Nancy Gonzales has been named Arizona State University’s next executive vice president and university provost. Gonzales is currently dean of natural sciences, overseeing six interdisciplinary schools and departments. She has been active in developmental and clinical psychology research with culturally diverse populations for more than 25 years, with continuous National Institutes of Health funding as a principal investigator on grants since 2001. Gonzales is also an ASU alumna and a first-generation college student who is fully dedicated to our mission of access and inclusion.

In her new role, Gonzales will be responsible for the Academic Enterprise of ASU and will lead a complex organization that provides a multitude of opportunities and challenges to ensure the university continues progress toward its charter and goals. She will engage in all aspects of the day-to-day operations of the university as well as developing and supporting long-term strategic initiatives to drive student and faculty success. Her duties also will include advancing academic excellence through the faculty recruitment, retention and renewal processes, and growing the quality, scope and scale of both campus immersion and online programs.

Gonzales’ appointment is subject to approval by the Arizona Board of Regents. She will serve as provost pro tem and work with current Executive Vice President and University Provost Mark Searle until June 30, 2021, when he steps down and moves into the role of University Professor. Gonzales will start her official term as executive vice president and university provost on July 1.

Read more at ASU Now.

Host Jason Sauer (PhD candidate, ASU) talks with researcher Heidy Correa (Master of Science, Universidad Austral de Chile) about a grassroots community organization in Valdivia, Chile, that was instrumental in the spread of a wetland conservation ethos across the city. Counter to the work that we often highlight in this podcast, this wetland conservation effort started with a single person and spread upward to academics and politicians through the dedication and hard work of this community, rather than starting with experts or specialists at the top and moving downward. We also talk about “natural heritage,” the importance of the “green commons,” and how “commoning” can be used to articulate and make legitimate the ways in which individuals and communities value their environment and identity.

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.

Sustainability scholar Amanda Ellis co-hosted this on-demand episode of the Intersectionality and Inclusion series, sponsored by the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. The event featured three women entrepreneurs who were honored by the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge, which Ellis co-chairs.

An abriged event description follows. Read more and register for the on-demand episode.

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In November 2020, the American Association for the Advancement of Science elected ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director and School of Life Sciences Professor Leah Gerber as a Fellow.

Gerber was recognized for “For [her] leadership in balancing conservation priority setting, ecosystem-based management, adaptive monitoring, marine reserve design, endangered species recovery policy and decision science.”

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Five outstanding Arizona State University faculty spanning the physical sciences, psychological sciences and science policy have been named as Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Sustainability scientists Leah Gerber, Andrew Maynard and Steven Neuberg join Ying-Cheng Lai and John McCutcheon; all are being honored for their career contributions to science, innovation or socially distinguished efforts to advance science and its applications.

The AAAS, publisher of the journal Science, is the world’s largest general scientific society. Election as a fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. Within that general framework, each awardee is honored for contributions to a specific field.

The five new ASU faculty members' election this year brings the total number of AAAS Fellows affiliated with ASU to 86. There are 489 newly elected AAAS Fellows this year.

Read the ASU Now story to learn about the ASU AAAS 2020 Fellows’ individual scientific achievements.

In September 2020, five graduate students affiliated with the ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes published a memo addressing how to reinvigorate recycling in Arizona through state-level policy reform.

By interviewing recycling coordinators from across the state, they found that most municipalities have been forced to alter their programs due to changing international markets and a lack of state-level support. Despite these challenges, interviewees view an investment in the recycling sector as an opportunity to improve the economic, environmental and social wellbeing of their community.

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“Don’t be afraid to ask for help because women are so used to juggling so many things and are able to really pull all the strings to make sure the puppet is moving comfortably, but it’s really hard so don’t be afraid to ask for help”.

—WE Empower UN SDG Challenge Finalist, Stella Sigana - Founder, Alternative Waste Technologies, Kenya

2020 WE Empower Finalist, Sub-Saharan Africa

A challenge that over 3 billion people around the world encounter each day is finding safe fuels to cook their food with. Stella Sigana is changing the way in which Sub-Saharan Africa is approaching this issue with her Keynan-based company, Alternative Waste Technologies, which provides clean-burning and environmentally friendly charcoal briquettes to families and businesses. WE Empower intern, Sidney McKee, interviewed Sigana and expands upon how Alternative Waste Technologies is not only furthering societal development through improving access to vital cooking fuels, but is leading the way for the preservation of endangered ecosystems.

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Dr. Sally C. Morton is an internationally recognized statistician known for her pioneering work on the use of statistics and data science to help patients and their health care providers make better decisions. During her career, she has led complex organizations at both academic and industrial institutions including serving as dean of the College of Science at Virginia Tech, chair of biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh, vice president for statistics and epidemiology at RTI International and head of the RAND Corporation Statistics Group. She will join ASU on Feb. 1.

Read the full article on ASU Now.

SRP and ASU faculty, staff and students are invited on Dec. 10, 2020, from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. to participate in an informative seminar and discussion around enhancing sustainable transportation in Arizona. Registration is required.

ASU and SRP have a decades-long history of working together on issues facing the Phoenix metropolitan area, the state of Arizona and the U.S. Southwest and are unique contributors to the advancement of transportation. Together we have created an interdisciplinary and cross-functional strategic partnership on transportation electrification (TE) that enhances the value each organization brings to their stakeholders and to the broader community. This partnership’s goals are to identify strategies and approaches to enhance electric vehicle (EV) adoption in residential and commercial domains and to meet ASU’s and SRP’s TE and carbon reduction goals with a focus on four key pillars:

• Policy and pricing strategies
• Education and awareness
• Infrastructure and charging locations
• Behaviors and choices

We are seeking a full-time Education Coordinator for the Behavioral Plasticity Research Institute (BPRI), a newly established Biology Integration Institute funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. This position will provide leadership and administrative support to facilitate all aspects of training and educational activities at the BPRI.

The successful candidate will be a central communicator and facilitator for faculty and trainees of the BPRI, and work closely with various member institutions of the BPRI (Baylor College of Medicine, Texas A&M University, Washington University in St. Louis, Arizona State University, University of California-Davis, and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville). This position offers a unique opportunity to develop a career as an education specialist who can work with scientists, postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students across different biological disciplines. There are also opportunities to develop leadership skills through shared governance. The position is based at Texas A&M University. We are especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the BPRI’s diversity through their service. Women, minorities, people with disabilities, and veterans are encouraged to apply.

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A postdoctoral position is available in the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA. The position is part of the Behavioral Plasticity Research Institute (BPRI), one of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s four newly established Biology Integration Institutes.

The BPRI focuses on understanding locust phase polyphenism, one of the most striking examples of coordinated phenotypic plasticity. This phenomenon provides a powerful comparative system for understanding how gene expression patterns and epigenetic regulation are linked to shifts in behavior, physiology, and ecology that result in outbreaks, collective movement, and mass migration. The BPRI is established to comprehensively dissect this phenomenon and use it as a model system to transform the study of phenotypic plasticity. With a commitment to improving diversity, inclusion and equity, the BPRI will train the next generation of integrative biologists who can efficiently navigate across different disciplines.

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Ferran Garcia-Pichel, the Virginia M. Ullman Professor of the Environment in the School of Life Sciences, is one of four new Regents Professors at Arizona State University. Garcia-Pinchel is on the executive committee of the Global Drylands Center.

Garcia-Pichel's discoveries on the roles that microbes play in the environment are considered pioneering and transdisciplinary in his field. His research has enabled convergence of different disciplines combining approaches from biogeochemistry, geomicrobiology and global-change biology, thus opening up new frontiers of research. His research provided much of the most important knowledge of microbial ecology including the ecological and genetic diversity of the cyanobacteria, perhaps the most essential bacteria on the planet. His discoveries are shaping our understanding of the deep history of Earth from deserts to oceans. Ecological research is only beginning to come to grips with some of Garcia-Pichel's newest discoveries.

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Watch a new Spanish language seminar series, Con Ciencia En Las Américas, organized by early-career researchers at Stanford University and the University of Santiago in Chile. The goal of Con Ciencia En Las Américas is to highlight Latin American scholars, create a broader community of scholars across the Americas, and provide Spanish language science content for a broad audience.

In this episode from October 28, 2020, Osvaldo Sala talks to Esteban Jobbágy and moderator Guadalupe Carrillo about the topic: "From forests to agricultural land: How human intervention affects the biodiversity of arid and semi-arid ecosystems."

Future Tense has launched a new series called the Future Agenda, in which experts call for one specific, concrete action they would like to see the Biden administration take on technology, science, climate change, etc.

Examples include the FTC prioritizing right to repair, the FCC expanding E-Rate, and changing a FEMA rule that is making it harder for many to prove they lived in homes that were destroyed in natural disasters (and thus making it hard for them to claim funds they are entitled to).

Pieces will be about 800-1,000 words, and will be running between now and Inauguration Day.

ASU has been invited to put forth authors for Future Tense's consideration. Use this form to pitch your idea or email Michelle Schwartz at sustainability.concierge@asu.edu.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy and society.

A new report, The Gender Equality and Governance Index: Empowering Women for the Prosperity of Nations, was released at the November 2020 meeting of the International Leadership Association meeting in Washington DC, and immediately thereafter at the Women Political Leaders Forum in Reykjavik, Iceland.

It brings together some of the most up-to-date and comprehensive databases on gender discrimination in the world, to cast a light on why the economic and political empowerment of women is vital not just for human prosperity but also for our future peace and security.

Sustainability scholar Amanda Ellis, director for global partnerships in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, was one of three authors.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will convene a virtual public workshop, Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities for Sustainability Science on November 30, December 1, and December 2, 2020 (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). Register now.

The workshop will review the state of cutting edge research that can help societies meet the goals of sustainable development, and provide scientific input to the ongoing discussions of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Grand Challenges in Science initiative and the Nobel Prize Summit “Our Planet, Our Future” that will be held in Spring 2021.

The workshop has been designed by a Steering Committee that includes GIOSI board members Pamela Matson (co-chair) and William Clark (co-chair), 2007 Wrigley Lecturer Partha Dasgupta, as well as Arun Agrawal, Ruth DeFries, Carl Folke, Robert O. Keohane, Diana Liverman, and Stephen Polasky.

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In January, the start of the UN's 75th anniversary, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched the world’s biggest conversation on building a better future for all. The vision was to spark conversations ("UN75 dialogues") in all settings – from classrooms to boardrooms, parliaments to village halls – on priorities for the future, obstacles to achieving them, and the role of international cooperation in making progress.

ASU hosted an event November 17 seeking technical, scientific and academic input from ASU faculty. Twenty participants joined the event to share observations, experiences and recommendations regarding the next 25 years of the United Nations, with each faculty member completing a UN75 survey prior to attending.

Some of the questions guiding the discussion included:

• In recovering from the pandemic, what should the UN / international community prioritize, and what can universities do to help?
• How can complexity research benefit the UN?
• What global trends, such as climate change or armed conflict, are most critical to our future?
• What are the critical challenges and opportunities over the next 25 years that will influence our actions to address the SDGs and issues of sustainability?
• How can the UN and the international community integrate knowledge (in the broadest sense) into SDG action, and what is beyond the SDGs?

Survey results and dialogue feedback, including the ideas and solutions generated at this event, were disseminated online and through UN75 partners and were presented to world leaders and senior UN officials at meetings and events. A student dialogue was scheduled for December 15.

The Interplanetary Initiative at ASU is pleased to announce a call for individual presentations, special sessions, and webinar panel discussions. The Commons in Space conference will bring together scholars and practitioners to address issues of the commons beyond the bounds of our planet. The conference will cover topics including the satellites and space debris increasingly congesting orbital space, mining of celestial bodies, diverse perspectives on space as a global commons, protection of dark night sky, going beyond Antarctica and High Sea regulations as models for space law, and much more.

Organizers welcome different types of contributions. The live events during the conference focus on panel discussions. Those webinar panels are debates related to research and policy and include Q&A with the audience. Webinar panels topics can be submitted directly or will be based on individual talks submitted. Individual contributions are pre-recorded videos. They also invite non-traditional contributions such as interviews, short films, or other artistic works. Submit abstract here.

Key Dates

• Abstract Deadline: Jan 15, 2021
• Acceptance Notification: Jan 25, 2021
• Deadline for prerecorded presentations: Feb 15, 2021

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On Thursday, October 29th students joined community experts from the City of Peoria and the Town of Clarkdale for two informative panel sessions. The Project Cities team was thrilled to further connect ASU students with city and town leadership to answer questions and gain further insight on this semester’s projects. If you missed the live discussions, check out the recordings below!

City of Peoria Communication Office Panel

Students from classes in sustainability leadership, communication, and engineering interacted with panelists Jennifer Stein, Peoria’s Director of Communications, and Kristina Perez, Peoria’s Marketing and Communications Manager, as well as ASU risk communication scholar, Majia Nadesan. Our community experts lent their professional perspectives on public relations and communication amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

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In 1992 the United Nations came together for its first-ever, “Earth Summit,” and began to acknowledge the requisite issue of climate change at a global level.

Since then, sustainability has become a household term, and for good reason. Since the industrial revolution, it is evident humanity, and our associated behaviors are responsible for the exponential and unnatural increase in greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. This is Largely a result of society’s ubiquitous consumption of fossil fuels, which disseminates carbon dioxide (CO2) as its primary byproduct. High emissions of carbon and other GHGs trap excess amounts of thermal heat in the atmosphere, contributing significantly to the rate of global warming.

The UN reports global warming from 1.5°C to 2°C and beyond will have drastic negative effects on the environment. Rapid decarbonization and achieving net-zero emission standards by 2050 will be imperative in reversing or lessening the full impact of climate change. Industries and society must collaborate to create strategic solutions now that not only capture and reduce GHGs but also those that can replace current processes and activities contributing to high emissions.

To date, various players in government, private industry, and public sectors are focusing on curtailing their dependency on fossil fuel to drive down their carbon footprint. These efforts range dramatically in size and impact, and it is generally left to the individual entities to figure out what new, best practices there are for implementation. Historically, this approach has relied on targeting projects considered to be “low-hanging fruit,” such as retrofitting LED light bulbs, optimizing building controls, or purchasing power agreements (PPA). The “easier” projects tend to be the go-to-choice for many institutions as they typically involve less initial capital and/or can be associated with increases in returns. This strategy makes perfect sense from a business logic perspective and is at least a step in the right direction.

So how are we doing? Will this strategy be sufficient to meet decarbonization goals by 2050?

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