populations have declined
Message from the World Wildlife Fund International Director General
“The latest edition of the Living Planet Report is not for the faint-hearted. One key point that jumps out and captures the…
A Special Supplement from PNAS: The Science of Science Communication
A special supplement to this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) is dedicated to science communication.
“Better communication to the public and policy makers can…
Leandro Castello studies the impacts of extreme weather events on Amazonian floodplains
Dr. Leandro Castello and his colleagues at Woods Hole Research Center and University of California Santa Barbara recently received a grant from NASA to study the impacts of extreme weather events (flo…