Hello Friends, Announcements, losses, and science, in that order. We are working hard on planning an enlightening and stimulating visit next Friday for Dr. Richard Spinrad, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans & Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator. In particular, please join us for a Town Hall from 12:30pm-1:45pm in the Monell Auditorium. In addition to lightning talks from some of our colleagues, Dr.
Hello Friends, It has been a busy week. On Monday, folks from the Tree Ring Lab and myself met with Tim Termini, District Representative for the American Chestnut Foundation. We had a long discussion about the reintroduction this important native tree that has been largely wiped out by blight. Their goal raises interesting ethical issues around genetically-modified organisms in a rapidly changing world that I look forward to discussing with the tree ring scientists when we have some time to debrief.
Hello Friends, It is my great pleasure to share the news that William “Bill” Ryan, Special Research Scientist in the Marine Geology and Geophysics group and Earth Elder extraordinaire, has been awarded the Lyell Medal by the Geological Society of London.
Hello Friends, Fugitive dust. What is fugitive dust? Fugitive dust is dust that should be staying put, but escapes to wreak havoc on the environment. The specific dust I’m talking about is from the Norlite plant located in Cohoes NY, near Albany.
Hello Friends, This is going to be a short missive, a reflection of the crazy number of zoom meetings I’ve had this week.
Hello Friends, On this dreary day a few words about COVID across the university. The good news is that the omicron wave has passed and positive testing rates are now under 2% across the University. Our campus continues to have a remarkable safety record with respect to viral transmission. The current university risk level is yellow, or LOW. The deadline to upload your booster information has been extended to February 28th. Indoor masking is still requi
Hello Friends, On this dreary day a few words about COVID across the university. The good news is that the omicron wave has passed and positive testing rates are now under 2% across the University. Our campus continues to have a remarkable safety record with respect to viral transmission. The current university risk level is yellow, or LOW. The deadline to upload your booster information has been extended to February 28th. Indoor masking is still requi
Hello Friends, Will it? Won’t it? What hath Mother Nature in store for us now? From the NYTimes:
Hello Friends, The news of the pandemic is a bit better this week. The number of positive cases appears to have peaked in our community and is falling. If the South Africa data is our guide, this fall will happen rapidly. Daily hospitalizations in NYC are also dropping and, as a reminder, the vast majority of those hospitalizations are unvaccinated people. Classes started this week and the first two weeks of classes will be on line (in-person restarting on Jan.
Hello Friends, I write this newsletter with a heavy heart. As many of you have likely already heard, our colleague and friend Dr. Lisa Goddard passed away on Thursday after a long battle with cancer. Lisa joined the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) as an Associate Research Scientist in 2000. She rose through the ranks, serving as Director of IRI from 2012 through 2020. In addition, she was an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences.
Hello Friends, Happy New Year! And there is no sugar-coating this—omicron has brought with it ever more misery and gloom. Our collective depression over the state of the pandemic is palpable. One of the few silver linings I see is some satisfaction in following the science, which gives me, at least, some semblance of feeling in control. To that end, I’ll draw your attention to the excellent guest editorial in Thursday’s New York Times by our Senior Associate Dean and
Hello Friends, Sorry about missing last week. Max ate my final draft. But seriously, this is a very stressful time with finals, AGU, the graduate student strike, the Climate School administration transition, omicron surging, holidays—everyone should be gentle with themselves, especially if some things have to slide. Self-care is the most important priority, along with recognizing how long we have all been under the unrelenting stress of the pandemic. Reach out if you need hel
Hello Friends, A short note to send us all off to a long weekend of relaxation and, if we are lucky, yummy comfort food with family. As one of my children is in mandatory pre-travel quarantine this week, we had an early family Thanksgiving two weekends ago. This holiday is such an important moment to pause and reflect on what we are grateful for in our lives and to appreciate and support the struggles of those fighting, across our communities and nation, for better wages, healthcare, representation, economic and social justice and more. And of course, o
Hello Friends, How many people enjoyed the swooping approach up the back entrance yesterday? It was gracious and grand (potholes aside) with radiant colors from all fall foliage. A big thanks to Andy Reed and his team, and Howie Matza and bus crew, for pivoting our transport procedures on a moment’s notice and getting the front entrance of Lamont repaved in time for winter. The facilities crew has been short-handed for months, as we push forward with filling empty positions, and I am deeply appreciative of the incredible job they are doing. W
Hello Friends, Last week I had the pleasure of being a guest at Reid Hall in Paris, one of the Columbia World Centers. I gave a public talk at the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, which if you think about that name, how can one not be a little bit dazzled and impressed? So much of our life in academia is the pursuit of ideas, preferably with a large dose of imagination tossed in. At the Institute, writers and creative artists come together for a year-long dialogue and fellowship. I was there
Hello Friends, It was so great to see how many people contributed to support Lamont science and scientists on Columbia University’s Giving Day! Thanks to the generosity of Ed Botwinick and Vicki Brown, long-time supporters and friends of LDEO, Lamont had a $100,000 challenge match that was met and surpassed. I am delighted to share that on October 20, 2021, LDEO received 163 gifts totaling $235,341.
Hello Friends, Isn’t October great!? I’d give it the best month award any year. I received some good news from downtown yesterday. The campus federal indirect cost return rate has been revised upward by 1.5%, which will put more money into our operating budget next fiscal year. The fact that this news made me so happy makes me worry I have a bad case of directoritis.
Hello Friends, It is shaping up to be a lovely weekend and you hopefully can find some time to catch up on all the great science stories in the October edition of the Lamont Newsletter. I always enjoy hearing about the projects going on around campus and was struck this week by the wide variety of topics that are incorporating machine learning and artificial intelligence into data analysis. I’d like to take a campus ce
Hello Friends, What a spectacular week of fall weather! Wednesday afternoon on the Director's patio was a lovely setting to meet ao many of our new, and not so new, Postdoctoral Research Scientists. I was struck by the incredible diversity of subjects and homelands represented in this cohort - this is how you build a global network of colleagues. Thanks to the cafeteria for the delicious nibbles.
Hello Friends, The back-to-school vibe is all around us, turbo-charged by the back-from-the-pandemic vibe. As I walked around campus this week, I’ve had numerous conversations with folks and nearly all touch on some aspect of “I didn’t expect to feel so moved by coming back to work”. Many of us didn’t appreciate how much we were missing our colleagues and extended human contact.