9 April 2018
Undergraduate Research Week: Celebrating the Future of Scientific Global Research
Elizabeth L. Ambos, Executive Officer for the Council on Undergraduate Research
Not only is April the month in which we celebrate Earth Day, but it also marks the commemoration of Undergraduate Research Week. This celebration was first created to highlight the valuable contributions of undergraduate research in making new discoveries, lifting up undergraduate research voices, and demonstrating to wider audiences the breadth and diversity of the undergraduate research enterprise. Due to the advocacy of undergraduate research leaders within the Council on …
6 April 2018
A Preview of and Call for Submissions to the 2018 Fall Meeting
Denis-Didier Rousseau, Fall Meeting Program Chair
After a memorable edition in New Orleans, the 2018 Fall Meeting should take things to an even higher level. And while we have left behind doldrums of winter and entered the spring season, there is still time for you to be part of what will surely be a sensational meeting in Washington, DC in December. After the unique flavor and atmosphere of New Orleans, setting the Fall meeting in DC …
22 March 2018
AGU’s Revised Ethics Policy: Where We Are 6 Months Later
By Robin Bell, Eric Davidson, and Chris McEntee Roughly six months ago, AGU leadership adopted a revised ethics policy that took a noticeably stronger stance on workplace climate issues by including harassment, bullying, and discrimination in the definition of scientific misconduct. In doing so, we recognize appropriate personal conduct as part of the broader context of scientific responsibility and the expected research behavior—because harassment, bullying, and discrimination negatively impact the …
19 March 2018
Lessons from the Tohoku-Oki Earthquake
By Eliza Richardson, AGU Seismology Section Secretary and Associate Professor of Geophysics in the Department of Geosciences at Penn State University
Seven years ago on 11 March 2011, the magnitude 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake ripped hundreds kilometers of fault northeast of the island of Honshu, spawning a 38-meter-high tsunami that devastated a 1000 km-long stretch of coastline that had been described in the 1700s by Bashō as the most beautiful in all Japan (Ehrlich, 2013). The meltdown of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor further exacerbated what would already have been an …
16 March 2018
AGU Endorses the 2018 March for Science
On 14 April, 2018, for the second time in as many years, the March for Science is occurring in communities across the globe. AGU is proud to again join as a formal sponsor of this worldwide event in support of science, and to offer direct support to AGU groups participating in local marches. Over the last year, our community has spoken out about many of the policies enacted and statements …
9 March 2018
AGU100 Interview on NPR’s Morning Edition: Reflections on Motherhood and Being a Woman Scientist
We have exciting news about two AGU scientists: Lora Koenig, President-elect for the Cryosphere Sciences Section, and Zoe Courville were featured this morning on the StoryCorps segment of NPR’s Morning Edition program, which airs on hundreds of public radio stations across the nation, in an interview about how they work to balance their love of science and motherhood and the challenges that come with it. Lora and Zoe’s interview was …
7 March 2018
In Celebration of National Groundwater Awareness Week
By Scott Tyler, AGU President-elect Hydrology Section and Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering and adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Nevada, Reno
This week marks the 19thannual National Groundwater Awareness Week, established in 1999 by the non-profit National Groundwater Association to bring public awareness to the water “beneath our feet.” The themes of this year’s awareness are “Tend, Test and Treat,” referencing the need to recognize the value and potential vulnerability of groundwater, the necessity of monitoring groundwater – both its quality and quantity – and finally to use our science and …
1 March 2018
In Celebration of Women’s History Month: The Door is Open
By Robin Bell: President-elect American Geophysical Union and Palisades Geophysical Institute (PGI) Lamont Research Professor at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.
This year, I decided to watch my carbon footprint so instead of driving to our off-the grid cabin for a long weekend, I took a bus. Bus connections are not perfect. So, the next thing I knew, I was standing in a museum looking at portraits of suffragettes and anti-suffragettes. The white dressed suffragettes stared straight at me holding their umbrellas with messages like “Come March with Us” and “Rain …
12 February 2018
President Trump’s Proposed 2019 Budget Would Damage the Scientific Enterprise and the Nation
Today, President Trump unveiled his proposed budget for 2019. Included within this proposal are steep increases in defense spending and infrastructure, much of which comes at the expense of funding for the federal scientific agencies that provide the technical expertise to realize the President’s policy priorities. The NSF would be flat funded, receiving no increase in funding to support their pivotal, basic research 19.63% cuts to NOAA programs including coastal …
International Darwin Day: Back to the Future – The Continued Descent of Humans
By Dr. Brandon Jones, Member of AGU Board of Directors and Program Director for the Education and Diversity Efforts in the National Science Foundation’s Geosciences Directorate
Not many ideas in Western culture have generated as much enlightenment and simultaneous division as the concepts Charles Darwin outlined in On The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man. The idea that variation and natural selection drive evolution is the main reason people get flu shots every year or need ramped up antibiotics for recurring infections. Pretty simple stuff really. The division sometimes is revealed during discussions about …
From the Prow is a two-way conversation between AGU’s leaders and the broad Earth and space science community they serve. It features discussions on trends, Union programs and initiatives, and reflections on the strategic direction of the organization.