AGU and AAS are the fortunate recipients of a major grant from The Kavli Foundation that brings together our communities to advance the science of exoplanets. I’m proud to be a part of these institutions, particularly at critical junctures in with exoplanetary research, since this is exactly the kind of action that needs to be taken at the institutional level to help move the science … Read more
On June 17, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will observe its World Day to Combat Drought and Desertification. The devastating impacts of drought and desertification on people are highlighted this year, as the UNCCD has made the linkages between desertification and human migration its annual theme. As noted by the UN[i], one billion … Read more
Earlier this week, AGU signed onto a letter to Puerto Rico’s governor and leaders of its House and Senate. The letter voices concern over Governor Ricardo Rosselló’s efforts, and now an approved plan by the Puerto Rican legislature, to overhaul the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics (PRIS), an independent government statistics agency. The plan would … Read more
April 7, 2018 marked the 70th anniversary of World Health Day, and the first week of April was Public Health week in the U.S., which I celebrated with by releasing a report on the impacts of climate change on the present and future health of Hoosiers (i.e., people from the U.S. State of Indiana). From … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
Last night, in his first State of the Union speech to Congress and the American people, President Trump addressed some of the challenges and opportunities facing the nation. In his remarks, the President talked about a number of issues, including immigration and infrastructure, that his Administration has prioritized in the near future. What is especially … Read more
By Anne Sheehan, AGU Seismology Section President-Elect, Professor of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, and Fellow, Cooperative Institute for Research in the Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder Eight years ago, on January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastated the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, resulting in over 220,000 fatalities (Source: Munich Re) and … Read more
As many of you may know, AGU has been working for the past several years to understand how our science structure could be expanded to better enable people to collaborate and connect to others with shared interests and goals. The Affiliation and Engagement Task Force investigated a wide variety of options that might better serve … Read more