For a second week in a row, the campus was saddened to learn of the loss of a long-time member of the Lamont family.
Joanne Domenick, who worked in Lamont’s Human Resources Office from 1986 to 2007, passed away on July 26 (http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/lohud/obituary.aspx?n=joanne-e-domenick&pid=171878016&fhid=4047#sthash.TLKmqSbH.dpuf). Jennifer Verdin writes, “Joanne was dedicated to her Assistant Manager position in HR and took her responsibility seriously. She enjoyed a good laugh and often joked around with the guys from Buildings and Grounds.” Angelina Calungcagin recalls, “As a co-worker I appreciated Joanne's work ethic. She was a very efficient and diligent worker. Her seniority on the job did not stop her willingness to learn new things and ways of obtaining the information needed for the task at hand.” Vicky Nazario adds, “My memories are of a very sharp witted, intelligent lady who was meticulous at her job and had a great contagious laugh.” Joanne’s family has suggested that donations in her memory be made to the United Hospice of Rockland, 11 Stokum Lane, New City, NY 10956.
Tuesday marked the end of this year’s Lamont Summer Intern Program. Each of the 23 interns in the program first gave a one-minute oral presentation in the Comer Seminar Room that outlined the main goals of his or her 10-week research project. The interns then collectively presented their findings in a well-attended poster session in the Comer Atrium (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.799556430064686.1073741830.119219514765051&type=1). That session was followed by a picnic for the interns, their guests, and their mentors.
The July issue of the Lamont Newsletter was issued this week (http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=71431ee4099fcd9f2e20d401a&id=96d585e351). The newsletter includes stories on the work of Dave Porter and Margie Turrin in the fjords of northwestern Greenland, the paper in Science by Leo Pena and Steve Goldberg tying a change in deep ocean currents to a change in the periodicity of ice-age cycles, and the paper in Nature Geoscience by Lamont’s IceBridge group documenting radar-sounding images of large-scale structures within the Greenland ice sheet that appear to be products of melting and refreezing of the ice. The newsletter also includes links to prominent media stories that feature Lamont scientists and a “save the date” announcement of Lamont’s Open House on October 11.
Newly published this week is a novel by Chris Scholz. The protagonist of Stick-Slip is a “retired earthquake expert” involved in a forecast by the seismology community of an imminent magnitude-9 earthquake along the Cascadia subduction zone. The book is available through Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Slip-Christopher-Scholz/dp/1497349516/ref=cm_sw_em_r_dp_7781tb094STHR2E3_lm), where the novel is described as a “high-stakes thriller.” Chris writes that an e-book version may be available as early as next week.
A news story Monday from Lamont’s Tree-Ring Laboratory has received widespread play in the media, including coverage on NBC Nightly News yesterday. The story concerns the remains of a sailing vessel unearthed four years ago at the World Trade Center site. In a paper in the July issue of Tree-Ring Research, Dario Martin-Benito, Neil Pederson, Molly McDonald of AKRF, Javier Martin Fernandez, Brendan Buckley, Kevin Anchukaitis, Rosanne D’Arrigo, Laia Andreu-Hayles, and Ed Cook matched tree rings in white oak timbers from the ship’s frame with other oak chronologies from the eastern U.S. and found a best match with wood sampled from Philadelphia’s Independence Hall and analyzed by Ed Cook two decades earlier (http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/world-trade-center-ship-traced-colonial-era-philadelphia).
Other Lamont scientists in the news this week include Hugh Ducklow, who was quoted in a story last Friday in The Antarctic Sun that the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research program team he leads as Principal Investigator is now including humpback whales – growing in population in the Southern Ocean – in their ecological studies of the polar food web (http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=4051). Posted on Slate on Monday was an interview of Juerg Matter by New Scientist on his pilot project to sequester carbon dioxide in subsurface basaltic rock in Iceland (http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/new_scientist/2014/07/carbfix_co2_storage_project_mineralize_carbon_dioxide_into_carbonates_to.html).
Whether your tastes run more to humpback whales, 18th century oaks, or fictional seismologists, may you have a relaxing weekend.
Sean