Director's Weekly Reports

     Hello Friends, This will be a short and sweet summer missive.  First, it was so fun and inspiring to hear John Cook’s first Summer Stars lecture yesterday and learn about how one can inoculate oneself against fake news.  So cool to see the dozens of places across the nation, and indeed world, where his cartoons and gamification of cognitive science are being used in classrooms to combat mis-information about climate change.  If you missed the lecture, the recording will be available shortly.

     Hello Friends,  Wow, has the last year flown by!  After nearly fifty newsletters, untold Zoom meetings, and more than a few gray hairs, my greatest desire is to see us all back on campus in September.  As fun as it has been watching baby woodchucks cavorting outside my office window all day, all week, I would trade that for the hustle and bustle of colleagues in a New York minute.  So many changes and even more to announce this week.  We officially welcomed Dave Goldberg into his new role as Deputy Director and I am greatly appreciative of t

     Hello Friends,  A big shout-out to Lamont Research Professors Billy D’Andrea and Marco Tedesco who were elected to the University Senate this week!  The third seat was filled by Daniel Wolf Savin, a Senior Research Scientist in the Astrophysics Laboratory.  To have this level of representation and voice on the senate is a huge benefit to the Lamont campus, to the EI, and to the emerging Climate School.  Billy and Marco write “Thanks to everyone who turned out to vote us both into the University Senate.

     Hello Friends, Lots of exciting research news piled up while I was away, so I will dive right in.  We can collectively celebrate two of our students finishing up their theses this week.  Daniel Bishop successfully defended his PhD on "Attributing the Causes of a Century of Hydroclimatic Change in the United States”.

     Hello Friends,  I’d like to use the next month or two to update the campus on activities being guided by the Lamont Strategic Plan.  Lifting heavily from the text of the plan, I’ll start with the core values that were set out as our guiding principles.  They are:

Hello Friends, It has been two very special weeks in a row, first with Earth Week and now with Commencement Week.  Several awards were given at this week's undergraduate Class Day, including the following DEES departmental honors: to Anna Ledeczi, in recognition of her outstanding undergraduate accomplishments as well as participation and leadership in DEES; to Roger Creel, the Best TA Award; and to our professorial colleague Meredith Nettles, the Best Professor Award!  DEES department chair Jerry McManus tells me a few more awards are in the offing, including the Walter Pitman Aw

     Hello Friends, a big cheer for the last week of classes!  It was another bittersweet semester as the pandemic prevented us from interacting with our students in our usual ways.  Indeed, my class was entirely on Zoom and it was obvious to me that I did not get to know my students as well as during the “before times”.  Hopefully there will be opportunities to sit in the cafeteria and share a meal as our workplace returns to normal over the coming months.  Along these lines, I have been happy to hear that people are enjoying the new picnic tables an

     Hello Friends,  This week’s science round-up has some great stories.  Lamont Associate Research Professor Anne Bécel is quoted in an article about an emerging effort to harness the power of satellite-linked cargo ship GPS systems to detect the presence and pathways of tsunamis in the ocean.  What an amazingly creative idea and perfect example of merging ocean science and technology in ways that can save lives.  The ships have something called the Automatic Identificat

     Hello Friends, Lamont Research Professor Joerg Schaefer is the Where’s Waldo of scientists this week.  Here he is in Greenland discussing top-secret Operation Iceworm, nuclear missiles and ancient vegetation on Greenland.  And here he is in New Zealand investigating the Zealandia Switch mechanism that could g