Lamont Weekly Report, August 13, 2021

     Hello Friends,  As the dog days of summer continue, the heat continues to build.  I hope everyone can find someplace cool to relax this weekend.  The campus is quietly ticking along with its skeleton crew of scientists and students.  Last Friday, on August 6th, the Lamont Summer Interns completed their internship program with thirty virtual poster presentations on their summer projects, conducted under the dedicated guidance of their research mentors. Bill Menke shared a few snapshots of the presentations. Congratulations to all the interns on a job well done and a huge thanks to Dallas Abbott and Mike Kaplan who successfully coordinated and co-managed a virtual program during another challenging year. From Mike Kaplan, “I am already getting great feedback from some interns, saying that they had a fantastic summer despite having a virtual program. One intern even told me she is going to look into transferring to DEES/LDEO!” Again, congratulations to all the interns and their mentors!

     Two graduate students successfully defended their theses this week.  On August 3, Carly Peltier successfully defended her Ph.D. on "The precise timing and character of glaciations in Patagonia from MIS 6 to the Little Ice Age”. Carly’s next step will be as a Frontiers of Science Fellow at Columbia University. On August 12, Colleen Baublitz defended her Ph.D. thesis on "Variability in tropospheric oxidation from polluted to remote regions”. This fall Colleen will be starting a postdoctoral position researching ammonia flux measurement and modeling in the EPA's Office of Research and Development.

     Also this week, Adjunct Senior Research Scientist O. Roger Anderson received a  Life Time Achievement Honorary Membership Award (2021) from the International Society of Protistologists (ISOP) for his contributions to research in eukaryotic microbiology. The names of honorees are published in perpetuity in a list within each volume of the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology. The citation from the Society stated: “This Award is given with respect to a lifelong commitment and significant contributions to the field of protistology in the field of microbial physiological ecology, as well as your dedicated service to the Society. In your many roles, including President of the Society and Associate Editor of the Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, member of the ISOP Executive Committee, and numerous other commitments to the ongoing work of the Society, you are highly respected by your colleagues worldwide.”  We are proud of you Roger—congratulations on this very special recognition from your peers!

     And speaking of stars, I am delighted to announce the upcoming talks in the Summer Stars Lecture Series (they are sliding a little into fall in hopes that more will be back in the work groove after the semester starts).  Seasons aside, on September 24th, the second lecture in the series will feature Bernard Ferguson, an award-winning Bahamian poet, essayist, and MFA candidate at New York University. Bernard’s writing has been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere. He is working on a book about Hurricane Dorian and the climate crisis. Then, on October 5th, join us for the third and final lecture with polar educator Geoff Green, founder and president of the Students on Ice Foundation. SOI is an award-winning Canadian organization leading educational expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic for students, educators, and researchers from all over the world.  Geoff is especially known for his engagement and partnership with Canada’s Inuit and First Nation communities. 

     In other announcements, CIESIN Director Bob Chen shared information on the new Google Group that has been set up to support informal discussion and information sharing about EVs and Plug-in Hybrid EVs (PHEVs) on campus. If anyone is willing to serve as one of the managers or owners of the group, please contact Bob Chen.  For more information about the group, click here. All operational issues should be directed to Lamont Buildings and Grounds.

     Our “CFO” Edie Miller also shared the great news that Lamont-Doherty Child Development Center, managed by Bright Horizons, is getting ready to re-open and start welcoming back families on September 13th, 2021. Register here for the Family Information Session on August 18 at 12:00 pm. If you are ready to register your child, please visit Bright Horizon’s website. For questions about the center or enrollment, please contact lamont-doherty@brighthorizons.com. Please note we have negotiated an income-based sliding tuition scale and are increasing our subsidy of the daycare center even further.

     As annual report season approaches and we work towards the launch of our new website, we invite your new and ongoing contributions of field, research, and campus photos so we can better feature your work. You'll find our easy submission form here. Got video? Contact Tara Spinelli. Thanks to inspiration from Joaquim Goes, everyone who has submitted photos since our original request back in February through August 31 will be entered for a chance to win an LDEO t-shirt (10 winners will be drawn at random from all participants). Thank you for all of the amazing photos you have already provided, and we're looking forward to many more!

     In research news, Adjunct Associate Research Scientist Nathan Laxague and Lamont Research Professor Chris Zappa’s article “The Impact of Rain on Ocean Surface Waves and Currents” was in AGU’s top 10% most downloaded articles in 2020.  Lamont Research Professor Mingfang Ting co-authored a paper out in Science Advances on July 30, “North Atlantic Oscillation in winter is largely insensitive to autumn Barents-Kara sea ice variability, which re-examines the causal relationship between sea ice and the North Atlantic Oscillation in the presence of strong internal atmospheric variability.  This is work led by a visiting student to Lamont who worked with Mingfang right before the pandemic, Peter Siew, and who will now be re-joining us in September as a postdoc.

     Sadly, this year’s Lamont Open House will again be a virtual event, taking place over two days on October 13 and 14th. It will consist of a series of TED-style talks by our scientists, panel discussions, and K-12 activities. Some events will be live and some prerecorded. Although we would have liked to have held our traditional Open House on campus, this is not possible due to the continued restrictions. However, being virtual has had the advantage of enabling us to reach a much larger global audience of K-12 students, families, teachers, scientific community members, media, and potential donors. In fact, last year’s Open House received over 15,000 views.  More information on content to follow – watch this space!

     I’ll end with the usual tip-of-the-hat to our Lamont wildlife park. The absolute highlight was a scheduled tour of Lamont’s Sanctuary Forest for Stacey Vassallo and myself led by Brendan Buckley.  As we waited for Brendan in front of Monell we saw almost the entire Tree Ring Lab trekking up the hill towards us!  As a group, we continued to the woods where Mukund Palat Rao, Milagros Rodriguez-Catón, Arturo Pacheco-Solana, Laia Andreu-Hayles and Nikki Davi showed us how they were sampling the trees weekly, monitoring the carbon fluxes and tree productivity and growth, and much more.  It was a super fun mini-expedition into our own backyard and everyone was excited about possible STEM projects based in the forest. Other nature highlights were: Tom Burke of facilities wrangling a copperhead off the Directorate patio (both Max and I nearly stepped on it and I’m still having nightmares about what would have happened if Max had been bit); a bald eagle teaching his/her offspring to hunt over the Palisades (I’d swear that is what they were doing); and two very young looking deer (yearlings?) with a spotted baby fawn coming and going all week.  It is such a joy to walk around this campus.  It’s all part of our secret sauce—along with our fierce determination, entrepreneurial spirit, collaborative approach to solving Earth’s great mysteries, and general all-around brilliance (and no, you are not an imposter).

     Have a restful, cool weekend.

     Mo

 

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LAMONT IN THE MEDIA: 

 

FEATURED NEWS

 

Ancient Sea Level Rises May Have Been Fairly Minimal

Climate News Network

August 12, 2021

Article on study by Lamont team including Blake Dyer, Jacqueline Austermann, William D’Andrea, Roger Creel, Michael Sandstrom, Miranda Cashman, Alessio Rovere, and Maureen Raymo.

 

IPCC Scientists Still Haven’t Cracked Africa’s Biggest Climate Mystery

Quartz

August 12, 2021

Article quotes Lamont climate scientist Richard Seager.

 

How North American Cities Are Bracing for More Heatwaves

BBC

August 11, 2021

Article quotes Lamont climate scientist Radley Horton.

 

Keeping Arsenic Out of Rice

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

August 11, 2021

Article cites research by Lamont geochemist Lex van Geen.

 

Marie Tharp: Mapping the Ocean Floor

Library of Congress Blog

August 9, 2021

Article features pioneering Lamont geologist Marie Tharp.

 

Some Irreversible Changes to the Climate Can Still Be Headed Off, Report Says

National Geographic

August 9, 2021

Article quotes late Lamont geochemist Wally Broecker.

 

The Climate Change Crisis Is Already Here, But There’s Still a Chance to Prevent the Worst

Quartz

August 9, 2021

Article quotes Lamont climate scientist Richard Seager.

 

Sea Level May Not Have Been as High in the Past as Previously Thought, According to a Study

Europa Press

August 9, 2021

Article on study by Lamont team including Blake Dyer, Jacqueline Austermann, William D’Andrea, Roger Creel, Michael Sandstrom, Miranda Cashman, Alessio Rovere, and Maureen Raymo.

 

Future Sea Level Rise: What Are We Missing, and How Much Should It Scare Us?

SciTech Daily

August 9, 2021

Article on study by Lamont team including Blake Dyer, Jacqueline Austermann, William D’Andrea, Roger Creel, Michael Sandstrom, Miranda Cashman, Alessio Rovere, and Maureen Raymo.

 

It’s Grim

The Atlantic

August 9, 2021

Article quotes Lamont climate scientist Benjamin Cook.

 

Danger Signs in the Increase in Extreme Weather

Radio Health Journal

August 8, 2021

Interview with Lamont climate scientist Radley Horton.

 

Warming Trends: Penguins in Trouble, More About the Dead Zone and Does Your Building Hold Climate Secrets?

Inside Climate News

August 7, 2021

Article on study co-led by Lamont tree-ring scientists Caroline Leland and Mukund Palat Rao.

 

Unusual Bloom in the Arabian Sea

Earth.com

August 5, 2021

Article cites research by Lamont biogeochemist Joaquim Goes and biological oceanographer Helga do Rosario Gomes.
 

'When Will the Megadrought End?' Is the Wrong Question to Ask

Mashable

August 4, 2021

Article quotes Lamont climate scientist Benjamin Cook.

 

How Low Can You Go?

Vox Unexplainable

August 4, 2021

Episode features pioneering Lamont geologist Marie Tharp and marine geophysicist Vicki Ferrini (begins at 13:00).

 

Record Wildfires and Heat Sweep Across Greece, Threatening Historic Sites

Gizmodo

August 4, 2021

Article quotes Lamont climate scientist Yochanan Kushnir.

 

The Mega-Financing That Demonstrates Lenders' Belief in New York's Future

Real Estate Capital News

August 4, 2021

Article cites study co-led by Lamont tree-ring scientists Caroline Leland and Mukund Palat Rao.

 

How the Tokyo Olympics and Its Ban on Spectators Will Affect the Environment

ABC News

August 2, 2021

Article quotes Lamont climate scientist Jason Smerdon.

 

The ‘Swell’ Job of Sorting Out New Zealand’s Unusual Earthquake Patterns

Atlas Obscura

August 2, 2021

Article on research by Lamont PhD student Christine Chesley, geophysicist Kerry Key, former Lamont postdoc Samer Naif, and colleague.

 

How the Tokyo Olympics Could Affect Climate Change

Good Morning America

August 2, 2021

Article quotes Lamont climate scientist Jason Smerdon.

 

Climate Change Fears Spur More Americans to Join Survivalist Schools

NBC News

August 1, 2021

Article quotes Lamont climate scientist Jason Smerdon.

 

The Oldest Tree in Eastern US Survived Millennia – but Rising Seas Could Kill It

Guardian

August 1, 2021

Article quotes Lamont alumni plant ecophysiologist Angelica Patterson and ecologist Neil Pederson.

 

Greenland: Enough Ice Melted on Single Day to Cover Florida in Two Inches of Water

Guardian

July 30, 2021

Article quotes Lamont polar scientist Marco Tedesco.

 

Greenland Experienced 'Massive' Ice Melt This Week, Scientists Say

Reuters

July 30, 2021

Article quotes Lamont polar scientist Marco Tedesco.

 

Climate Change Is Driving Deadly Weather Disasters From Arizona To Mumbai

NPR

July 29, 2021

Article quotes Lamont climate scientist Radley Horton.

 

Climate Crisis Catches Power Companies Unprepared

The New York Times

July 29, 2021

Article cites work led by Lamont climate scientist Radley Horton.

 

Deadly Heat Waves and the Raising Climate

KCBS Radio

July 29, 2021

Interview with Lamont climate scientist Radley Horton.

 

BLOGS

 

Columbia Climate School Named University Partner for Climate Week NYC 2021

August 11, 2021

The newly founded school will play a key role in the week’s events.

 

Some Past Sea Levels May Not Have Been as High as Thought, Says Study of Rising and Sinking Landmasses

August 09, 2021

A time similar to our own saw catastrophic sea-level rise. But exactly how catastrophic?

 

Staff Spotlight: David Phelan, Business Manager

August 06, 2021

As the business manager on the Earth Institute communications team, David keeps the department running smoothly and is always ready to help a colleague in need.

 

Making Up for Lost Time: Earth and Climate Scientists Get Back Out Into the Field

August 05, 2021

Lamont’s field season typically sees as many as 50 to 60 expeditions, which take researchers to all corners of the globe. As pandemic restrictions begin to lift, teams are picking up where they left off.

 

New York City’s Hidden Old-Growth Forests

August 02, 2021

Scientists are uncovering centuries of climate data and human history from giant old timbers saved from demolished structures.