Posted 20 Oct 2017 / 0
I am very excited to announce that artist Ellie Irons will speak at Pratt Institute on November 9th, 2017 at 6 pm in ARC Building Room E-02. Her talk is entitled Public Fieldwork & Weedy Resistance: Practicing Social-Ecological Art in the (so-called) Anthropocene and will provide a tour of her diverse individual and collaborative works of Read More
A Major Post, Activism, Adaptation, Biodiversity Loss, Climate Change, Commensalism, Community Ecology, Competition, Department of Mathematics & Science, Ecological Restoration, Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Grasslands, Habitat Destruction, Habitat Fragmentation, Invasive Species, Mutualism, Pollination, Pollution, Pratt Academic Senate, Public Art, Public Outreach, Resilience, Science in Art & Design, Sustainability, Sustainable Urban Design, Temperate Forest, Urban Ecology, Urban Planning
Posted 15 Oct 2017 / 0
A sculpture created by Math & Science Scholar-in-Residence George Hart in 2016 The chairperson of my academic department at Pratt Institute, Carole Sirovich, will be retiring at the end of this academic year after well more than a decade of service as our leader. The Department of Mathematics and Science is currently searching for a new chairperson Read More
A Major Post, Department of Mathematics & Science, Higher Education, Pratt Institute, Science as a career, Sustainability, Teaching
Posted 09 Oct 2017 / 0
I have taught about the importance of nutrient transport by salmon in my Ecology course before, using an old Scientific American article. But this video is amazing. The footage of the salmon spawning and of blowfly maggots devouring a salmon carcass are phenomenal. A great teaching tool for talking about how community ecology drives nutrient Read More
A Minor Post, Decomposition, Ecology, Ecology Education, Film & Video, Film, Television, & Video, Freshwater Ecosystems, Keystone Species, MSCI-270, Ecology, Mutualism, Nutrient Cycling, Predation, Rivers & Streams, Temperate Forest
Posted 09 Oct 2017 / 0
The Chronicle of Higher Education “Rethinking the Scientific Career” What a fantastic article, one that feels very validating from the vantage-point of my own non-conventional scientific/academic career! I love the metaphor used here: academic science has been set up to honor those with summit fever, to the exclusion of those who might slow down and Read More
A Minor Post, Interdisciplinarity, Public Outreach, Publication, Science as a career, Web
Posted 04 Oct 2017 / 0
One of the most rewarding things that I have been involved with professionally in the last year is also something that I haven’t yet had time to write about. It’s my beloved Faculty Learning Community (FLC), which was constituted just over a year ago. FLC’s are a nationwide movement in academia, and although their configuration and Read More
A Major Post, Art & Design, General Education, Higher Education, Pratt Institute, Teaching
Posted 23 Sep 2017 / 0
Pantone color book image courtesy of Carlos Paes via Wikimedia Commons Allison Meier has a very illuminating short piece on where the Pantone color system came from: Hyperallergic “The Bird-Based Color System that Eventually Became Pantone“ What I find interesting about this history is the convergent need of people in vastly different areas of science Read More
A Minor Post, Art & Design, Birds, Methods, Science in Art & Design, Web
Posted 23 Sep 2017 / 0
There’s a lot that has been written about the nature/nurture dilemma, perhaps because misconceptions about the role that genes and environment play in biological development are so persistent. Patrick F. Clarkin recently published a couple of wonderful short essays on the topic: This View of Life “We Are Not Hard-Wired“ This View of Life “Evolution Read More
A Minor Post, Adaptation, Articles, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Cultural Evolution, Development, Epigenetics, EvoDevo, Gene by Environment Interactions, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Genetics, Human Evolution, Language Evolution, Phenotypic Plasticity, Psychological Adaptation
Posted 23 Sep 2017 / 0
Gowanus Canal images courtesy All-Nite Images via Wikimedia Commons My colleague Romie Littrell referred me to a really interesting project of the BK BioReactor group that visualizes microbial community diversity in the Gowanus Canal: http://www.bkbioreactor.com/visualization/ For those who are not familiar with the Gowanus Canal, an historically-important Brooklyn shipping lane that is now a Superfund Read More
A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Biology (general), Bogs & Wetlands, Community Ecology, Conservation Biology, DNA Barcoding, Ecological Restoration, Educational Software and Apps, Experiments (General), Freshwater Ecosystems, Genetics, Geography, Information Design, Intertidal Zones, Microbial Ecology, Web
Posted 12 Sep 2017 / 0
Once again, Pratt Institute will sponsor its annual Fall celebration of everything aquatic: BLUE WEEK. Starting on Sunday, September 24th, 2017, a series of events on- and off-campus will help members of the Pratt community become more aware of their relationship to our freshwater and marine ecosystems. There’s a chance to give back by cleaning Read More
A Minor Post, Biodiversity Loss, Climate Change, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Environmental Justice, Ethics, Freshwater Ecosystems, Habitat Destruction, Marine Ecosystems, Pollution, Pratt Institute, Public Policy, Sustainability, Sustainable Pratt, Water Supply
Posted 14 Aug 2017 / 0
This year around, I put most of my impression of the Ecological Society of America annual meeting into a single summary post [link pending]. But one element of the meeting was so valuable that I wanted to highlight it in a separate post. A field trip led by Charlie Nilon and co-facilitated by Paige Warren, Myla Aronson, Read More
A Major Post, Anthropogenic Change, Cultural Anthropology, Ecological Society of America, Ecology, Economic sustainability, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Justice, Population Pressure, Public Policy, Sustainability, Sustainable Urban Design, Urban Planning
