Earth, Environmental & Agricultural Sciences
Dr Benedetto Rugani – A Greener Future: Leveraging Ecosystem Services in Sustainable Landscape and City Management
As global climate change and other major environmental threats advance, scientists are looking for ways to evaluate sustainable solutions for energy, agriculture and city management. Ecosystem services are benefits provided to humans by nature, and over the past two...
Dr Eric Hallerman | Dr Jess Jones – Using Population Genetics to Inform Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation
Conservation can be difficult work on an ever-changing planet, where human activity often runs counter to the needs of endangered species. When budgets and resources are limited, it is critical that conservation plans are designed to be as effective as possible. Dr...
Dr Sangamesh (Sangu) Angadi – Circles of Hope: Circular Buffer Strip Schemes for Agriculture Dr Sangamesh
Agriculture in the semi-arid US Southern Great Plains depends on irrigation water from the Ogallala Aquifer, the largest in the country. With the aquifer in decline, new ideas will be needed to ensure the future of irrigated agriculture in the region. Dr Sangamesh...
Professor Rachel Mackelprang – Frozen in Time: The Permafrost Microbiome
Deep within the permafrost, viable microbial communities persist, buried for millennia. With the permafrost rapidly thawing due to global warming, these microbes are becoming more active, feeding on previously frozen organic matter and ‘breathing’ out greenhouse...
Vanessa M. Escobar | Molly E. Brown – How NASA’s Satellites Are Mapping the Way for Global Policy
NASA’s satellite technologies have provided a wealth of data about the planet, and can be tailored into usable products to support major decision makers across the world. Vanessa M. Escobar and Molly E. Brown are working to bring these data products to decision-making...
Professor Vladimir Strezov – Sustaining Industry into the Future
It is becoming increasingly critical to accurately assess our methods for producing energy, so that we can prosper without continuing to damage our planet’s delicate environment. Professor Vladimir Strezov and his team at Macquarie University are uncovering the...
Dr Robert J. Allen – California Hydrology in a Warmer World
Scientists rely on large-scale computer models to further their understanding of the Earth’s environment, as well as to predict what the climate will be like in the future. Consisting of complex computer code, many of today’s models have actually been in development...
Professor Sanford Eigenbrode – Adapting Dryland Cereal Production to Climate Change
Cereal production is vulnerable to climate change. Professor Sanford Eigenbrode is the Project Director of Regional Approaches to Climate Change for Pacific Northwest Agriculture (REACCH), a project that was initiated to address the challenges facing cereal systems in...
Dr Shawn Riley | Dr Göran Ericsson – In Pursuit of Wild Game: Investigating People’s Perceptions of Hunting
Hunting is among the most ancient of human activities, and still plays a major role in obtaining food for many people worldwide. Dr Shawn Riley and Dr Göran Ericsson work to understand the volume and distribution of wild-harvested meat, how this meat moves through...
Dr Robert Lempert – Solving Long-Term Wicked Problems
Climate change is one of the most pressing long-term challenges facing humanity and planet Earth. However, scientific uncertainty still leaves the scope of the threat unclear, and the path forward even more so. Now Dr Robert Lempert and his colleagues at RAND...
Dr Roger Cooke | Dr Bruce Wielicki – Knowing What We Face in an Uncertain Climate
Dr Roger Cooke of the non-profit Resources for the Future and Dr Bruce Wielicki of the NASA Langley Research Center have been researching the challenges, costs and benefits of a proposed international climate observation system capable of providing the highly valuable...
Dr Nina Bassuk – Trees – the True Urban Warriors
Trees benefit cities in many often-overlooked ways. They not only beautify concrete backdrops, but also improve the quality of our urban lives by providing shade, reducing storm runoff, filtering air and providing homes for birds and insects. Trees face big...
Professor Deb Jaisi – In Search of a New Phosphorus-Cycling Paradigm
Phosphorus poses a modern-day dilemma. On one hand, it is an essential nutrient for all plants and animals and is undisputedly indispensable as a crop fertiliser. On the other hand, its wide use in agriculture has been blamed for polluting waterways. Phosphorus is...
Dr Martha Giraldo – Solving the Problem of Apio (Arracacia xanthorrhiza) Corm Rot Disease
Essentially un-researched until now, corm rot disease has had detrimental effects on the Puerto Rican agricultural industry. Here, Dr Martha Giraldo and her research team at the University of Puerto Rico collaborate with local farmers to investigate the source of this...
Dr Dedrick D. Davis – Biochar and Soil Dynamics
Renewable biofuels are a carbon-neutral alternative to fossil fuels, but they have their own complications. One problem is that growing and harvesting crops for biofuel depletes soil of valuable nutrients. To mitigate this, a byproduct of making biofuel – known as...
Dr Stephen Laubach – Cracking the Puzzle of Rock Fracture with Crystal Clues
Drs Stephen Laubach, Jon Olson and Rob Lander and their team at The University of Texas at Austin are investigating the relationship between growth of fractures in rock, and chemical processes that occur within and around fracture openings. They are working to...
Aiken-Prasad-Schlegel
Professor Timothy Schowalter – Bugs are Friends: Taking an Ecosystem View on Forest Health
Humans commonly view insects as unwanted nuisances, and many modern land-management practices focus on reducing insect numbers using toxic pesticides and invasive biological controls. Professor Timothy Schowalter at Louisiana State University has been studying insect...
The National Science Teachers Association
Founded in 1944, the Virginia-based National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) is the largest organisation in the world promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all. In this exclusive interview, we talk to Executive Director of...
Dr Edward Maibach – Climate Matters: A Novel Approach to Educating Americans About Humanity’s Greatest Challenge
Over the past few decades, global climate change has emerged as the preeminent issue facing modern society. In many countries around the world, climate change is shifting weather patterns for the worse, with impacts predicted to grow increasingly more erratic and...
Professor Peter Santschi – Cleaning Up a Catastrophe
Professor Peter Santschi and his team at Texas A&M University are dedicated to investigating the consequences of the release of radioactive substances into the environment. Incorrect storage of nuclear waste or power plant accidents can cause radioactive material...
Dr Mike Allen – Algal Biotech: Turning Environmental Problems into Commercial Opportunities
With over a decade of experience in producing solutions for industry, Dr Mike Allen of Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) is a shining star in the field of algal biotechnology. Inspired by the natural environment, he and his multidisciplinary team work to engineer and...
The European Federation of Geologists: Shaping the Future of Geoscience Through Outreach and Education
The European Federation of Geologists (EFG) is a non-governmental organisation representing over 50,000 geoscience professionals from 25 countries. Founded in 1981, EFG was established with the aim to work towards the safer and more sustainable use of the natural...
Dr David A Hennessy – The Farmer and the Rancher
A collaborative effort driven by researchers from Michigan State University, South Dakota State University, Iowa State University and North Dakota State University, aims to improve the age-old art of farming. Vast, dry, and flat. The Great Plains of the...
Outcomes of the 2017 Global Research Council meeting co-hosted by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Comprising the heads of research funding agencies worldwide, the Global Research Council (GRC) is an organisation dedicated to fostering multilateral research and collaboration across continents to benefit both developing and developed nations. The GRC holds annual...
The STEM Education Coalition
The STEM Education Coalition was founded more than 15 years ago with a mission to raise awareness in the U.S. Congress, the administration, and on the state level about the critical role that STEM education plays in enabling the U.S. to remain the economic and...
Professor Steven Greco – Landscape Ecology: The Sense of Space
Developing sustainable solutions to environmental decline will need a holistic understanding of socioecological connections in time and space. Professor Steven Greco and his team at UC Davis use spatial analysis and visualisation techniques, to improve our...
The Society for Conservation Biology
The Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) was founded in 1985, when many scientists felt called to action by the Earth’s rapidly disappearing biodiversity. Scientists saw their study sites changing or disappearing over very short periods of time, and were...
Dr Michael Stout | Dr Blake Wilson – Protecting United States Rice with Integrated Pest Management Strategies
US rice production is threatened by the expansion of the Mexican rice borer, and a host of other pests. Dr Michael Stout, Dr Blake Wilson and their colleagues at Louisiana State University are investigating integrated pest management strategies to reduce the...
Dr Chang-Won Lee – Global Health is for the Birds: Studying Avian Diseases to Protect Human Health
Every year, outbreaks of diseases that affect livestock cause massive economic losses, and occasionally these diseases also threaten human health. The dynamics that influence the emergence and transmission of these diseases are complex, and studying them effectively...
Professor Jeffrey Forbes – Exploring How the Lower Atmosphere Influences Space Weather
Professor Jeffrey Forbes and his team at the University of Colorado use data from multiple satellites and global modelling to determine how terrestrial weather affects the near-Earth space environment. When we think of the weather, we think of the wind and rain and...
Mark Hoddle – Biological Control: Protecting Agriculture and Wilderness Areas from Invasive Insect Pests
Invasive organisms become pests, in part, because they escape control of their natural enemies that regulate population growth in areas where the invader is native. Biological control attempts to re-associate host specific natural enemies with target pest populations...