Author: Travis Swaim

Acting ESSIC Director Professor Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm is the featured speaker at the University of Maryland Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Water Resources Seminar on Tuesday, April 19.  Miralles-Wilhelm will discuss the need for research into the synergies and trade-offs posed by the water-energy-food nexus. The talk is entitled, “What would Thomas Malthus tell us in the 21st Century; Experiences in the Water-Energy-Food Nexus from an International Development …

The University of Maryland (UMD) will host the first ever Climate Action Forum on May 4th at its College Park campus. The forum will precede the Climate Action 2016 Summit, to be held in Washington, D.C. on May 5th and 6th. Both the forum and the summit are designed to supplement the United Nations Climate Conference that took place in Paris last December. Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm, Director of the University of Maryland’s Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, …

Two local high school students interning with the ESSIC-administered Cooperation Institute for Climate and Satellites (CICS-MD) presented their latest research findings at a faculty seminar on April 1. The students, Kayla Brown, a senior at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, MD, and Zuriel Herran, a senior at Springbrook High School in Silver Spring, MD, worked under the tutelage of Visiting Assistant Research Scientist Dr. Scott Rudlosky, a physical scientist with the Satellite …

ESSIC researchers Melissa Kenney and Ariana Sutton Grier (supporting NOAA’s Climate Program Office) were speakers at the Local Solutions: Eastern Regional Climate Preparedness Conference. The conference was held in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor from April 4th to 6th. The researcher's specifically participated in the segment entitled, "Natural and engineered infrastructure solutions, policy drivers, and measuring effectiveness."   The event itself was a …

ESSIC Director, Professor Antonio Busalacchi was spotlighted in a recent Florida State University (FSU) news feature regarding his election to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).  Busalacchi, a three-time FSU alumnus, commented on his early introduction to oceanography as an FSU undergrad and his decision to remain to at the university to complete both his masters and eventual doctorate degrees.  Busalacchi also expounded on his relationship with long-time mentor, …

As part of the curriculum for UMD Honors Course 349G, “Big History: Earth, Life, and Sustainability,” students are asked to author articles that can effectively communicate climate change—within a human context–to the general public. According to course instructor, ESSIC / AOSC Professor Raghu Murtugudde, two of the student-penned articles were deemed worthy of on-line publication in The Diamondback, University of Maryland’s campus newspaper.  Additional climate-themed articles from …

ESSIC Research Associate Amy McNally recently contributed to a Famine Early Warning Systems (FEWS) Special Report on drought in Southern Africa. The report, titled “Illustrating the extent and severity of the 2015-16 drought,” details the impacts of the recent drought on water availability, crop production, food prices, and food security. As part of the FEWS Land Data Assimilation System, McNally’s surface water availability model helped illustrate the severe surface water deficits in …

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) announced March 23 that their ESA Innovations in Sustainability Science Award will be given to ESSIC researcher Ariana Sutton-Grier. The award winning article, co-authored by Sutton-Grier, was published in Environmental Science and Policy in 2015 and is titled “Future of our coasts: The potential for natural and hybrid infrastructure to enhance the resilience of our coastal communities, economies and ecosystems.” The article considers …