Atkinson Center Newsletter

Cornell's Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future

Sustainability News

Welcome to academic year 2014–15, as Cornell launches its Sesquicentennial celebration! This is an exciting time for ACSF. We are in a very strong position, with a growing endowment and more than 400 faculty fellows. The Academic Venture Fund, our main seed program, is expanding; we have announced a new postdoctoral fellowship program; and the leadership team is firing on all cylinders. Our strategic plan focuses on building partnerships with external organizations to cocreate solutions that can be implemented at a meaningful scale.  

I have served as the Atkinson Center’s director since September 2007. It is time that I become director emeritus, which I plan to do on June 30, 2015. After that, I hope to remain engaged as a volunteer with ACSF and with our many supportive alumni and friends. The search for my successor is ongoing, with applications accepted until October 15.

I am very proud of what we have all accomplished together. Thank you for your engagement, passion, and friendship. Cornell’s 150th anniversary will be the best year yet for ACSF!

Sincerely,

Frank DiSalvo
Atkinson Center Director

Joleah Lamb: 2014 NatureNet Fellow

Marine ecologist Joleah Lamb is Cornell’s newest NatureNet fellow. Working with marine ecosystems expert Drew Harvell and leadership at The Nature Conservancy, she is studying oceans and waste, including natural methods for mitigating the spread of run-off pollution that causes infectious disease in coral reefs.

Lamb launched her research this summer in Indonesia and Washington’s San Juan Islands. See photos...   

The Resilient Ones: A Generation Takes On Climate Change—September 26: 2:30, B25 Warren Hall

Meet the filmmakers over light refreshments, then watch a film about a group of high school students In the aftermath of widespread damage from Tropical Storm Irene.
  

Cornell Geospatial Forum—October 14: full day, Mann Library

Join colleagues from across Cornell to discuss cross-disciplinary applications of geographic information systems (GIS) and lay the groundwork for the future of GIS at Cornell.   

PUMP Movie Screening—October 15: 4:45, 101 Phillips Hall

Right now, we have the ability to change our country’s future by ending our dependence on oil. Yossie Hollander, executive producer of the film and Atkinson Center external advisory board member, will answer questions following the screening.

Topical Lunch

• September 24: noon, 300 Rice Hall
  Make Your Mark: ID for Free-Roaming Dogs and Cats to Improve Population Control and Community Health - Margaret Frey

TNC-Cornell NatureNet Fellow Applications Due October 1

The NatureNet Science Fellowships are awarded annually to six outstanding early-career scientists who seek to tackle problems at the interface of conservation, business, and technology. One postdoctoral fellow per year is selected for a two-year post at Cornell, working with Cornell faculty and leadership at The Nature Conservancy.    

Food Security: 10 Critical Needs

Cornell researchers will guide the next steps toward global food security when the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security meets in Rome next month. The committee’s High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) asked for help in defining the most pressing challenges in food and nutrition security today. Cornell’s team, led by ACSF’s Wendy Wolford, pinpointed 10 essentials—from broader access to food markets to strategies to reduce agriculture’s climate impact.

Read a summary of the Cornell team’s report.

Save Sane Lanes for Carpoolers

Allowing solo drivers of hybrids to use high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes is a popular policy tool to encourage commuters to drive low-emission vehicles, but new research by economist Antonio Bento shows the shift in carpool lane rules can backfire. Promoting buses in HOV lanes is a smarter policy choice, Bento’s recent study concluded.


Bite Size

A new study by entomologist Laura Harrington found that size matters, when it comes to the dining tastes of the mosquitoes that carry dengue fever. The insects feed on larger people and adults significantly more often than smaller people and children. Visitors and tourists are also more likely to be on the menu than residents of the Thai villages that hosted the research—a finding that provides new clues about how the dengue virus spreads.

NutriPhone: Calling for Better Health

Biomedical engineer David Erickson and his collaborators recently received a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation to fund their work on the NutriPhone, a smartphone device that monitors users’ nutrition, blood, and stress. The team developed a prototype of the device with seed funding from the Atkinson Center.   

ACSF Tops 400 Fellows

Renewable energy. Climate change. Water management. Food security. Rural development. The Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future’s 2014 class of faculty fellows includes leading experts in these and many other urgent areas of sustainability research. Fifty Cornell faculty joined the Atkinson Center this fall, bringing the total number of ACSF faculty fellows to 410.  

Travis and Rodewald Launch Op-Ed Series in The Hill

Focusing on policy for a healthier planet will also pay big dividends in human well-being, argues ACSF faculty director of environment Alex Travis in an op-ed in The Hill, Capitol Hill’s number one news source. His August piece was the first in a monthly series supported by the Atkinson Center, written in alternating months by Travis and Amanda Rodewald of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Rodewald's editorial for September advises urgent policy action to protect 230 bird species that are either currently endangered or at risk.

To Reduce Tech’s Gender Gap: Take a Cue from Orchestras

Technology historian Sara Pritchard says that gender-blind initial interviews—like the blind auditions that are standard for top symphonies—could narrow the gender gap in Silicon Valley.

West Coast Marine Epidemic Heats Up

Sea stars are dying by the millions off the Pacific Coast. Drew Harvell and Ian Hewson are working with Cornell colleagues to close in on the causes of the devastating epidemic. Citizen scientists can help by reporting sick sea stars they observe.

Google's Latest Project: Mapping Gas Leaks in U.S. Cities

In a joint project with the Environmental Defense Fund, Google Street View cars equipped with innovative sensors sniffed out hundreds of minor gas leaks under the streets of U.S. cities. Geologist Lou Derry tells the Christian Science Monitor that the recent leap in sensing technology could provide an affordable way to monitor upgraded pipelines or other emissions like carbon dioxide.

Online Tool Reduces Farm Nitrogen Loss

The Guardian reports on the commercial launch of Adapt-N, an online tool that helps farmers decide how and when to apply nitrogen fertilizer to their cornfields. Developed at Cornell by ACSF faculty fellows Harold van Es and Art DeGaetano and others, Adapt-N reduces nitrogen lost into waterways and the atmosphere.

Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio (Europa, 2008), by Amara Lakhous

Faculty director of economic development Wendy Wolford says: "Several of us at ACSF read the book chosen for Cornell's first-year reading program, Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio. The somewhat frenetic novel recounts several residents' perspectives on Italy, Italians, and life together in an immigrant-filled apartment complex in Rome, after a murder in the building's elevator. While the stereotypes and prejudices people display in the novel may seem unrelated to sustainability, an investigation of how to unite people—or not—around a common issue when they are separated by differences of identity, status, community, and long-held beliefs and cultural norms speaks directly to the many difficulties involved in addressing a global issue like climate change or sustainable development. We all might learn from Amadeo, the book’s main character, who is 'truly Italian' and 'belongs' in everyone’s mind, because he seems to listen to everyone without imposing his own worldview."

Expanding the One Health Paradigm

New Foundation Will Bolster USDA Research Funding

Scientists Zero In on What's Causing Starfish Die-offs

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