Knowledge Enterprise is seeking nominations for the Chair position for Limited Submissions. In this role, the selected appointee will complete a two-year term attached to the Vice President of Research (VPR) and work closely with the Research Development staff, specifically the Opportunity Manager (OM). An additional year of service is possible and will be negotiated within the last three months of the term.

Nominations for this position will be collected through InfoReady until the posted close date. Nominations will be accepted from individuals, chairs, school directors, and assistant/associate deans of research at ASU. Target skills and abilities are described below, along with the expected workload. Review of the nominations will be done by the VPR and selected staff members.

Learn more and nominate.

Are you interested in increasing your experience and understanding of the federal funding landscape to expand the depth of your sponsored project award portfolio? If so, consider applying to join an innovative team of ASU faculty that seeks to create a new way to engage with Federal funders and decision-makers in Washington DC.

The KE Washington DC Leadership Workshop Series will help faculty members understand the broader policy environment that funders work in, how to have more impact with your science or scholarship in the policy domain, and engage with policy levers to create policy changes that lead to research opportunities. The workshops will bring together a group of interdisciplinary faculty with a group of policy and government experts from both ASU and the federal government. The format will vary but will include speakers, discussions with experts, working sessions, coaching participant presentations, and will involve a trip to Washington DC for a week in early April.

Learn more and apply.

Under the direction of the Executive Vice President, and in close partnership with the Chief Science and Technology Officer, the Vice President of Research serves as an integral part of advancing the research agenda of the Knowledge Enterprise at ASU and is an essential member of the university leadership. The successful applicant will be a:

• Strategic and executive level decision maker
• Cooperative and respectful manager of institutional investments and personnel
• Curious and collaborative leader who inspires and supports action by others

Apply via Interfolio.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes released its latest climate report today, Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis.

The Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report addresses the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science, and combining multiple lines of evidence from paleoclimate, observations, process understanding, and global and regional climate simulations.

Watch the video trailer for this report.

“The role of human influence on the climate system is undisputed.” – Working Group I Co-Chair Dr. Valérie Masson-Delmotte

Written by Mackenize Martinez, Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Certificate student

On the afternoon of Wednesday, July 21, the Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Cohort took a much-anticipated trip off of ASU’s DC campus. The entourage embarked on a refreshing stroll down K Street to the Washington DC office of Dentons Law Firm, one of 204 locations worldwide that serve to build agile, tailored solutions to meet the local, national, and global needs of private and public clients of any size.

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A new paper on the transformation of Caribbean coral reefs throughout human existence was recently published by Katie Cramer, Program Lead for Coral Reef Conservation.

The authors integrated paleoecological, historical, and modern survey data to track the occurrence of major coral species and life-history groups throughout the Caribbean from the pre-human period to the present.

The findings revealed a long history of increasingly stressful environmental conditions on Caribbean reefs that began with widespread local human disturbances and have recently culminated in the combined effects of local and global change.

Read the full article

By Eric Hemphill, Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Certificate student

During our D.C. immersive, we were fortunate enough to hear from staff of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry including Katie Naessens, Senior Professional Staff Member, Adam Tarr, Senior Professional Staff, Kyle Varner, Professional Staff, and Jacqlyn Schneider, Deputy Staff Director, who gave a nuts and bolts look at the inner workings of the Senate Ag Committee.

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We are excited to announce that the “Preliminary Housing Analysis & ADU Policy Recommendations for Peoria, AZ” project has received the 2021 “Student Planning Project” Chapter Award with the Arizona Planning Association! Meagan Ehlenz’s PUP 580 Planning Workshop and Deirdre Pfeiffer’s PUP 525 Urban Housing Issues class worked in conjunction with each other to research two affordable housing challenges in Peoria: a needs assessment and a policy strategy for Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) ordinances. The collaboration between the two classes in ASU's School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning resulted in meaningful outputs, including peer community research, data analysis, development of design and policy standards, and the collection of public input, to help Peoria’s tackle their complex housing challenges.

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By Dory Cooper, Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership Certificate student

On the first day of a week-long immersion trip to Washington DC, our Food Policy & Sustainability cohort met via Zoom with Mae Wu, the Deputy Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs (MRP) at USDA. This was a wonderful opportunity for us to learn more about her role and the current priorities of MRP.

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By Jane Coghlan, Swette Center Student Worker

After an early morning of professional headshots on the fourth day of the immersive, everyone felt a little sluggish as we sat down to hear Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young speak. That changed rapidly as Dr. Jacob-Young’s high energy and enthusiasm for science lit up the room and grabbed everyone’s attention as soon as she began talking about her career. It was immediately easy to see that she loves her work and loves to educate and inspire the next generation of leaders.

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Our team has put together this list below of listservs / job posting networks for undergraduate and graduate students studying sustainable food systems who are interested in pursuing a career in this field. If you know of any more that should be on this list, we encourage you to email us at foodsystems@asu.edu.

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Alysha Helmrich and Maike Hamann host a discussion on the various perspectives surrounding green infrastructure (GI) with Vinicius Taguchi, Stephen Elser, Clair Cooper, and Zbigniew Grabowski, exploring insights from engineering, public health, ecology, and more!

This podcast was inspired by an UREx SRN early career symposium--Get Ready, Get SETS: GI! (Website pending publication in August 2021). Below are links to references mentioned throughout the episode.

Selection of Previous Future Cities GI Episodes:

Wetlands as Green Infrastructure in Valdivia, ChileGreen Stormwater Management in Three U.S. CitiesTrees to Help Cities BreatheThe Many Names of Urban Nature

CREATE Initiative:

Green Gentrification Policy Toolkit

Follow us on Twitter!

@FutureCitiesPod

@stephen_elser

@MaikeHamann

@cooper_clair

@zjgrabowski

Listen on iTunes, StitcherGoogle Podcasts, Spotify, or Buzzsprout.

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod. Learn more about the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (UREx SRN) at www.sustainability.asu.edu/urbanresilience.

On January 27, 2021, the Biden Administration issued Executive Order (E.O.) 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.The order revitalizes past Federal efforts to enhance adaptation and bolster resilience by requiring each Federal agency to devise a Climate Adaptation Plan. The plans are a first step in leveraging Federal agencies to demonstrate climate leadership through both policy and example.

Given the opportunity presented by the creation of these Climate Adaptation Plans, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) will host virtual “Listening Sessions” with the public. The aim of these sessions will be to support an exchange of ideas around the opportunities for Federal climate leadership within ED. These sessions will inform the agency’s Climate Adaptation Plan and subsequent implementation and explore the connections between climate, the safe reopening of schools, and ongoing efforts to advance educational equity.

The Listening Sessions will be hosted by ED via Microsoft Teams meeting. Visit the website to learn more. Topics and dates are as follows:

1. Equity in Sustainable Schools: Targeting Underserved Populations for Federal Support, Aug. 3, 2 p.m. ET
2. School Infrastructure and Federal Programs, Aug. 5, 2 p.m. ET
3. Career Opportunities in the Green and Blue Economy, Aug. 18, 2 p.m. ET
4. Incentivizing Outdoor and Environmental Education, Aug. 23, 2 p.m. ET
5. Postsecondary Sustainability, Aug. 30, 2 p.m. ET

Two ASU faculty affiliated with the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, Michael Barton and Sander van der Leeuw, joined an international panel of 31 natural and social scientists to write a newly published article in Nature Geoscience that investigates abrupt shifts in the Earth's past and how they can be used to predict the future.

The article, Past abrupt changes, tipping points and cascading impacts in the Earth system, was published today an made available with open access by Nature Geoscience.

"We are increasingly concerned about the potential for abrupt changes resulting from human impacts in coming decades," said Barton, director of education and professor at the School of Complex Adaptive Systems. "Equally important, however, are societal dynamics that can make seemingly resilient human systems vulnerable to abrupt economic or political change--or even collapse--from otherwise manageable environmental fluctuations. Study of past socio-environmental tipping points can give us important insights needed to plan for future ones."

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AZ Heat Resilience Workgroup working to address extreme heat

Extreme heat is often thought of in conjunction with Arizona, but other states are also experiencing unprecedented higher temperatures during a heat wave in the Pacific Northwest.

“Heat is a multifaceted problem and solutions require a lot of different pieces from a lot of different people and programs,” said David Hondula, associate professor at ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning . “We have the opportunity in our state to set international best practices about how to thrive in the face of extreme heat and other sustainability challenges but must be working together to do so.”

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ASU’s College of Global Futures has completed a unique three-day virtual workshop for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) on July 19-21 on Inclusive Digital Development. The live workshop, which drew attendees from numerous time zones around the world, explored ways which technology can be share equitably and inclusively around the globe.

ASU Professors Mary Jane Parmentier and Faheem Hussain and Social Impact Technical Director Laura Ahearn served as co-hosts for the event, which covered the themes of broadening perspectives, diagnosing harms, and identifying levers of change within the inclusive digital development space.

The workshop included Lightning Talks and related Breakout Discussions covering topics including the meaning of inclusive digital development, the consequences of different definitions of fairness, inclusion, and equity, identifying levers of change, ensuring work is geared towards informing or effecting change, and identifying gaps essential for conducting inclusive digital development.

The workshop's keynote speakers included esteemed individuals from various educational institutions and social change organizations from around the globe, and the conversation reflected the diverse backgrounds that each attendee brought to the table.

A full summary report of this 3-day online workshop will be made available in the near future on USAID's website.

The 2021 ASU Project Management Summit is a FREE half-day virtual event for project managers and those interested in project management to meet and share project management knowledge. Participants will learn how to Level Up! their skills, career, and projects, and will have the opportunity to learn about project management tools and resources.

This event is for practitioners, faculty, staff, and students of all levels, whether they are new to project management or seasoned professionals and features distinguished speakers on topics focusing on four tracks: Military Veterans in Project Management, New to Project Management, Advanced Project Management, and Organizational Tools and Resources. You can also learn about PM course and degree programs at ASU, which are now available to view prior to the event and listed on the event agenda.

Those holding PMI certifications, such as the PMP®, can earn 15+ PDUs for participating, as sessions will be recorded, and also available on demand after the Summit.

Learn more and register.

Scientists have been sounding the alarm on the climate crisis for nearly three decades, and we still face major challenges. A group of Arizona State University educators are reaching out to youth for solutions.

“Scientists have warned us that the planet’s systems are dangerously close to irreversible tipping points. Children and youth are well aware that we live in environmentally precarious times and that they face an uncertain future,” said sustainability scholar Iveta Silova, professor and director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Global Education at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. “Yet, schools and universities continue to reproduce the hierarchical ‘man over nature’ relationships in an ongoing pursuit of economic growth.”

She believes this requires a complete paradigm shift and that our very future survival depends on our capacity to make this shift.

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Sustainability scholar Steven Beschloss is taking on a new role within the university as a professor of practice with triple-appointments in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the College of Global Futures.

Beschloss is eager to transition into his position as a professor of practice, where he will have the opportunity to teach about narrative storytelling while continuing his work of leading the Narrative Storytelling Initiative across the university.

“I think ASU is still at an early stage in positively disrupting higher education and fulfilling its potential to influence society and build a more just world. I’m excited to be a part of it,” Beschloss said. “This triple appointment represents my strong belief in transdisciplinary thinking and collaboration that pulls together faculty and students who are motivated to ask significant questions — including about the state of our planet, our democracy and the roles we can play in driving societal and global change.”

Read the full article in ASU News.

Sigma Xi, the scientific research honor society, seeks a Civic Science Fellow for Science Policy and Engagement.

The Fellow will work with the Sigma Xi leadership team to develop a platform that provides empirical evidence, guidance, and resources to help scientists gain a better understanding of the policy process and successfully engage in policymaking.

The successful candidate must have earned a master’s or higher degree in a STEM or policy field. Please share with your contacts as appropriate. Apply by July 30.