Posts
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Faculty Profile: John Mutter
John Mutter’s career path has an unusual twist to it. He first trained in physics and mathematics as an undergraduate at Melbourne University in his hometown in Australia. He moved to the U.S. to undertake a Ph.D. in geophysics at Columbia and stayed on as a research scientist at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in the…
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Practical Solutions to Sustainability Issues: Undergraduate Capstone Projects
On April 29, students in the Undergraduate Program in Sustainable Development presented practical solutions to sustainability issues and challenges faced by real world clients.
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From Top to Bottom: Scientists Map a New Island Volcano
One of the earth’s newest islands exploded into view from the bottom of the southwest Pacific Ocean in January 2015, and scientists sailing around the volcano this spring have created a detailed map of its topography.
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Viewing Science Through a Different Frame
Is it an album cover for a 1980s hair band, or a thin section micrograph of precious minerals? A model of ice streams in glacial lakes, or a 3D laser light show from a dance club? This past week at the third annual Research as Art exhibit at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, scientists traded in…
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The How and Why of Green Building
Buildings account for almost a third of global greenhouse gas emissions and the U.N. Environment Programme projects that if we continue with business as usual in the building sector, these emissions will double by 2030. Fortunately, green building is on the rise around the world.
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Report Assesses Risks to World’s Shared River Basins
Risks for the world’s Transboundary River Basins are projected to increase in the next 15–30 years, particularly in four hotspot regions: the Middle East, Central Asia, the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin, and the Orange and Limpopo basins in Southern Africa.
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Study Downgrades Groundwater Contribution to Sea Level Rise
Some research suggests that, along with melting ice sheets and glaciers, the water pumped from underground for irrigation and other uses, on the rise worldwide, could contribute substantially to rising sea levels over the next 50 years. A new study published in Nature Climate Change says the magnitude is substantially lower.
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Maureen Raymo Elected to National Academy of Sciences
Maureen Raymo, a marine geologist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory whose name is connected with key theories about how ice ages wax and wane and how sea levels change, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors awarded to scientists in the United States.
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Open Dialogue and Sustainability Education
Among the academics I find a mix of optimism and dire pessimism. It’s a recurring theme—can we build an economic life that can preserve the planet, or is it already too late? My responsibility is to ensure that our students hear both perspectives.
