Hello Friends, Happy Friday the 13th. It’s a gloomy day and the news about Covid-19 around the nation is gloomier still. Please all be attuned to the rapidly evolving guidance on inter-state travel and meet-ups as Thanksgiving approaches. Positivity rates are going up all around us and Columbia has transitioned from green to yellow alert levels. Early next week the University will be sponsoring two forums for faculty, researchers, and staff addressing the latest information about public health and university planning. You can register here. And of course, feel free to reach out to our three ambassadors Nicole deRoberts, Kuheli Dutt, and Kaleigh Matthews, as well as Art, Howie, Pat, Jerry, myself, indeed anyone you need if you have questions or just want to talk. If you have an idea for a way to create an opportunity for connection and support within the Lamont community, please let us know—we are happy to facilitate. Most importantly, you are not alone, we are all in this together and we will get through it eventually. And no one will forget the pandemic when they see that “gap year” in your publication list. Don’t stress…easy to say, hard to do.
Robin Bell forwarded an interesting paper to me yesterday. It evaluated success rates of scientists from prestigious educational backgrounds (read Ivy League-type schools) versus scientists from less prestigious schools. The study found that it was the prestige of the institution at which they were now working that was the primary determinant of success. The message I took away from the study was that the tired, and happily now largely retired, refrain that hiring a woman or URM who “doesn’t look as good on paper” is equivalent to lowering an institution’s standards is not supported by scientific analysis. For every search, we must cast a broad net if we are to proactively address the notable underrepresentation of people of color in the geosciences. I’ll file this study with another favorite, the one that scientifically proves “science advances funeral by funeral” (Max Planck).
More excellent reading this week—the chair of the Lamont Vision Committee delivered the final report of that committee to the Directorate, namely Lamont’s new Strategic Plan. It is an inspiring and comprehensive document that I will soon circulate to all. It represents almost nine months of effort, communication, cooperation, writing and rewriting of the part of the task force and I want to thank each member for their dedication and hard work on this project. Next comes the challenge of translating recommendations to actions and outcomes, and thinking about how to take the next steps forward. The strategic plan will play a critical role in guiding our development efforts as well as our integration into the newly formed Columbia Climate School. Having such a thoughtful and comprehensive roadmap, combined with the upcoming DEI Task Force report, will be invaluable to the Directorate as we work with the Lamont community, the university at large, and our outside supporters to achieve global domination (just kidding, kinda). But seriously, we are the top-ranked graduate research program in the nation and one of the leading climate and Earth science research centers globally—our research and education programs are so impactful and yet we can do so much more…and ideally with much less stress. I look forward to the next stage of Lamont strategic planning!
Any journey requires nourishment along the way, and we are fortunate to have a team, led by Richie Ingman, who conjures up healthy meals in our cafeteria daily. Not only that, Richie is actively striving to increase sustainability and lower the environmental impact of our dining facility. His team is committed to a number of short-term goals, including elimination of single serve plastic bottles and plastic take-out bags, reducing the use of plastics in daily service via use of customers’ own vessels or utilizing our own in-house china, encouraging people to bring their own coffee cups and utensils, proper instruction and use of recycling bins (we are very trainable Richie!), and composting café vegetable waste. The cafeteria staff are always open to new ideas, and have personally let me know how excited they are to be included as Columbia, and Lamont especially, work toward aggressive sustainability goals. From Richie: “To all I say, thank you for your continued support and making the Campus Café a value asset to campus life ‘One Meal at a Time’.” Back at you Richie, we are lucky to have you and your team!
AGU announced this week that Prof. Tony Watts of Oxford University will be awarded the Maurice Ewing Medal at the 2020 Fall AGU Meeting. Tony, who spent 18 years as a geophysicist at Lamont, will be honored for his pioneering and original studies of isostasy and the flexure and strength of the lithosphere. Many of his fundamental contributions were made while he was here at Lamont and, during this time (1972-1990), Tony supervised nine graduate students and multiple postdocs. Tony used gravity and geophysics to investigate isostasy and lithospheric flexure, the origin of deep-sea trenches, the formation of sedimentary basins and continental margins, and the role of isostasy and mantle dynamics at oceanic islands, seamounts and mid-ocean ridges. I’m told by a former student he had a remarkable “knack” for picking out important questions. I like to think being in the Lamont intellectual ecosystem may have been part of his secret sauce. Congratulations Tony!
The Lamont Postdoctoral Fellowship is off to the races—this year we have 108 applicants, and we hope to select three fellowship recipients. We expect to have the top 35 list out before AGU so that you can attend their talks. The website for community comments should be open by November 18th. My deepest thanks to this year’s committee, to Miriam and Kuheli for all their organizational efforts, and a special thank you to Mike Kaplan for agreeing to be chair for a second time. There are also three more days till the mentoring and JEDI award deadlines – submissions due Monday, November 16th. For guidelines and other details visit: Excellence in Mentoring Award and JEDI Award. We expect to have a virtual ceremony in December where we will present the awards. Does anyone want to MC? Channel your inner Jerry Seinfeld, Jimmy Kimmel, or Samantha Bee?
Finally, I’ll wrap up with a few science highlights among the many good stories this week (links below). A huge shout-out goes to Lamont postdoc Guy Paxman of SGT who crushed the weekly news cycle. He did nothing less than discover a vast lake bed under the Greenland Ice Sheet. The lake bed is about the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined and is underlain by more than a kilometer of lake sediments. How old are they? Pleistocene? Pliocene? Miocene? Older? No one knows, but Guy, you have just completed the most critical part of any successful drilling proposal—identifying an incredibly interesting scientific problem and then doing the site survey. I hope it is not too many years in the future when you are standing atop the ice cap and the first lake sediment comes up in the coring barrel—what an exciting moment that will be.
The other two stories I’ll flag both have to do with harnessing the power of big data. In the first case, Natalie Boelman has been instrumental in the establishment of an international data archive that tracks the movement of Arctic animals in relation to the rapid climate changes taking place in the region. In the second case, Lamont scientists led by Radley Horton have teamed up with Columbia’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law to launch a Climate Attribution Database that can be used to inform discussions around “legal rights and obligations pertaining to climate change”. From the website: “Climate attribution science plays a central role in climate litigation and policy-making. The science is central to legal debates on the causal links between human activities, global climate change, and impacts on human and natural systems.”
It is hard not to be impressed week in and week out by the impactful work done on our campus, while simultaneously appreciating the dollop of serendipity and bucketloads of hard work and teamwork that goes into it all. Finally, nobody commented on the 26-second pulsation of our planet—so I went to Google. My favorite line, from a Popular Mechanics article: “The “microseism” doesn’t seem to be hurting anything and has not been a high priority.” Ouch! Lamont pride? SGT’ers, do we really not know what causes this?
Stay safe everyone and you might consider stocking up on paper goods again…
Mo
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LAMONT IN THE MEDIA:
FEATURED NEWS
Scientists Discover Ancient Lake Bed Beneath Greenland's Ice That May Be Millions of Years Old
International Business Times
November 12, 2020
Article on research by Lamont polar geoscientists Guy Paxman, Jacky Austermann, and Kirsty Tinto.
Scientists Discover Huge Fossil Lake Under Greenland
ZME Science
November 12, 2020
Article on research by Lamont polar geoscientists Guy Paxman, Jacky Austermann, and Kirsty Tinto.
Ancient Lake Bed Discovered Under Greenland's Thick Ice
Mysterious Universe
November 12, 2020
Article on research by Lamont polar geoscientists Guy Paxman, Jacky Austermann, and Kirsty Tinto.
Enormous Ancient Lake Bed Found Deep Beneath Greenland's Ice
IFL Science
November 11, 2020
Article on research by Lamont polar geoscientists Guy Paxman, Jacky Austermann, and Kirsty Tinto.
Primeval Greenland Lake Found Buried Beneath a Mile-Thick Slab of Ice
LiveScience
November 11, 2020
Article on research by Lamont polar geoscientists Guy Paxman, Jacky Austermann, and Kirsty Tinto.
Greenland Mystery: Lakebed Trapped Under Ice Could Hold Unique Fossils
Express
November 11, 2020
Article on research by Lamont polar geoscientists Guy Paxman, Jacky Austermann, and Kirsty Tinto.
A Vast Ancient Lake Is Hidden Deep Under Greenland's Ice, Scientists Discover
Vice News
November 11, 2020
Article on research by Lamont polar geoscientists Guy Paxman, Jacky Austermann, and Kirsty Tinto.
Hurricanes Are Staying Stronger Even Over Land as Oceans Warm from Climate Change, Study Finds
Washington Post
November 11, 2020
Article quotes Lamont climate scientist Suzana Camargo.
Warming May Make Hurricanes Weaken More Slowly After Landfall
The New York Times
November 11, 2020
Article quotes Lamont climate scientist Suzana Camargo.
You'll Never Guess What's Hiding Beneath Greenland's Ice Sheet
BGR
November 11, 2020
Article on research by Lamont polar geoscientists Guy Paxman, Jacky Austermann, and Kirsty Tinto.
Scientists Have Discovered an Ancient Lakebed Beneath Greenland’s Ice
Gizmodo
November 10, 2020
Article on research by Lamont polar geoscientists Guy Paxman, Jacky Austermann, and Kirsty Tinto.
CBS New York
November 10, 2020
Interview with Lamont climate scientist Suzana Camargo.
Ancient Lake Discovered Under Greenland May Be Millions of Years Old
ScienceAlert
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Article on research by Lamont polar geoscientists Guy Paxman, Jacky Austermann, and Kirsty Tinto.
The Ocean Carbon Sink Has Set the Next Political Hurdle
Hakai Magazine
November 9, 2020
Article on research led by Lamont carbon cycle scientist Galen McKinley.
BLOGS
Biden's Climate Plan Could Reduce Global Warming by About 0.1°C
November 11, 2020
The president-elect’s plan will take us closer to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement, but there is much work to be done.
Scientists Have Discovered an Ancient Lake Bed Deep Beneath the Greenland Ice
November 10, 2020
Using radar and other techniques, researchers have mapped out the sediments left by a lake that apparently existed before Greenland was glaciated. Next step: drilling through the ice to see what they contain.
Sabin Center and Lamont Launch Climate Attribution Database
November 06, 2020
The database collects the best available evidence that anthropogenic climate change is real, that it is already here, and that predicted future changes must be taken seriously.
A New Global Archive Helps Researchers Chart Changes in Arctic Animals’ Behavior
November 05, 2020
Researchers from around the world have established a new archive of data documenting changes in the movements of animals in the far north.
Data on Past Climates Key to Predicting Future, Scientists Say
November 05, 2020
An international team suggests that research centers around the world using numerical models to predict future climate change should include simulations of past climates.
As of Today, the U.S. Is No Longer Part of the Paris Agreement
November 05, 2020
Whether or not we rejoin — and thereby do our part to prevent the worst impacts of climate change — depends on the outcome of the election.