The ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes is excited to welcome Danica Shaffer-Smith, the second NatureNet Science Fellow hired in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, and Gwen Iacona who will be spearheading two conservation investment decision tools for the corporate sector.

Dr. Schaffer-Smith has technical expertise in remote sensing and geospatial analysis. Her research has spanned a variety of topics, including modeling the spread of wind-driven fires, assessing habitat connectivity for endangered species, analyzing global tropical deforestation dynamics and exploring methods to quantify linkages between coupled social-ecological systems.

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The ASU-Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute partnership is currently accepting applications from graduate students interested in learning about tropical science in Panama.

Students can apply to attend the Tropical Ecology and Conservation Boot Camp, which runs January 13-February 6, 2019 or the ASU Tropical Biology Study Abroad Course, which runs June 4-21, 2019.

Courses and application details are available here.

Applications close Monday, October 15, 2018 at 5 p.m. AZ time.

Sometimes something sweet requires serious smarts.

Arizona State University sustainability scientist Kristen Parrish’s work focuses on integrating energy-efficiency methods into the design, construction and operational processes of buildings.

Robert Wang’s expertise in thermal science includes the applications of thermoelectricity, thermal-energy storage and phase-change materials and processes.

Together they are a formidable force in the quest for … well-preserved, quality ice cream.

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A new publication by ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director and Professor Leah Gerber and Conservation International’s Americas Field Division Senior Vice President Dr. Daniela Raik calls for cross-sector collaborations to tackle the most pressing conservation challenges of the 21^st Century.

The paper, entitled “Conservation science needs new institutional models for achieving outcomes,” was published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment – a publication of The Ecological Society of America – in October 1, 2018. (PDF)

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In this episode, UREx postdoctoral researcher, Sam Markolf, interviews Dr. Dan Eisenberg about resilience from an engineering perspective. When is being more robust the solution? When is flexibility preferred? Dan shares stories to illustrate when it may be advantageous to abandon standards of practice, how to deal with different types of surprises, and the differences between robust design and extensible design. They discuss the importance of designing infrastructure with human-technological interactions in mind.

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us at futurecitiespodcast@gmail.com or find us on Twitter @FutureCitiesPod.

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher or Buzzsprout.

PolarGlobe is a large-scale, web-based four-dimensional visualization tool allowing climate data access to anyone with an internet connection. It’s capable of illustrating changes in the atmosphere vividly in real time. This tool was developed by Wenwen Li, a senior sustainability scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University.

Designed specifically for polar scientists seeking to understand the ice caps, the tool is also useful for high school science teachers and weather fanatics.

“It’s not just for research. Every day, weather watchers can see what’s going on,” said Li, who is also an associate professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. “We would love to inspire the next generation into science.”

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A high-level panel event at the 2018 United Nations General Assembly discussed the importance of gender equality to the world economy. Empowering women, the panelists said, would contribute 28 trillion dollars to the world economy over the next seven years.

At this event, the five 2018 WE Empower UN SDG Challenge awardees were honored for their ongoing entreprenurial commitments to gender equality and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.

Read more about the event in "Gender inequality costs trillions to the world," an article by the Council of Women World Leaders.

In 2015, world leaders agreed to establish 17 goals to achieve a better world by 2030. An end to poverty and hunger. Clean water and energy. Gender equality and decent work. Together, they are called the United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development.

And when they’re met, it's remarkable.

Arizona State University faculty members working on projects that fulfill the goals have seen it in places stretching from Pakistan to Pacific islands.

ASU Now profiled three projects advancing these UN Sustainable Development Goals that are led by sustainability scientists from the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability: Netra Chhetri, Clark Miller and Laura Hosman. Read the full story.

Arizona State University sustainability scientist Peter Buseck is part of a team that recently received a $1 million award from the Keck Foundation with additional ASU matching funds to lead an ASU effort to further explore carbon’s potential.

Chemists have more recently dreamed of harnessing the potential of carbon’s next frontier — an exotic yet elusive pure form called carbyne. Carbyne is a chainlike material proposed to be stronger than diamond, more conductive than copper, and even reportedly found in stardust and meteorites.

But for the past few decades, many scientists have staked various claims of making carbyne in the lab — only to be proven wrong in the waking light of day by the rigorous work of the scientific community, including contributions from Buseck, who has a joint appointment in the School of Molecular Sciences and the School of Earth and Space Exploration.

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Working for the benefit of our community is central to the mission of Arizona State University, but it’s actually a pretty radical idea, according to a professor who teaches students how to do it.

One of ASU’s eight design aspirations is “social embeddedness,” defined as: ASU connects with communities through mutually beneficial partnerships.

In the past few decades, the concept of “community engagement” has moved into academia and arts, said Michael Rohd, an Institute Professor at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.

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Sustainability students are growing into the new semester — along with a new crop of vegetables in their revamped community garden.

Students of all grade levels gathered in the S-cluster community area of the Adelphi II dorms in Tempe on Friday to reclaim their community garden after being away while the Adelphi Complex was shut down for renovation.

The garden is about so much more than growing plants, according to Yaritza Hernandez, a sophomore double-majoring in sustainability and innovation in society.

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Sophomore Justice LeVecke originally wanted to be a nursing student — and only a nursing student. Now, she’s double majoring in sustainability and nursing at Arizona State University, all because of a high school program that made her realize she “could do more in [her] career and during [her] life with a background in sustainability.”

During her time at Mountain Pointe High School in Phoenix, LeVecke took an Advanced Placement Environmental Science course that was eligible for School of Sustainability college credit through a partnership with ASU. Read more in her Q&A about how she got inspired to continue with sustainability:

Question: What did you like about the ASU Sustainability School @ Mountain Pointe program?

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Arizona State University has joined forces with Medavate and Baya Build, companies that innovate in healthcare and construction industries, respectively, for a unique partnership to deliver groundbreaking healthcare through remote medical and telehealth clinics. The trio partnered based on common missions to address inefficiencies in healthcare, building and energy.

The partnership's energy solutions are designed and integrated by an interdisciplinary team of collaborators led by Nathan Johnson, an expert in sustainable and resilient energy systems at Arizona State University. Johnson is an assistant professor in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, director of the Laboratory for Energy and Power Solutions, and senior sustainability scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability. Johnson’s team of researchers and developers collaborate with developing countries seeking to address energy needs for emerging market economies and the rural poor. Their work incorporates both on-grid modernization and off-grid solutions for application to industrialized countries and emerging economies.

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At the fourth annual State of Sustainability Summit, Arizona State University remains committed to leading — and teaching — sustainability. Home to the world’s first school of sustainability and the first university to offer a degree in the practice, ASU strives to act as a living laboratory and example of sustainability for society.

“We are educating the next generation of leaders who will go out with this knowledge, and every decision they make will be informed by this knowledge,” university Chief Financial Officer Morgan Olsen said. “I can’t think of anything more important in the area of sustainability we can do than that single function. … We’re a model of what we’d like to see in this world.”

Set against a global backdrop, the university’s efforts aren’t even a drop in the bucket. All the efforts of all American universities who signed a pledge to reduce carbon emissions amount to about 3 percent of U.S. emissions.

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Veronica Horvath, an Arizona State University Master of Science in sustainability student and Decision Center for a Desert City research assistant, is a first place awardee of the 2018 Central Arizona Project Award for outstanding water research. This is the first time a DCDC research assistant has won this award. Horvath presented her work at the Arizona Hydrological Society's annual symposium on September 21 alongside several ASU sustainability scientists who research water.

“As an aspiring water scholar, I feel extremely grateful to receive this award for water research, especially because the Central Arizona Project and Arizona Hydrological Society are significant players involved with addressing Arizona's water future beyond academia,” Horvath said. “It is an honor to share this work with Arizona's dedicated practitioners, policy makers and water managers, and is a true representation of how ASU, DCDC, and the School of Sustainability foster use-inspired research.”

Horvath answered a few questions for us about her research and experience at ASU.

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Mountain snowpack is melting earlier, leaving water regulators searching for new approaches and farmers concerned about the risk to their crops. To help stakeholders find solutions, the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday awarded $4.9 million to an interdisciplinary team of researchers from five institutions in three states, including Arizona State University.

Mountain snowpack and rainfall are the primary sources of water for the arid western United States, and water allocation rules determine how that water gets distributed among competing uses. But earlier melting of mountain snowpack is altering the timing of runoff, putting additional pressure on reservoirs to meet the needs of agricultural water rights holders.

Over the next five years, scientists from ASU will join researchers from the University of Nevada, Reno; Desert Research Institute; Colorado State University and Northern Arizona University to use a new $4.97 million grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture to explore different aspects of this issue:

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Michael Herod has two degrees from the School of Sustainability: a bachelor of science and an Executive Master of Sustainability Leadership. But Herod didn’t enroll in sustainability because of a passion for the environment or for the health of communities around the world, as many students do. Herod initially pursued sustainability to prove his boss wrong and to do something beneficial with a “pocket full of Uncle Sam’s money” after returning from Iraq with the U.S. Army.

During his last undergraduate semester, Herod had a realization that inspired him to pursue the EMSL, and then to start a successful business called GOEFER that allows people and businesses to monitor and save on their energy use through advanced power strips. Read on for more about Herod’s journey and how he got the idea for his business.

Question: What was your “aha” moment when you realized you wanted to study sustainability?

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A new paper by Hanna Breetz, a senior sustainability scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability and an assistant professor in the School of Sustainability, argues that “politics is the hidden dimension of technology experience curves, as it affects both costs and deployment.” This paper, which Breetz wrote with authors from the University of California Santa Barbara, is called “The political logics of clean energy transitions.”

The full report is available from Cambridge University Press.

Within all three of the Global Locust Initiative's pillars of facilitating fundamental and applied research, creating and maintaining a global network of locust practitioners, and developing local solutions to the global challenge of locust plagues, we strive to enable student success. After working in the Cease Lab and with GLI during his time as a Master Card Fellow at ASU, one of our fantastic students, Balanding Manneh, graduated with his bachelor in biology in spring 2018.

Throughout his time in the Cease Lab, Balanding offered integral support in lab and research activities, even helping with fieldwork in Senegal in 2015 and 2016. He is now pursuing a Master of Public Health at the University of British Columbia. He sent us the following update to summarize his time with the Cease Lab.

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Bridget Abraham recently began pursuing a bachelor of science in sustainability at Arizona State University. She became interested in sustainability during her time at Chandler High School, where she was Student Body President and involved in all Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes. During Abraham’s junior year, she enrolled in AP Environmental Science, and through a partnership between ASU and Chandler High, she earned School of Sustainability credit for this class.

Abraham answered questions for us about how this experience in high school led her to choosing a path in sustainability, and what sustainability means to her.

Question: What did you like about the ASU Sustainability School @ Chandler High School program?

Answer: The aspect I enjoyed the most about SOS was the passion behind it. My teacher, Mrs. Culver, loved what she taught and put all her effort into her students to share her knowledge and passion. I was captivated not only by what she taught us, but also her devotion to the environment.

Q: What was your “aha” moment when you realized you wanted to study sustainability?

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