Skip to Content
Report an accessibility problem

Sustainability News

Collins elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

May 21, 2020

Sustainability scientist James Collins, the Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment in the School of Life Sciences, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, along with Cheshire Calhoun, faculty head and professor of philosophy in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies.

Collins, an evolutionary ecologist, was chosen for his studies of the role of host-pathogen interactions in species decline and extinction. Collins uses amphibians, along with viral and fungal pathogens, as models for studying the factors that control population dynamics and has been one of the foremost leaders in addressing the global amphibian extinction crisis. He also studies the scientific, ethical and public policy issues surrounding the development and proposed environmental release of genetically modified organisms.

Continue Reading

5/27: COVID-19 and the Mission of the U.S. Public University

May 20, 2020

Public universities are among the nation’s most vital and vibrant institutions, serving the educational needs of hundreds of thousands of students, advancing the full spectrum of human knowledge, and invigorating the cultural, social, and economic horizons of the regions they serve. And today, these universities are at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19, researching treatments, keeping their states and communities informed, and treating patients at academic medical centers.

How have our public universities responded to the COVID-19 pandemic? As university presidents look toward resuming in-person classes in the fall, what have they learned from the crisis, how will their institutions evolve as a result, and what might that mean for the future of higher education in America? How will public universities adapt to the serious financial challenges likely to arise in states and the nation in the months ahead? Could the response to the pandemic translate into an enhanced role for America’s public universities in the restoration of the nation’s public health and the recovery of its economic and social wellbeing?

Continue Reading

UREx partner calls for survey responses

May 19, 2020

Scientists from the Urban Systems Lab, part of The New School located in New York City, is calling for survey responses in their study of public parks, open spaces and COVID-19. Their survey is open until May 31, and features English- and Spanish-Language versions, as well as a separate survey for NYC residents.

The survey will help the lab understand how these spaces are being used during the pandemic and how this may affect mental and physical wellbeing. Feedback will help inform future policy, design, and management of parks and open spaces. This survey may be shared with your networks, particularly to people living in and around cities.

New videos available: CBIE webinar series

May 19, 2020

A new webinar panel series, organized by Marco Janssen, Marty Anderies, and Mike Schoon is entitled Don’t Waste the COVID-19 Crisis: Reflections on Resilience and the Commons Revealed by COVID-19.

Launched on April 20, the series now features three videos and counting. You may view previous webinars in the series at the IASC Youtube channel. Contact Caren Burgermeister to be added to the invitation list.

Vegetation shifts can outweigh climate change in desert rangelands

ASU Now | May 18, 2020

Grasslands across the globe, which support the majority of the world’s grazing animals, have been transitioning to shrub lands in a process that scientists call “woody plant encroachment.”

Managed grazing of drylands is the most extensive form of land use on the planet, which has led to widespread efforts to reverse this trend and restore grass cover.

Until now, researchers have thought that because woody plants like trees and shrubs have deeper roots than grass, woody plant encroachment resulted in less water entering streams and groundwater aquifers. This was because scientists typically studied the effect the grassland shift toward shrubs has on water resources on flat ground.

Continue Reading

KE hosts Return to Campus conversation

May 18, 2020

ASU Knowledge Enterprise hosted a May 18 conversation with KE employees to answer some of the questions they've received as they prepare and plan to resume in-person operations and classes. Topics included teleworking, building preparations, lab safety protocols, and a variety of other useful information.

A recording and slides will be made available to KE employees on the Knowledge Enterprise Electronic Portal at asu.edu/keep (ASUrite login required). Those who are not employed by KE will soon have access to a resource page for the broader research community.

ASU publishes COVID-19 data website

AZ Central | May 16, 2020

ASU's Biodesign Institute has published a website that displays user-friendly graphs and visualizations of the spread of COVID-19 in Arizona and across the United States. "The idea behind the website... is to get data out there so people can look at it and they can follow trends," said Joshua LaBaer, executive director of ASU's Biodesign Institute.

In addition, ASU researchers have published a model projecting healthcare demand in Arizona due to COVID-19. The model can be viewed in preprint form at medRxiv. "I think (the model) helps us to understand where we are, so that we can think about where we want to go next," said mathematical epidemiologist Tim Lant, one of the model's authors.

Byck documentary series Carbon Cowboys hits the web

May 15, 2020

In many parts of the U.S., the farming industry has been forced to waste food due to supply chain interruptions from COVID-19. But the Carbon Cowboys featured in Peter Byck's 10-part documentary series say sales are soaring.

In his series, Byck details the farming technique known as regenerative grazing, which involves quickly rotating cattle from pasture to pasture, before they can damage the land — similar to how bison herds move across The Great Plains. The practice, which does not use chemical fertilizers or pesticides, builds soils that are richer in carbon, which in turn boosts crop and livestock yields.

The series, directed by Peter Byck, was filmed over six years in various rural communities across the U.S., Canada and the U.K. View it online at CarbonCowboys.org.

How will Americans commute after this?

May 15, 2020

A survey led by urban planning professor Deborah Salon probed 800 workers across the U.S., many of them concentrated in Arizona and other western states. Initial responses showed that workers anticiapte working more from home in the future, driving less and biking or walking more.

Salon's early results were shared, along with several other studies, in a May article published by CityLab entitled How Will Americans Commute After Lockdowns End? Salon is an assistant professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning.

Fini named American Society of Civil Engineers fellow

May 14, 2020

From the American Society of Civil Engineers:

Elham H. (Ellie) Fini, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, co-founder of Bio-Adhesive Alliance Inc., senior sustainability scientist at Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability and associate professor of Arizona State University, has been named a Fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.

Fini has served as a program director at the National Science Foundation and as president of the American Association of Civil Engineers (Northern branch in North Carolina). She has been Fulbright scholar at Aalborg University of Denmark and research affiliate at MIT's Center for Materials Science and Engineering. She is currently serving as an invention ambassador for American Association for Advancement of Sciences and as the associate editor of ASCE's Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering. She is also the inventor and co-founder of a startup company and has published more than 100 journal papers, one book and one book chapter.

Continue Reading

Karwat, Vanos talk air quality on KJZZ

May 13, 2020

Sustainability scientists Darshan Karwat of the School for the Future of Innovation in Sociaty and Jenni Vanos of the School of Sustainability were among several experts interviewed by local Phoenix National Public Radio affiliate KJZZ last month. The April 27 radio piece was titled Worse Air Quality In Phoenix Communities Of Color Could Mean Higher COVID-19 Risk.

Karwat’s research shows correlations between neighborhoods’ poverty levels, percentage of minority residents, and pollution levels. Vanos studies the influence of extreme heat, radiation, and air pollution on human health. With so many cars off the road as people stay home during the pandemic, Phoenix’s air has been much cleaner for the past few weeks, which the two see as an opportunity for shared research.

Continue Reading

Wutich recognized for outstanding mentorship

ASU Now | May 13, 2020

Every year Arizona State University Faculty Women’s Association recognizes exceptional mentors across the university with the Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award. This year, social sciences faculty members Amber Wutich and Tracy Spinrad from The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences were selected for the honor.

Sustainability Scientist Amber Wutich joined the School of Human Evolution and Social Change as an assistant professor in 2007 after initially coming to ASU as a postdoctoral student in 2006. Today she serves as the President’s Professor of anthropology, the director of ASU’s Center for Global Health and the associate director of ASU’s Institute for Social Science Research.

Continue Reading

Lunchtime circular economy book reading

May 12, 2020

Four children live on an island that serves as the repository for all the world’s garbage. Trash arrives, the children sort it, and then they feed it to a herd of insatiable pigs: a perfect system. But when a barrel washes ashore with a boy inside, the children must decide whether he is more of the world’s detritus, meant to be fed to the pigs, or whether he is one of them. Written in exquisitely wrought prose, Pigs asks questions about community, environmental responsibility, and the possibility of innocence.

In this May 20 lunchtime event, hosted on Zoom, author Johanna Stoberock joins a panel of experts to discuss the unanticipated effects of our real-world linear waste system on people and communities, assessing current trends and innovations for a circular economy to reuse and regenerate our world’s resources. Register for Zoom details.

This event is presented by the ASU Rob & Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Service, ASU Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, ASU Center for Science and the Imagination, Changing Hands Bookstore.

Street smarts required in heat mitigation

ASU Now | May 12, 2020

Anyone that’s ever been out walking on a hot summer day has probably experienced an uncomfortable phenomenon: sometimes, the heat radiated from the pavement below is just as hot as that coming from the sunlight above. In a quest to cool city streets, the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Surfaces has pioneered the use of solar reflective coatings with the idea that coating streets with a lighter color will lower the surrounding temperatures. It’s an interesting theory, and one that has attracted the attention of researcher and urban climatologist Ariane Middel.

Continue Reading

Pijawka retires after more than three decades

ASU Now | May 8, 2020

After more than 35 years, David Pijawka, sustainable planning professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, is retiring as full-time faculty. Pijawka has been at the helm of interdisciplinary research at Arizona State University for more than three decades, bringing together policy, sustainability, geographical sciences and urban planning in novel and innovative ways and applying them to community work.

Arriving at ASU in 1982, Pijawka took on a range of critical roles and academic positions over the course of his career. He served as full-time faculty for the School of Public Affairs, the School of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture, and the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning — establishing a record of excellence in each.

In the mid-1990s, Pijawka served as interim director of the Center for Environmental Studies, predecessor to what is today the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability. He took over after Duncan Patten's retirement in 1995 and was succeeded by Charles Redman in 1997. During Pijawka's tenure as interim director, the Center initiated several new interdisciplinary research and outreach programs, expanding relations with other ASU units.

Continue Reading

Moore recognized with national teacher-scholar award

ASU Now | May 7, 2020

Sustainability scholar Gary Moore, an assistant professor in Arizona State University's School of Molecular Sciences and the Biodesign Institute’s Center for Applied Structural Discovery, has just been named one of 14 young faculty nationwide to be honored with a 2020 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation.

The Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program supports the research and teaching careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences. When choosing its teacher-scholars, the foundation seeks those who demonstrate leadership in both research and education.

Moore’s group uses chemistry to build nanoscale materials that are fundamentally interesting and address societal challenges. Research themes include the transduction of solar energy, the synthesis of new materials to catalyze a range of chemical transformations of industrial importance, the design and preparation of novel hard-to-soft matter interfaces, and development of a general improvement in our understanding of molecular structure and function relationships.

KE Health Futures hosting virtual discussion on pandemics

May 5, 2020

The Office of Health Futures at ASU Knowledge Enterprise is hosting a virtual discussion on pandemics this Friday, May 8th from 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM MST that will be open and free for members of the ASU Health Futures and Health Leadership Councils, as well as senior leaders, faculty, staff, and students at ASU, and those within our surrounding communities.

The conversation will be moderated by Christine Cassel, M.D., a renowned expert in geriatric medicine, medical ethics, and quality of care, and will feature prize-winning New York Times bestselling author John Barry (author of The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History) and Richard Carmona, MD, MPH, FAC, the 17th Surgeon General of the United States, Chief of Health Innovations at Canyon Ranch, and Distinguished Professor at the University of Arizona).

Register online.

Deadline Extended: New GFL Research Accelerator

May 1, 2020

The sustainability challenges facing society require novel approaches to use-inspired science with local-to-global impact. The Global Futures Research Accelerator* empowers ASU Sustainability Scientists and Scholars to develop an enterprise research strategy to increase competitiveness, funding success, partnerships and societal impact.

This is your opportunity to develop a proactive capacity-building research strategy; build resources, infrastructure, expertise and training necessary to assemble and empower transdisciplinary teams; and set targets and identify tactics for improving proposal volume, quality, conversion and win rates. Read the flyer to learn more.

Applications are open now and must be submitted by June 12. Early to mid-career faculty and research professors should apply. Apply now at globalfutures.asu.edu/accelerator.

Continue Reading

Wrigley Lecture rebroadcast: CanopyMeg Lowman

April 30, 2020

Earth Month 2020 wrapped up with a Wrigley Lecture featuring Meg Lowman, National Geographic Explorer and director of the TREE Foundation. Dr. Lowman has dedicated three decades to the exploration of tree canopies and is one of the first pioneers in the field of treetop science. Her talk was originally presented via Zoom on April 28 and drew over 300 attendees.

You can watch the event on YouTube. In her presentation, Lowman talks about tree canopy exploration, inclusivity in science, and how her research can be applied to create sustainable practices on local and global scales.