2019-20 News Stories

My original plan for this summer was to spend several weeks at the Savannah River Site in New Ellenton, SC investigating the effects of habitat connectivity on ant community dynamics.

The first IGC Coffee Convo since closure of the university was conducted on July 23rd via Zoom! These conversations allow students to create connections with faculty members they might not normally interact with.

Hello everyone! I hope this postcard finds you healthy and safe. If you don’t know me already, I’m Ernie, an IGC fellow from the Biological Sciences department.

Hey folks! I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. I’m Junyao Kang, a second year Ph.D. student from Department of Geosciences, and one of the newest IGC fellows.

There’s a tendency in modern America to think of flooding as nothing but dangerous, a threat to homes, farms, roads, and bridges. But flooding — when the waters of a river rise above the banks and inundate the nearby land...

It’s a sticky, humid afternoon in southwestern Virginia. Trucks are spraying manure across a sea of rolling hay fields. I’m downwind and standing in front of a wooden nestbox. AirBnB #73.

As we welcome in the newest officers of the IGC GSO, we also want to take a moment to thank all the officers who are finishing up their term.

More than 2 million Americans live without access to safe drinking water or adequate sewer sanitation, according to a 2019 study by the U.S. Water Alliance. That includes around a quarter-million people in Puerto Rico and half a million homeless people in the United States.

Congratulations to five GCC affiliated faculty members who have earned tenure and promotion in June 2020 as a result of their outstanding achievements in teaching, research, and service.

Amber Wendler looked the part, mostly. She had the binoculars hanging around her neck, she had her eyes cast upward toward the tree canopy where birds were flitting about, and she had her ears tuned to the sound of their songs.

The novel coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2, is currently causing a worldwide pandemic that has infected more than 5 million human beings, and the number continues to climb.

Since March, Virginia Tech civil and environmental engineering professor Linsey Marr, an expert in the airborne transmission of infectious disease, has been testing the efficacy of sterilized N95 respirators and alternative mask materials in filtering out particles.

The ongoing Climate Action Commitment revision process is not only generating recommendations that will help guide Virginia Tech’s sustainable future, it is also fostering a dynamic ecosystem of university and community members collaborating to collectively tackle this important challenge.

The first-year IGC seminar students discussed the challenges of reaching “scientific consensus” with Dr. Julia Gohlke, who shared her experiences working on panels to determine scientific consensus on health impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted, the role of science in policymaking can be complex and fraught.

Congratulations to recent IGC alumna Dr. Cristina Marcillo, who just received a 2020 Randolph L. Grayson Outstanding VT-CALS Diversity Scholar Award!

The Interfaces of Global Change IGEP awards four 12-month Ph.D. fellowships every academic year, each covering tuition and stipend.

Welcome Drs. Ferretti, Kindsvater and Russell!

As the novel coronavirus continues to proliferate across the world, we are all being asked to do our part in preventing the spread — whether that be wearing a mask in public, maintaining a 6-foot distance from others, or staying at home.

The 36th annual VT Graduate Student Association Research Symposium was held virtually on March 25th, 2020.

Virginia Tech for Climate Justice, a student-led organization with faculty supporters, had plans for an engaging week of activities for Earth Week, but due to concerns over the novel coronavirus, they shifted their focus to many digital events!

Virginia Tech hosts a number of distinguished and treasured faculty, and one of the most colorful is Fred Benfield. He is an aquatic ecologist, and throughout his career, has contributed to that field in a number of ways.

As Virginians contribute to our national collective effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 through social distancing, a simple window or short walk offers an opportunity to connect to the rhythms of the natural world by observing common bird species.

Congratulations to several IGC Fellows awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships in 2020!! According to the National Science Foundation, “The purpose of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is to help ensure the vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States.

Congratulations to Ignacio Moore, professor of Biological Sciences, who has been selected as a recipient of this year’s VT Alumni Award for Excellence in International Research.

A mass shift to online instruction has pushed Virginia Tech faculty to develop new ways to teach—a dynamic perhaps nowhere more evident than in GCC affiliate Michelle Stocker’s Morphology of the Vertebrates class in the Department of Geosciences.

The second IGCoffeeConvo of the spring 2020 semester was held on the first Friday of March. These gatherings are an opportunity for IGC students to get to know a GCC faculty member in a casual setting.

Matt Hulver will join the Fralin Life Sciences Institute at Virginia Tech as executive director, effective May 10.

Over $3.1 million in approved funding will help Virginia Tech amplify its energy conservation efforts over the next year.

For the first time, the Virginia Water Resources Research Center, housed at Virginia Tech, received a status of “outstanding” from the U.S. Department of the Interior. Virginia’s Water Center was one of 12 such centers in the nation to receive this designation.

Each year, many Virginia Tech scientists attend the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), one of the worlds leading professional biological societies.

We kicked off the first IGCoffeeConvo of the spring 2020 semester on February 12th. These IGC events provide a unique opportunity to chat casually with and get to know GCC faculty.

Congratulations to Korin Jones for his 1st place poster earlier this month at Virginia Tech’s Biological Sciences Reseach Day.

Mayflies have long been indicators of the ecological health of the lakes, rivers, and streams. The more mayflies present in water, the better the water quality.

“In an ideal scenario, we will be able to integrate native wildflowers into pasture systems in a way that does not decrease cattle production, and that creates enough bloom that it helps to preserve pollinators,” said Megan O’Rourke.

The Interfaces of Global Change Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program will begin its eighth year with a cohort of four new Ph.D. students!

The consumption of wildlife in China may be the main driver of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, says a Virginia Tech expert.

Meet our newest faculty affiliates!

The Global Change Center at Virginia Tech, with support from the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, is proud to sponsor undergraduate students and their research projects that align with our mission for advancing collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches to address critical global changes impacting the environment and society.

The Global Change Center recently awarded the 2020 Undergraduate Science Policy Fellowship to Kerry Desmond to attend the Washington Semester Program during summer semester this year. Ms. Desmond is the seventh student to receive this award.

With the help of new genomic sequencing and assembly tools, plant scientists can learn more about the function and evolution of highly destructive plant pathogens that refuse to be tamed by fungicides, antibacterial, and antivirals.

GCC affiliate Jacob Barney was awarded the Outstanding Educator Award from the Northeastern Weed Science Society at their annual meeting on January 7, 2020 in Philadelphia, PA.

GCC affiliate Dr. Scott Salom is a professor in the department of Entomology at Virginia Tech whose research focuses on forest entomology and biological control. For more than two decades, he has studied tactics and strategies to manage the damaging hemlock wooly adelgid.

Linsey Marr, the Charles P. Lunsford professor in the Charles E. Via Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been appointed to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology.

Virginia Tech paleontologists Sterling Nesbitt and Christopher Griffin travel to faraway lands to find adventure and prehistoric treasure, living their childhood dreams of learning more about what’s underfoot and illuminating deep history.

Alaina Weinheimer came to Virginia Tech after finishing a master’s degree at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Germany.

On December 2nd, GCC faculty affiliate Dr. Durelle Scott met with three IGC fellows (Ryan McClure, Sam Silknetter, and Alaina Weinheimer) at Deet’s Place. Unlike the first two CoffeeConvos, the weather was really feeling like winter in southwest Virginia.

Jeff Walters is the Harold H. Bailey Professor in the department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech and has been heavily involved with the Global Change Center since its inception nearly five years ago.

It was to shocking to learn just how influential the “Merchants of Doubt” (MOD) have been in shaping policy and public sentiment for over 40 years...

We talk frequently about how our science needs to be able to reach not only outside of our individual fields, but how important it is to be able to communicate with the broader public about ideas or new findings that impact them. With over 6,000 visitors, the VT science festival really is the perfect place to talk to kids of all ages about problems in the natural world, and how we try to study them.

On a Sunday morning early this November, some IGC fellows ventured out to Pandapas Pond to observe and learn more from each other about the local flora and fauna.

“Hidden Rivers of Southern Appalachia” is Freshwater Illustrated’s newest film. Ten years in the making, it follows the work of conservation biologists, explorers, and concerned citizens who work in North America’s most biologically rich waters in southern Appalachia.

The sense of urgency surrounding climate change is increasing throughout the world, the nation, and our community. I believe climate change represents one of the world’s most pressing problems and as a global land-grant university, Virginia Tech has a duty to respond.

Each year, the Global Change Center (GCC), along with the Institute for Society, Creativity and the Environment (ISCE) at Virginia Tech, accept proposals from GCC faculty to support interdisciplinary research that will lead to collaborative proposals submitted to extramural funding sources.

Ten years in the making, “Hidden Rivers” is Freshwaters Illustrated’s newest feature film that explores the rivers and streams of the Southern Appalachian region, North America’s most biologically rich waters.

IGCoffeeConvos are a great way for GCC faculty and IGC students to get to know each other in a small group and informal setting! Check out this post from the first event this fall for more information.

Between September 20th and 27th, 2019, at least 4 million people from over 150 countries stepped up to support young climate strikers and demand an end to the age of fossil fuels.

On Sept. 25th, 4 IGC fellows and 1 GCC faculty got together for the FIRST IGCoffeeConvo of the fall semester!

Making global change science relevant and impactful often requires more than careful scholarship and robust methods. It can also require getting that science to the people who matter and presenting it in ways that motivate those people to care and act.

The Interfaces of Global Change IGEP is an innovative interdisciplinary program that address the multidimensional aspects of global change. In the capstone course for the IGC IGEP, students grapple with the role that science and scientists play informing public understanding.

Congratulations to Interfaces of Global Change IGEP fellow Kristen Bretz, announced as the 2019 William R. Walker Graduate Research Fellow!

The Center for Communicating Science is thrilled to welcome Sara Peach, climate journalist and speaker, to Blacksburg this month!

Early on the morning of August 28th, twenty IGC fellows and friends met in the dense fog at the Eggleston Community Park to take part in an epic “Fall into the New” New River cleanup endeavor.

The Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation is hosting a town hall to discuss the recruitment planning for the executive director position of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute. This event is open to the university community.

Current VT graduate students interested in joining the Interfaces of Global Change IGEP must apply before December 1st.

While the entirety of my undergraduate experience has yielded growth, personal and professional, across a variety of spectra, two things provided a strong influence on the path I chose for this past summer.

Much of the planet sweltered in unprecedented heat in July, as temperatures soared to new heights in the hottest month ever recorded.

The planet is barreling toward 1.5 degrees of global warming as soon as 2030 unless we enact “unprecedented changes in all aspects of society,” a dire United Nations report warned in October 2018.

Humans must drastically alter food production to prevent the most catastrophic effects of global warming, according to a new report from the United Nations panel on climate change.

Thirteen new Ph.D. students will join the Interfaces of Global Change IGEP this fall. Their fields of study include freshwater ecology, soil biogeochemistry, environmental education, macroevolutionary dynamics, and more.