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The second Alan Alda Workshop on Communicating Science was held at the University of Vermont on February 1st and 2nd, 2016. Twenty-five faculty, graduate students and post-doctoral associates from across the disciplines and various institutions in Vermont participated in the one and a half day interactive workshop. There were also two larger plenary sessions with about 75 attendees. Through improvisational methods and story-telling exercises developed by the Alda Center, the participants practiced and developed new techniques to help communicate sometimes highly technical research concepts to a wide audience including the broader public and non-experts outside their specific field of study. The workshop culminated with a session on video messaging allowing each participant to record a short video on an aspect of their research.

When Vermont's first-responders hit the ground after a natural disaster, they could get a big lift from above. Drones can provide a big picture view of the scene, but some researchers believe they can do even more, potentially preventing a disaster before it strikes.

Saint Michael's Geography professor explains his fascination with Vermont. I wanted, from the get-go, to be engaged in the places that I visited and lived. And one of the things that's fascinating about Vermont is that those places and the institutions and the people in those places are remarkably accessible, he says. The legislative record and nonprofits in the state and other researchers in the state represent kind of a laboratory, if you like, for you to look at the way in which sometimes very big picture research questions can be examined on a manageable scale.

Governor's Institutes to launch two new topical institutes
vtdigger.org
The Institute will receive support from VT-NASA and VT-EPSCOR as well as the Agency of Education. At 33 years old, the Governor's Institutes of Vermont is best known for its longest running Institutes focusing on Arts, Current Issues, and several STEM ...

The Climate Science Lab located at Johnson State College, and led by Dr. Tania Bacchus, Professor of Earth Science and Meteorology, collects and evaluates lake and mountain weather station datasets in northern tier Vermont to better understand climate change in Vermont. The lab is funded by the VT ESPCoR Research on Adaptation to Climate Change in the Lake Champlain Basin (RACC) grant #1101317.

Two RACC interns from Dr. Bacchus' lab presented posters at the 2015 American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San Francisco in December. Melissa Segall is currently a senior at Lyndon State College, and worked in Dr. Bacchus' lab during the summer of 2015. She presented her RACC research titled: "Large Precipitation Events in Northern Vermont Compared to Global Temperature Anomalies and Carbon Dioxide Concentrations". Ashley Fortin worked in Dr. Bacchus' lab during the summer of 2012 and completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Atmospheric Science from Lyndon State College in 2014. She is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Meteorology and Climate Science at San Jose State University in San Francisco. Ashley's research poster was titled: "The Influence of Declining Arctic Sea Ice on Sudden Stratospheric Warming Events".

Melissa Segall also took her RACC research poster to the American Meteorological Society (AMS) meeting in New Orleans for the annual conference in January, 2016.

Nasser Abdel-Fatah, a senior at Johnson State College and RACC intern in the summers of 2014 and 2015, has had an abstract accepted for the Northeastern Geological Society of America (GSA) meeting in Albany, New York in March, 2016. Nasser will present his RACC research titled: "Detailed Analysis of Climate Trends from the Northern Tier of Vermont from 2000-2014".

The VT EPSCoR Center for Workforce Development and Diversity (CWDD) places undergraduate students interested in learning more about science careers and working as part of a team of researchers at several Vermont campuses. The CWDD is located at Saint Michael's College in Colchester, Vermont.

On December 17th, 2015, a RACC high school team from Bellows Free Academy-Fairfax presented their research poster at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Earth Sciences teacher, Tom Lane, BFA-Fairfax High School Juniors, Rebekah Larose and Sophie Lee, along with CWDD Director, Lindsay Wieland, traveled to San Francisco to present their Streams Project research. The teams in the High School Streams Project look at total phosphate, total nitrogen, and TSS in streams feeding into the Missisquoi and Winooski Rivers.

RACC and NEWRnet Team members attended the AGU fall meeting in San Francisco on December 12-16. With nearly 24,000 attendees, the AGU Fall Meeting is the largest Earth and space science meeting in the world. Now in its 48th year, the AGU Fall Meeting is the best place to present research, hear about the latest discoveries, trends, and challenges in the field.

Energy credits are a diversion
Rutland Herald
There have been several articles in the last few weeks, discussing the sale of renewable energy credits associated with solar arrays in Vermont to out-of-state utilities. They are written from a legalistic perspective that has little relevance to the ...

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Reflections on a hot year
Rutland Herald
In January, I like to look back on the year that is past. So far, the winter has been much warmer than the last two. We have the very strong El Niño in the equatorial Pacific to thank for this. I still have Brussels sprouts to eat from the garden and ...

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Winter temperatures of didn't stop the hardy Oxbow High School team from sampling their nearby stream and measuring its velocity. The team is led by Earth Sciences teacher, Carl Hildebrandt, and consists of two 11th-graders, Eliza Goodell and Hannah Giesing, along with 10th-grader Richard Rosten. Oxbow High School is located in Bradford, Vermont which is located in Orange County. The team has collected water samples from Halls Brook and the South Branch of the Waits River throughout the summer and fall, contributing data to Vermont EPSCoR's Research on Adaptation to Climate Change (RACC) program, and remained dedicated to gathering a final sample on a recent frigid day.

The management of external nutrient inputs to eutrophic systems can be confounded due to a persistent pool of phosphorus (P) in lake sediments. The behaviors of P and trace metals depend largely on the reductive dissolution of amorphous iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) (oxy)hydroxides in sediments; however, a holistic understanding of these dynamics in relation to the broader ecological and hydrodynamic conditions of the system remains elusive. We used a high-frequency monitoring approach to develop a comprehensive conceptual model of P, Mn, and Fe dynamics across the sediment water continuum of a shallow bay in Lake Champlain (Missisquoi Bay, USA).

As wild and domesticated bee populations continue to decline, a new study from the University of Vermont's Gund Institute for Ecological Economics shows the regions most affected across the country. The study was led by Insu Koh, a postdoctoral researcher.

Professor Taylor Ricketts, director of the Gund Institute and a senior author of the study, tells Here & Now's Robin Young that agricultural areas are contributing to the decline, even when they need bees more than ever.

2016 Call for VT Space Grant/NASA EPSCoR Faculty Research Grants

Submission Deadline: Friday, March 18, 2016 @ 5:00 p.m.


The Vermont Space Grant / NASA EPSCoR Program is pleased to announce the 2016 Faculty Research Competition. Subject to the timely receipt of NASA funding, this competition will fund a limited number of Vermont faculty research projects that are strongly aligned with new and continuing NASA research priorities and technology needs. Investigators may wish to consult the current priorities within NASA's Mission Directorates (http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/missions/index.html).

Vermont Space Grant Consortium: Call for Proposals

GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANTSHIPS FOR AY2016-2017

Submission Deadline: Friday, March 18, 2016 @ 5:00 p.m.

The Vermont Space Grant Consortium (VSGC) is pleased to announce a competition for Graduate Research Assistantships for a twelve-month period consisting of the 2016-2017 Academic Year and the Summer of 2017. This competition is open to U.S. graduate students enrolled in M.S. and Ph.D. students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

By December, foliage season is long over for us humans, but it's peak season under the water. Last month, fallen leaves accumulated in our streams and rivers, starting a process that's critical for the nourishment of everything from caddisflies on up the food chain to eagles and even people. In fact, most of the Northeast stream food supply originates in the form of fallen leaves. - See more at: http://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2015/12/under-water-decembers-peak-leaf-season.html#sthash.dcVqDHnB.dpuf

K12 gets students first - long before they reach higher education. What kinds of partnerships can better serve the overall trajectory of IT services, from K12 through higher education? CT asked Larry Dougher about K12/higher education IT partnerships.

RACC member Alan Betts interviewed on 10/24/2015 on WGDR Radio.
Joseph Gainza, Producer & Host - Gathering Peace
WGDR 91.1 FM WGDH 91.7 FM

Meet UVM's COP21 Team
UVM News
From left, sophomore Gina Fiorile and professors Asim Zia, Lini Wollenberg and Jennie Stephens will travel to Paris to attend a conference that many hope will result in the most significant international climate change agreement to date. World leaders ...

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A delegation of Vermont EPSCoR participants attended the national NSF EPSCoR meeting in Portsmouth, NH on November 2 -3, 2015. Dr. John N. Evans, President of the Vermont Technology Council, was an invited speaker for a panel discussion entitled "Addressing the EPSCoR Trifecta: Research, Science & Technology, and Economic Development". University of Vermont Professor and Chair of Geography, Dr. Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux, participated in several workshops including a facilitated breakout session on collaboration in jurisdictions focused on Climate Dynamics. Postdoctoral Associate, Dr. Steven Scheinert, was an invited poster presenter for his research entitled: Bridging the Meso and Micro Level Scales of Social Complexity within a Socio-Ecological System: Modeling the Relationship between Governance Networks and Land Use/Management Decisions in the Northeastern Segment of the Lake Champlain Basin.

Vermont State Director, Dr. Judith Van Houten, Cyber Specialist and Research Associate Professor, Dr. Patrick J. Clemins, Project Coordinator, Lillian Gamache and Center for Workforce Development and Diversity (CWDD) and Saint Michael's College Director, Lindsay Wieland also attended workshops and breakout groups on numerous topics.