Nov. 9th, 513 Fayerweather
Public presentation: 3 - 4 pm
Workshop (sign-up required): 4:30 - 5:30 pm

Story Maps is a platform from the software company that brought us GIS, Esri, that combines GIS maps with text and images to harness the power of spatial data to tell a story. Allen Carroll founded the Story Maps team at Esri in 2010 after 27 years at National Geographic and will come to Columbia University for a public presentation and a workshop. Everyone is invited to a presentation on November 9th from 3 - 4 pm in 513 Fayerweather with a beer, wine, and snack reception to follow.

Following the presentation, Allen will lead an interactive, 1-hour workshop for 10 students from the E3B department (4:30 - 5:30 pm, 513 Fayerweather). The goal for the workshop is to create a Story Map with pre-prepared GIS materials. Come with GIS material and your laptop. Allen will be there to guide your storytelling narratives as you get online to Esri's Story Map platform and integrate your GIS maps into a scientific story. Only 10 workshop slots for E3B students. SIGN UP FAST!!!!
Sign up link:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c4ea5ae2ca0f85-esri

These are a couple of my favorite Story Maps: Living in the Age of the Anthropocene and On Foot in the Path of the Silk Road. Please feel free the spread the word about the public presentation! This event is supported by the Center for Science and Society and the E3B department.

Thursday, October 25, 6:00pm – 7:00pm
Faculty House 3rd floor, 64 Morningside Drive
 
Extreme heat events cause more deaths in the typical year than any other type of extreme event. They also pose major challenges to our infrastructure. As our planet warms under increasing greenhouse gases, there is high confidence that heat extremes will become even more frequent and intense. This panel brings together climate scientists and public and private sector practitioners to highlight the relationship between climate change and extreme heat events, and showcase some ways that society is adapting.
 
Participants include:
•Kizzy Charles-Guzman, New York City Mayor's Office of Recovery & Resiliency
•Robert Haas, Radiant Solutions
•Katherine Marvel, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
•Gavin Schmidt, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
•Peggy Shepard, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
 
Introductory remarks by Lisa Goddard, Director, International Research Institute for Climate and Society
 
This event is free and open to the public, sponsored by the Earth Institute’s Climate Adaptation Initiative. The panel will be followed by a reception with beer, wine and hors d’oeuvres. RSVP here: https://events.columbia.edu/go/extremeheat
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At 5 pm, you'll learn about the challenges tigers face to survive in India's human-dominated landscape through a screening of Broken Tails. Conversation will follow moderated by Amrita Neelakantan, a 5th year PhD candidate whose research has focused within relocated villages surrounding Kanha Tiger Reserve in India. The night will conclude with the showing of a short film, Why the Lion Calls, which highlights the ways people can be apart of the solution for African lion populations. 

We hope to see you there. 

Sharing Link: http://e3bgradstudents.weebly.com/announcements/jackson-hole-wild-on-tour-with-the-un-big-cats

Sharing link: ​http://e3bgradstudents.weebly.com/announcements/e3b-department-and-earth-institutes-climate-society-social-hour

 Were you not able to make the first G.R.A.S.S. SciComm Committee Event: Impact? Luckily for you, we recorded it and have made it available to watch online!

​Check out the youtube video attached if you want to see the panel discussion that happened with Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology (E3B) professors about making an impact with your science! They discuss the role of scientists and grad students in communicating their science from peer-reviewed journal articles to engaging local communities and informing policy. Panelists include esteemed E3B professors Dr. Eleanor Sterling, Dr. Matthew Palmer, Dr. Shahid Naeem and Dr. Don Melnick.
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​Sharing link: http://e3bgradstudents.weebly.com/announcements/check-out-the-scicomm-committee-event-impact-video-online

Come to the first G.R.A.S.S. SciComm Committee event: IMPACT! 

IMPACT is a panel discussion with Ecology, Evolution, & Environmental Biology (E3B) professors about making an impact with your science. We'll be discussing the role of scientists and grad students in communicating their science from peer-reviewed journal articles to engaging local communities and informing policy. Panelists include esteemed E3B professors Dr. Eleanor Sterling, Dr. Matthew Palmer, Dr. Shahid Naeem and Dr. Don Melnick. This event is hosted in the E3B department but all students are welcome to come!

We hope ideas from this panel spark more conversations that will help Columbia students reflect on the role scientists play in broader society. 

If you have any questions or topics that you'd like to be included in our discussion, please email Neha Savant at ngs2116@columbia.edu. 

Join us in continuing the conversation at Bierstrasse Harlem Beer Garden (697 W 133rd St, New York, NY 10027) right after the event!

Event info: 
Schermerhorn ext. rm 1015
Friday Feb 9th 2-3:30

Sevanaia Sakai (Sefa), a PhD student from the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, is currently collaborating on a project with Dr. Joshua Drew's lab. While in Fiji this past summer 2017, Sefa and members of Josh's lab visited villages to conduct interviews with locals about their perceptions of mangroves and the environment. Results are currently being analyzed by Sefa and Master's student Lauren Naylor as part of their respective theses. Sefa is visiting New York for a week and a half in January to analyze data and write up the results with the Drew Lab. He will be around the department during the first week of classes, so feel free to ask him more about his research and life in Fiji!
Sefa is pictured here on the far left:

First-year PhD student Vijay Ramesh recently published three papers: the first was the culmination of Vijay's Master's thesis co-authored with Trisha Gopalakrishna, Sahas Barve and Don J Melnick, which just got published in Biological Conservation. They show that ranges of these birds have been overestimated by BirdLife International (BLI) for 17 of the 18 endemic birds examined, thereby inflating their threat levels on the IUCN Red List​. The second paper is on improving accuracy of species distribution models in heterogeneous landscapes and is by the same authors. The last one was ​a class project for 'Environmental Conflict Resolution' that Vijay took as an MA student. He and his teammates, including some E3B alums, wrote a policy piece on incorporating conflict resolution theory and practice in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Here, they highlight a theory of change and ways in which one can mitigate the conflict between oil extraction companies and primarily indigenous groups in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Below are links to all three papers and associated press releases. Congrats on your published papers, Vijay!

​Here's a link to his blog to learn more: https://evolecol.weebly.com/​