News

University Communications science writer Joshua Brown traveled with geology professor Paul Bierman and graduate student Alice Nelson as they conducted climate change research in Greenland in early June. Read on for a week's worth of updates from the field

JOHNSON, VT – Thanks to a $552,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Johnson State College (JSC) is launching a new scholarship program called "START" this fall for promising students majoring in biology and environmental science.

Students chosen for a START scholarship may be able to receive up to $40,000 over four years to support their undergraduate studies at JSC. Students must have a minimum 3.0 grade point average and demonstrated financial need in order to apply.

START stands for “Student Transition, Achievement, Retention and Teaching” and is one of several steps JSC is taking to support academically talented students of modest financial means who are committed to earning a college degree.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer this opportunity to our students,” said Dr. Leslie Kanat, a professor in the Department of Environmental and Health Sciences, in announcing the May 29 award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). “The grant speaks both to the quality of our science programs at Johnson State and to our commitment to helping talented students with financial need, many of whom are the first in their families to attend college.”



START scholars will have numerous opportunities to conduct faculty-mentored research in the field and in the laboratories of JSC’s newly renovated science facility, Bentley Hall; to attend and present at national and regional conferences; and to participate in specialized academic advising, learning communities and career counseling at JSC.

Ongoing research initiatives at JSC in which START scholars may be involved include chemical, biological and geological investigations in the Lamoille River Watershed; analysis of bacteria from the closed Vermont Asbestos Group mine in Lowell and Eden; assessments of landslide potential in Jeffersonville; and the characterization of hazardous algal blooms in association with the “Research on Adaptation to Climate Change” project. Funds from the Vermont Genetics Network and the National Science Foundation EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) support most of these studies.

The NSF grant was awarded through the foundation’s "Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics" program. For more information or application materials, visit www.jsc.edu/START or contact Dr. Leslie Kanat at les.kanat@jsc.edu or 802-635-1327.

Keyword NECC

Vermont Public Radio
Wind Farm Proposal In Rutland County Draws Opposition
Vermont Public Radio
But Dr. Alan Betts, a Pittsford resident who studies climate change, takes a different view. Because of global warming, he believes Vermont should do all it can to promote renewable energy development, including wind power projects like this one.

For decades, biologists have debated whether individuals sacrifice themselves to save those who share their genes or in effect to benefit the whole group. University of Vermont researcher Charles Goodnight has shown through mathematical models that the two views of altruism, kin selection versus group selection, are in fact equivalent behaviors.

The research sheds new light on fundamental issues in evolutionary theory.

For kin selection to be important, the related individuals must be in groups that preferentially help each other. For group selection to operate, the members of a group must be closer to each other than to other groups. The two ideas are so close they actually can be converted to each other mathematically. This understanding has been stated in technical research articles for more than 30 years, but the broader scientific community hasn't often recognized it.

It is not often that a person can be in more than one place at the same time. James Vincent, Research
Assistant Professor of Biology and Director of the Bioinformatics Core for the Vermont Genetics Network
(VGN), managed to accomplish just that.

Dr. Vincent offered for the first time a class titled, Data Intensive Computing for Applied Bioinformatics,
at Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont. Dr. Elizabeth Dolci, Professor and Chair of Environmental
& Health Sciences at Johnson State College, co‐instructed the class. Through the use of a video
conferencing system and an upgraded fiber connection between Johnson State College and the I2 UVM
backbone, the seemingly impossible, became possible.

Students at Johnson State College in Johnson, the University of Vermont, in Burlington, and Norwich
University in Northfield, Vermont attended the class simultaneously. Dr. Vincent was able to teach the
students cutting edge bioinformatics course work to the diverse group.
Workforce Development

Dr. Vincent aims to train the next generation of bioinformaticians in Vermont and to help sustain this
emerging and increasingly critical field of study. Bioinformatics applies computer technology to the
management of large datasets comprised of biological information. Dr. Vincent is also one of the lead
researchers studying the Little Skate genome through funding provided by NSF EPSCoR Track‐2 and the
Northeast Cyberinfrastructure Consortium (NECC).
- This course uses technology and trains people to use that technology – all at the same time - said Dr.
Vincent.

Vermont's mountainous landscape and sparse population distribution presents great challenges for high
speed Internet access and thus, transmission of large data sets. Funding provided by NSF EPSCoR has
resulted in increased access to expertise and course offerings such as Dr. Vincent's for all Vermont
students at geographically diverse campuses.

The University of Vermont has been named one of only 18 colleges and universities in the country to receive a highly coveted Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training, or IGERT, grant from the National Science Foundation, the first awarded in the state of Vermont. The UVM proposal was chosen from among 154 IGERT proposals submitted to the NSF in 2012.

UVM will receive approximately $3 million over five years to create an innovative, multi-disciplinary graduate program supporting 22 doctoral students who will be trained to analyze and develop smart grid systems. UVM will also hire two faculty members as part of the grant.

Climate trends in the northeastern U.S. show that in the past 40 years, winter has lost seven days every decade and the growing season has expanded by nearly four days each decade.

The warming climate and changing seasons affect farmers, foresters, outdoor recreation and wildlife, and society at large. Understanding these changes on a local level enables policymakers and others to adapt to the changes.

Seasonal climate has a natural variability from year to year. However, in recent decades Vermont's climate has changed rapidly, with winter temperatures rising twice as fast as summer temperatures. The cold season is shrinking by one week every decade. As snow and ice cover decreases, less sunlight is reflected, which accelerates winter warming. The summer growing season-the time between the last spring frost and the first fall frost--is adding one week every two decades. For every degree (Fahrenheit) increase in temperature in late winter and early spring, leaf-out and bloom come earlier by two to three days.

Lake Dunmore group taps weevils in fight against milfoil
Addison County Independent
This spurred the LDFLA to reach out to Middlebury College Professor of Biology Sallie Sheldon, whose work with the milfoil-eating aquatic weevils had earned her national acclaim. While Sheldon's weevil work essentially ended in 1995, she made a brief ...

After writing these columns about our changing weather and climate for four years, it seems time for some blunt realism. I read a pithy summary last month by Ken Caldeira on the Web site Climate Progress, which went like this: When we use the atmosphere as a free waste dump for the CO2 greenhouse gas emissions from our energy system, we are transforming the Earth to a hothouse climate that last existed on this planet when the dinosaurs were the top predators. Is this ethical and fair to our children, when we could convert our energy system to an efficient one that is not carbon-fuel based for only about 2 percent of our GNP?

The Atlantic Cities
Can Trees Actually Deter Crime?
The Atlantic Cities
In the June issue of Landscape and Urban Planning, a team of environmental researchers led by Austin Troy of the University of Vermont report an inverse relationship between tree canopy and a variety of crimes in the Baltimore city and county regions.

This colloquium surveyed the state of the art of empirical social science research in science communication and focused on research in psychology, decision science, mass communication, risk communication, health communication, political science, sociology, and related fields on the communication dynamics surrounding issues in science, engineering, technology, and medicine with five distinct goals:

* To improve understanding of relations between the scientific community and the public
* To assess the scientific basis for effective communication about science
* To strengthen ties among and between communication scientists
* To promote greater integration of the disciplines and approaches pertaining to effective communication
* To foster an institutional commitment to evidence-based communication science

Washington Electric Co-op annual meeting set for May 24
vtdigger.org
This year's featured speaker will be noted Vermont climate scientist Dr. Alan Betts. He will speak at approximately 7:30 pm on the topic: Climate Change–What's in Store for Vermont?. Following Dr. Betts, there will be a brief presentation about the ...

and more »

Paul Smith's Prof Links Climate Change, Drought in Southern Hemisphere
ReadMedia (press release)
Paul Smith's College professor Curt Stager and Jay White (right) collecting a sediment core from a South African lake. PAUL SMITHS, NY (05/15/2012)(readMedia)-- Warming climate may mean less rainfall for drought-sensitive regions of the Southern ...

Google News

Vermont Software Developers' Alliance announces Bentley Award winners
vtdigger.org
The vtSDA would like to thank all of the donors that supported the program, especially the Vermont EPSCoR program which provided over half of the additional funding. A complete list of the donors and all twenty-one applications can be found on the ...

Global climate change, especially the phenomena of global warming, is expected
to increase the intensity of land-falling hurricanes. Societal adaptation is needed to reduce vulnerability from increasingly intense hurricanes. This study quantifies the adaptation effects of potentially policy driven caps on housing densities and agricultural cover in coastal (and adjacent inland) areas vulnerable to hurricane damages in the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal regions of the U.S. Time series regressions, especially Prais-Winston and Autoregressive
Moving Average (ARMA) models, are estimated to forecast the economic impacts of
hurricanes of varying intensity, given that various patterns of land use emerge in the Atlantic and Gulf coastal states of the U.S. The Prais-Winston and ARMA models use observed time series data from 1900 to 2005 for inflation adjusted hurricane damages and socio-economic and land-use data in the coastal or inland regions where hurricanes caused those damages. The results from this study provide evidence that increases in housing density and agricultural cover cause significant rise in the de-trended inflation-adjusted damages. Further, higher intensity and frequency of land-falling hurricanes also
significantly increase the economic damages. The evidence from this study implies that a medium to long term land use adaptation in the form of capping housing density and agricultural cover in the coastal (and adjacent inland) states can significantly reduce economic damages from intense hurricanes. Future studies must compare the benefits of such land use adaptation policies against the costs of development controls implied in housing density caps and agricultural land cover reductions.

Streams Student Alayna Hauke named as Academic All-Star
Top 5 accomplishments: Being named valedictorian, getting the Bausch and Lomb Science Scholarship, getting a 5 on the AP calculus exam, playing four years of varsity soccer and tennis, and working with the Vermont EPSCoR Streams Project twice.

Patrick Clemins, PhD, Vermont EPSCoR Cyber Education Specialist, was an invited panelist at the Spring 2012 Internet2 Member Meeting in Arlington, VA, on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012. The Vermont EPSCoR program is housed at the University of Vermont (UVM). The panel, titled "Expanding the Research Horizons and Impact of Less Research Intensive Institutions", focused on activities being undertaken by the Internet2 community to include educational institutions outside of the "R1" research university community including primarily undergraduate colleges, community colleges, K-12 schools, libraries, museums, and education-based associations. Dr. Clemins outlined the efforts of Vermont EPSCoR and UVM to establish a Vermont Internet2 Sponsored Educational Group Participant (SEGP) network and the three main aspects of that process: (1) to connect educational institutions to a broadband educational and research network, (2) to integrate broadband technology into educational activities, and (3) to empower a community of educators, learners, and researchers to create their own collaborations. Other panel members included Wole Akpose, Chief Security Officer at Morgan State University, Robert Mays, Director of Network and Communications at Villanova University, and Dr. Karl Steiner, Senior Associate Provost for Research Development at the University of Delaware. The panel was moderated by Dr. Beverly Hartline, Associate Provost and Dean at University of the District of Columbia.

Over the last two decades, there has been growing concern that very
high rates of modern extinction -- loss of plant and animal species due
to habitat destruction, overharvesting and other human-caused
environmental changes -- could reduce nature's ability to provide goods
and services that people need, "like food, fuel, carbon storage, clean
water, and habitat," says the University of Vermont's Carol Adair.

UVM News
Energy-Efficient Aiken Center Offically Opened at Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
UVM News
By Jon Reidel Governor Peter Shumlin, Dean Mary Watzin and Lola Aiken (center) cut the ribbon at the official opening of UVM's newly renovated George D. Aiken Center. (Photo: Sally McCay) Lola Aiken officially opened the refurbished George D. Aiken ...

With the potential for setting a record low minimum temperature in a few hours, I thought you might like to read more about the backward spring that we are coming out of as temperatures climb for the rest of the week.