The University of New Mexico

Category Archives: Sustainability

PATS Asks “How Do You Get To Campus?”

April 27, 2012 | By Benson Hendrix

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mexico’s Park­ing and Trans­porta­tion Ser­vices (PATS) Depart­ment recently launched its third university-wide com­muter sur­vey in order to learn more about stu­dent, staff, and fac­ulty trans­porta­tion behav­iors and the car­bon foot­print asso­ci­ated with cam­pus com­mutes. PATS encour­ages stu­dents, staff, and fac­ulty to lend a few min­utes of their time and take the sur­vey online at UNM Com­muter Sur­vey.

“This will be our third year of com­muter sur­vey data, which will pro­vide us the abil­ity to begin to look at trans­porta­tion behav­ior trends,” said Robert Nel­son, PATS interim direc­tor. “With com­muter sur­vey infor­ma­tion we can eval­u­ate usage of our var­i­ous trans­porta­tion and park­ing ser­vices and use our analy­sis to plan future services.”

Nel­son said the data col­lected from the sur­vey is also used to cal­cu­late the car­bon foot­print asso­ci­ated with cam­pus com­mutes, which is tracked in the bien­nial Uni­ver­sity greenhouse-gas emis­sions report.

Between 2010 and 2011, UNM com­muter sur­vey data showed that rates of dri­ving alone to cam­pus in auto­mo­biles decreased by about 5 per­cent with an increase in the use of alter­na­tive trans­porta­tion. The data also showed that cur­rently about 15 per­cent of UNM stu­dents, staff, and fac­ulty are using the ABQRide free bus pass pro­gram as a pri­mary mode of trans­porta­tion to UNM.

“We are pleased to see more and more peo­ple con­sid­er­ing and actively using alter­na­tive trans­porta­tion to get to cam­pus,” said Nel­son. “Even if some­one is only using alter­na­tive trans­porta­tion a cou­ple of days a week, they are sig­nif­i­cantly reduc­ing their car­bon foot­print and traf­fic and con­ges­tion in the Uni­ver­sity area.”

The sur­vey will be avail­able at http://commutersurvey.unm.edu through May 7 (midnight).

For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Danielle Gilliam, pro­gram spe­cial­ist, UNM Park­ing and Trans­porta­tion Ser­vices, at 277‑0461 or email dgilliam@parking.unm.edu

Media Con­tact: Ben­son Hen­drix, (505) 277‑1816; email: bhendrix@unm.edu

Posted in Campus Community, Sustainability, University News | |

UNM Hosts Fourth Annual Sustainability Expo

April 16, 2012 | By Benson Hendrix
Lobo-Growers-Market

The Fourth Annual UNM Sus­tain­abil­ity Expo takes place this Thurs­day, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. in the Cor­nell Mall. This event will fea­ture Park­ing and Trans­porta­tion Ser­vices (PATS)’ Alter­na­tive Trans­porta­tion Fair, the UNM Police Depart­ment (UNMPD) Bicy­cle Auc­tion and the Lobo Grow­ers’ Mar­ket – an oppor­tu­nity to buy locally-grown fresh fruit and vegetables.

Sus­tain­abil­ity Stud­ies Pro­gram lec­turer Jes­sica Row­land said, “The mar­ket will pro­vide the uni­ver­sity com­mu­nity with an oppor­tu­nity to sup­port local and sus­tain­able small busi­nesses. There will be farms sell­ing fresh pro­duce, herbs, starter plants and prepared-food.”

The Lobo Grow­ers Mar­ket is the result of work com­pleted in Rowland’s class through Sus­tain­abil­ity Stud­ies which teaches stu­dents how to orga­nize a grow­ers’ market.

“We are pleased to host our fourth annual expo, which show­cases the broad spec­trum of sustainability-related activ­i­ties that take place here on cam­pus,” says Mary Clark, coor­di­na­tor for the Office of Sus­tain­abil­ity. “Each year the expo grows and this is largely due to grow­ing inter­est and lead­er­ship from our stu­dents on campus.”

The UNM Sus­tain­abil­ity Fair is cen­tered around Earth Day and this year will host more than 75 dis­plays, includ­ing infor­ma­tional booths, food ven­dors and live music from noon-1 p.m. The event is spon­sored by PATS, the Office of Sus­tain­abil­ity, Sus­tain­abil­ity Stud­ies, ASUNM Stu­dent Spe­cial Events and KUNM.

For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Danielle Gilliam, PATS pro­gram spe­cial­ist, 277‑0461, dgilliam@parking.unm.edu.

Media Con­tact: Ben­son Hen­drix, (505) 277‑1816; email: bhendrix@unm.edu.

Posted in Sustainability, University News | |

New Utton Center Reports Focus on Water, Land Use

February 10, 2012 | By Sari Krosinsky

The Utton Trans­bound­ary Resources Cen­ter at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico School of Law released two reports aimed at bring­ing clar­ity to New Mexico’s chal­lenges with water resources and land use.

“Land & Water: Mak­ing the Con­nec­tion,” a report that addresses the dis­con­nect between land use plan­ning and water resource man­age­ment in New Mex­ico, focuses on the chal­lenge of ensur­ing that demand for water and devel­op­ment does not out­strip the state’s lim­ited sup­plies and that the inher­ent integrity of the land and water is pre­served for gen­er­a­tions to come.

“Mov­ing for­ward, it will be increas­ingly impor­tant to under­stand and coor­di­nate land and water use deci­sions between dif­fer­ent lev­els of gov­ern­ment,” said Carol Romero-Wirth, one of the report’s authors. “This report improves our col­lec­tive under­stand­ing of this rela­tion­ship so that we can sus­tain the state’s econ­omy and its envi­ron­men­tal and cul­tural heritage.”

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Con­suelo Bokum at (505) 982‑4342.

The 2012 edi­tion of “Water Mat­ters!,” a guide to New Mexico’s water issues pub­lished annu­ally by the Utton Cen­ter, was made avail­able in Jan­u­ary to New Mex­ico leg­is­la­tors. In an effort to con­serve money and nat­ural resources, this year’s vol­ume was dis­trib­uted online.

In every issue, “Water Mat­ters!” hon­ors a leg­is­la­tor who has helped advance under­stand­ing of New Mexico’s sur­face and ground­wa­ter. This year, that honor went to Rep. Roger James Madalena, a leader in water issues at both the Round­house and his home com­mu­nity of Jemez Pueblo.

“Like all good ency­clo­pe­dias, ‘Water Mat­ters!’ con­tin­ues to grow. This year the guide approaches 200 pages,” said UNM law Pro­fes­sor Denise Fort, direc­tor of the Utton Center.

For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Adrian Oglesby at (505) 280‑7958 or adrian@lawoftheriver.com.

Both pub­li­ca­tions can be accessed on the Utton Cen­ter web­site.

Story by and media con­tact: Nancy Har­bert, (505) 277‑0091

Posted in Sustainability | |

UNM-ASU Team for Solar Decathlon Event

January 30, 2012 | By Karen Wentworth
UNM-ASU Solar Decathalon Team
UNM-ASU Solar Decathalon Team

UNM-ASU Solar Decathalon Team

U.S. Depart­ment of Energy Sec­re­tary Steven Chu recently announced that the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico, along with Ari­zona State Uni­ver­sity, has been selected to com­pete in the U.S. Depart­ment of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013. UNM and ASU will par­tic­i­pate in a world­wide com­pe­ti­tion to build solar-powered, highly energy-efficient homes that com­bine afford­abil­ity, con­sumer appeal and design excel­lence. Teams com­pete in 10 cat­e­gories, rang­ing from engi­neer­ing and archi­tec­ture to afford­abil­ity, com­mu­ni­ca­tions and mar­ket appeal.

The team has begun a two-year process to design, con­struct and test their homes in two test sites before reassem­bling them at the Solar Decathalon 2013 com­pe­ti­tion site at Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Cal­i­for­nia. The team will make a spe­cific effort to use mate­ri­als and tech­nolo­gies that are designed and man­u­fac­tured by com­pa­nies in the South­west region.

“We are thrilled to have been cho­sen to com­pete along with ASU to par­tic­i­pate in the Solar Decathlon,” said Catalin Roman, dean of the UNM School of Engi­neer­ing. “The Decathlon is a great oppor­tu­nity to com­bine UNM exper­tise in renew­able energy, offer stu­dents invalu­able real-world expe­ri­ences, and con­tinue our col­lab­o­ra­tions through­out UNM and with ASU.”

The UNM team con­sists of stu­dents and fac­ulty from the UNM School of Engi­neer­ing, the School of Archi­tec­ture and Plan­ning, and the Sus­tain­abil­ity Stud­ies Pro­gram in the Col­lege of Arts and Sciences.

The team will be able to make use of the research and edu­ca­tion resources of the ASU-based Quan­tum Energy and Sus­tain­able Solar Tech­nolo­gies (QESST) Engi­neer­ing Research Cen­ter (a national cen­ter sup­ported by the DOE and the National Sci­ence Foun­da­tion) in which UNM is a key part­ner. QESST is pro­vid­ing a stag­ing ground for major inno­va­tions in solar energy devices and sys­tems in seek­ing to help the nation meet the chal­lenges of har­ness­ing solar power in eco­nom­i­cally viable and sus­tain­able ways.

The Decathlon project is directed by Olga Lavrova, assis­tant pro­fes­sor in Elec­tri­cal and Com­puter Engi­neer­ing at UNM and Matt Fraser, ASU asso­ciate pro­fes­sor and QESST ERC co-director. Lavrova headed UNM’s student-design solar car project that com­peted in the 2011 Indy 500 pre-race cel­e­bra­tion and the par­tic­i­pa­tion of her pho­to­voltaic class in the New Mex­ico Solar Energy Asso­ci­a­tion pas­sive solar home design con­test. She is also part of a UNM team research­ing the inter­face between build­ings, dis­trib­uted power gen­er­a­tion, and the power grid.

UNM-ASU Team
The UNM School of Engi­neer­ing fac­ulty team con­sists of Olga Lavrova; Luke Lester, Interim Chair of the Elec­tri­cal and Com­puter Engi­neer­ing Depart­ment; Andrea Mam­moli, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Mechan­i­cal Engi­neer­ing;  and Ganesh Bal­akr­ish­nan, Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor in the Elec­tri­cal & Com­puter Engi­neer­ing Department.

Also from UNM are Bruce Milne, direc­tor of Sus­tain­abil­ity Stud­ies in the School of Arts and Sci­ences, and Kristina Yu, assis­tant pro­fes­sor in the School of Archi­tec­ture and Planning.

UNM stu­dents par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Solar Decathlon are Athena Christodoulou, Orlando Gutier­rez, Somayeh Imani, Orlando Leone, Nas­sim Rahimi, Orlando Romero and San­ti­ago Sena.

Fraser leads the ASU fac­ulty team com­prised of QESST ERC direc­tor Chris­tiana Hons­berg; asso­ciate research pro­fes­sor Stu­art Bow­den; and Jene­fer Hus­man, ERC edu­ca­tion co-director.

“Our stu­dents will have a unique oppor­tu­nity to par­tic­i­pate inter­na­tion­ally in prac­ti­cal and cutting-edge renew­able tech­nolo­gies,” said Lavrova. “The Decathlon will also fos­ter eco­nomic devel­op­ment in solar tech­nolo­gies and related indus­tries in the South­west and edu­cate the pub­lic on sus­tain­able infrastructure.”

To learn more about Solar Decathlon 2013 and the uni­ver­si­ties and col­lege teams selected to com­pete, see the Energy.Gov web­site at:

Solar Decathlon 2013.

Media Con­tacts: Karen Went­worth (505) 277‑5627; email: kwent2@unm.edu or Tamara Williams (505) 277‑5859; email: tamara@unm.edu

Posted in Campus Community, Student Life, Sustainability, University News | |

UNM Staff and Student Groups to Hold E-waste Recycling Event

October 31, 2011 | By Karen Wentworth
Electronic Recycling

Electronic RecyclingThe UNM Staff Coun­cil Envi­rons Com­mit­tee and the Net Impact stu­dent group will con­duct an elec­tronic waste recy­cling event on Sat­ur­day, Nov. 5 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at UNM’s “E” park­ing lot near Girard and Cen­tral NE.

Most dis­carded elec­tronic equip­ment will be accepted, but there will be a $10 charge for tele­vi­sion sets and a $5 charge for mon­i­tors. Accept­able items include all com­put­ers and com­puter related equip­ment such as mon­i­tors, print­ers, scan­ners, copiers, fax machines, phones/cell phones, recharge­able bat­ter­ies, satel­lite TV equip­ment, mice/keyboards and stereos and speak­ers. Unac­cept­able items include appli­ances, cof­fee machines, toaster ovens, bread machines, crock pots, hair dry­ers, irons, microwave ovens, elec­tric heaters and alka­line batteries.

Media con­tact: Karen Went­worth (505) 277‑5627; kwent2@unm.edu

Posted in Campus Community, Sustainability, University News | |

UNM Faculty to Discuss Latest in Renewable Energy at Solar Fiesta

August 22, 2011 | By Karen Wentworth
nmfiesta

The Solar Fiesta is an oppor­tu­nity to learn about how to build a sus­tain­able lifestyle. It’s also an oppor­tu­nity to hear about UNM’s cutting-edge edu­ca­tional and research pro­grams in solar energy, sus­tain­abil­ity and energy effi­ciency. The Solar Fiesta will be held Saturday-Sunday, Aug. 27–28 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Albu­querque Acad­emy located at 6400 Wyoming Blvd. NE.

A UNM Panel fea­tur­ing Dr. Gruia-Catalin Roman, the new dean of the UNM School of Engi­neer­ing, Andrea Mam­moli, asso­ciate pro­fes­sor in Mechan­i­cal Engi­neer­ing, Olga Lavrova, assis­tant pro­fes­sor in Elec­tri­cal and Com­puter Engi­neer­ing and Stephen Dent, pro­fes­sor in the School of Archi­tec­ture and Plan­ning, is set for Sun­day, Aug. 28 from 1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. at the Simms Cen­ter at Albu­querque Acad­emy. Roman will mod­er­ate a panel of UNM fac­ulty and will dis­cuss state-of-the-art research and aca­d­e­mic pro­grams in pho­to­voltaics, solar ther­mal tech­nolo­gies, renew­able tech­nolo­gies, and sus­tain­able design.

UNM Panel
Roman became dean of the UNM School of Engi­neer­ing on July 1, 2011. He comes to UNM from Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­sity in St. Louis, where he was chair of the Depart­ment of Com­puter Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing for 13 years. In his own research, Roman and his col­lab­o­ra­tors have been inves­ti­gat­ing the use of the newly emerg­ing sen­sor net­work tech­nol­ogy in the area of cli­mate con­trols for build­ing man­age­ment. He also likes to high­light the fact that energy-related research fund­ing for the Cen­ter for Emerg­ing Energy Tech­nolo­gies alone received $2 mil­lion last year, involv­ing nine fac­ulty mem­bers from UNM and eight out­side UNM as well as five post­doc­toral fel­lows, 17 grad­u­ate stu­dents, and eight under­grad­u­ate stu­dents. Annual research expen­di­tures for the School of Engi­neer­ing last year reached $31.73 mil­lion, approx­i­mately $300,000 per faculty.

Mam­moli is help­ing posi­tion UNM as a lead­ing cen­ter of inno­va­tion in solar energy. Mam­moli and an inter­na­tional col­lab­o­ra­tion are devel­op­ing ways for build­ings to use energy more effi­ciently and more wisely at Mesa del Sol, research­ing the inter­face between build­ings, dis­trib­uted power gen­er­a­tion and the power grid.

Lavrova teaches classes in emerg­ing ener­gies and has led the department’s solar car project and solar-house design com­pe­ti­tion. She is also involved with the Mesa del Sol energy research project, mod­el­ing multi-agent behav­ior and bat­tery stor­age techniques.

Dent has been teach­ing energy con­serv­ing and sus­tain­able design for over 30 years. He has writ­ten exten­sively on the sub­ject and has pre­sented his archi­tec­tural work and research at national and inter­na­tional con­fer­ences. He has also received more than $300,000 in energy related research contracts.

Solar Fiesta
Spon­sored by the New Mex­ico Solar Energy Asso­ci­a­tion, the Solar Fiesta is a two-day edu­ca­tional event fea­tur­ing exhibits and work­shops on how to install solar and wind energy sys­tems, bio­fu­els, trans­porta­tion alter­na­tives, light­ing and shad­ing options, and energy effi­ciency. An expanded children’s area uses a mul­ti­plic­ity of both sta­tic dis­plays and inter­ac­tional games to teach energy con­cepts. Atten­dance to the UNM panel and exhibit grounds is free; work­shop ses­sions are $15 for one day and $25 for both days; park­ing is $5 per car.

For more infor­ma­tion visit: Solar Fiesta.

Media Con­tact: Tamara Williams, (505) 277‑5859; e-mail: tamara@unm.edu

Posted in Academics & Faculty, Campus Community, Sustainability, University News | |

Princeton Review Lists UNM Among Top “Green Colleges”

April 20, 2011 | By Benson Hendrix
Princeton

Just in time for Earth Day and UNM’s Third Annual Sus­tain­abil­ity Expo, the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico was listed as one of the United States’ most envi­ron­men­tally respon­si­ble col­leges, accord­ing to the newly released “Prince­ton Review’s Guide to 311 Green Col­leges: 2011 Edi­tion.”

The guide is a col­lab­o­ra­tion between Prince­ton Review and the U.S. Green Build­ing Coun­cil to pro­file U.S. and Cana­dian higher edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions that demon­strate a com­mit­ment to sus­tain­abil­ity in aca­d­e­mic pro­grams, infra­struc­ture, activ­i­ties and career guid­ance. UNM was cho­sen after the Prince­ton Review and USGBC inves­ti­gated sus­tain­abil­ity efforts of more than 700 col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties. UNM is the only New Mex­ico higher edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tion listed.

“We are very proud of our accom­plish­ments in sus­tain­abil­ity at UNM and are glad that the Prince­ton Review has included us in this pub­li­ca­tion so stu­dents can make the deci­sion to choose UNM because we value sus­tain­abil­ity,” said Mary Clark, sus­tain­abil­ity pro­gram spe­cial­ist, Office of Sus­tain­abil­ity.

UNM received spe­cial recog­ni­tion in the Green Guide for its Sus­tain­abil­ity Coun­cil, made up of stu­dents, staff and fac­ulty work­ing together with the Office of Sus­tain­abil­ity to help over­see UNM’s 2008 Sus­tain­abil­ity Pol­icy as well as the university’s Sus­tain­abil­ity Stud­ies pro­gram, one of the first in the country.

Stu­dents in Sus­tain­abil­ity Stud­ies played a large role in help­ing develop the university’s Cli­mate Action Plan, which sets a goal of reduc­ing UNM’s car­bon usage by 80 per­cent by 2030. They also started the “Knowl­edge is Power” cam­paign in late 2010, with a goal of low­er­ing on-campus elec­tric­ity usage by 10 percent.

Many of the sus­tain­abil­ity efforts of the Research Ser­vice Learn­ing Project – includ­ing courses focus­ing on sus­tain­abil­ity, food secu­rity and social devel­op­ment, cre­ation of the “Eco Rep” pro­gram, pro­vid­ing peer-to-peer guid­ance about energy con­ser­va­tion, recy­cling, alter­na­tive trans­porta­tion and other areas of sus­tain­abil­ity, were men­tioned in the book. Stu­dents in the Research Ser­vice Learn­ing Project were also respon­si­ble for writ­ing the “Guide to Green Liv­ing at UNM.”

“Sus­tain­abil­ity is an inte­gral part of many classes in archi­tec­ture, engi­neer­ing, man­age­ment, and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Jour­nal­ism, to name a few,” Clark added. “The Sus­tain­abil­ity Stud­ies minor is a per­fect oppor­tu­nity for a stu­dent to learn how to be a green archi­tect, green biol­o­gist, oper­ate a green busi­ness, or be a green com­mu­nity leader.”

The Prince­ton Review cre­ated the online resource for college-bound stu­dents who are “(I)ncreasingly inter­ested in sus­tain­abil­ity issues,” accord­ing to Robert Franek, senior vice pres­i­dent of pub­lish­ing at the Prince­ton Review. “Among 8,200 col­lege appli­cants who par­tic­i­pated in our spring 2011 ‘Col­lege Hopes & Wor­ries Sur­vey,’ nearly 7 out of 10 (69%) said hav­ing infor­ma­tion about a school’s com­mit­ment to the envi­ron­ment would influ­ence their deci­sion to apply to or attend the school.”

Media Con­tact: Ben­son Hen­drix (505) 277‑1816; e-mail: bhendrix@unm.edu

Posted in Sustainability, University News | |

UNM Sustainability Expo Set for Thursday, April 21; Variety of Events Scheduled

April 20, 2011 | By Steve Carr
green_foot_logo_sml

The third annual UNM Sus­tain­abil­ity Expo is Thurs­day, April 21 from 10 a.m. — 2 p.m. on Cor­nell Mall. The annual Earth Day-inspired event fea­tures an alter­na­tive trans­porta­tion fair, a UNM Police Depart­ment bicy­cle auc­tion, the Lobo Grower’s Mar­ket where peo­ple can acquire fresh and local veg­eta­bles and fruit, music and many other dis­plays and booths focused on pro­mot­ing ini­tia­tives that relate to the gen­eral con­cept of envi­ron­men­tal sustainability.

“The Sus­tain­abil­ity Expo is an oppor­tu­nity to engage UNM and the com­mu­nity in cur­rent ini­tia­tives on and off cam­pus that exist not only to improve the qual­ity of our lives now, but for future gen­er­a­tions as well,” said Danielle Gilliam, one of the event’s coor­di­na­tors. “It is excit­ing and inspir­ing to see what UNM stu­dents, staff, and fac­ulty, as well as com­mu­nity mem­bers are doing to make bet­ter use of the resources we have avail­able to us and demon­strates how we embrace sus­tain­abil­ity as a core value here on campus.”

A vari­ety of events are slated across UNM’s cam­pus. The UNM Uni­ver­sity Libraries will host “State of the Organic Union: The Present and Future for Small Farms,” a lec­ture by Monte “Farmer Monte” Skars­gard, on Thurs­day, April 21, at 1 p.m. in Zim­mer­man Library’s Willard Read­ing Room. Farmer Monte is the founder and CFO of Los Poblanos Organ­ics, a local Com­mu­nity Sup­ported Agriculture.

An Albu­querque native, Farmer Monte broke ground on two acres in the North Val­ley in 2003, and served 42 mem­bers that year.Today, Los Poblanos Organ­ics farms 40 acres in four loca­tions through­out New Mex­ico, and deliv­ers organic pro­duce to 2,000 fam­i­lies. Farmer Monte will give a lec­ture and pre­sen­ta­tion for the stu­dents of UNM. A recep­tion will fol­low. For more infor­ma­tion con­tact silvialu@unm.edu.

UNM Recy­cling is col­lect­ing trash from the dorms for one day and will sort through it on Thurs­day, April 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in an exhibit on Cor­nell Mall near the Cen­ter for the Arts. Recy­cling is work­ing with stu­dents to deter­mine how much stu­dents throw away that could be recy­cled. For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Linda McCormick at lindamcc@unm.edu

The Writ­ing Across Com­mu­ni­ties Alliance hosts an Earth Day con­fer­ence Fri­day, April 22 from 10 a.m. — 4 p.m. in the Lobo and Fiesta rooms at the SUB. Delv­ing into a broad range of prac­ti­cal and the­o­ret­i­cal issues focused on envi­ron­men­tal­ism and envi­ron­men­tal sci­ence today, pre­sen­ta­tions from Amer­i­can Stud­ies, Eng­lish, Phi­los­o­phy, ARTS Lab, Eco­nom­ics and Archi­tec­ture and Plan­ning, among oth­ers are fea­tured. For more on this con­fer­ence visit: Earth Day Con­fer­ence Explores ‘Con­struct­ing Space(s)’.

The UNM Depart­ment of Earth and Plan­e­tary Sci­ences will host two Earth Day lec­tures by Caswell Sil­ver Dis­tin­guished Lec­ture Mar­cia McNutt, direc­tor, U.S. Geo­log­i­cal Sur­vey. The first lec­ture, titled “Lessons from Japan: Advanc­ing Earth­quake Aware­ness,” will be Thurs­day, April 21 at 3:30 p.m. A recep­tion will be held fol­low­ing the lec­ture in the Sil­ver Fam­ily Geol­ogy Museum. On Fri­day, April 22, McNutt will give a lec­ture titled, USGS Sci­ence in the Gulf: The Deep­wa­ter Hori­zon Oil Spill at 2 p.m. Both lec­tures will be held in Northrop Hall room 122. For more infor­ma­tion visit: USGS Direc­tor to Present Two Earth Day Lectures

Media con­tact: Steve Carr (505) 277‑1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu

Posted in Events, Sustainability | |

USGS Director Marcia McNutt to Present Two Earth Day Lectures at UNM

April 18, 2011 | By Steve Carr
Mar­cia McNutt, direc­tor, U.S. Geo­log­i­cal Sur­vey.

Mar­cia McNutt, direc­tor, U.S. Geo­log­i­cal Survey.

The UNM Depart­ment of Earth and Plan­e­tary Sci­ences will host two Earth Day lec­tures by Caswell Sil­ver Dis­tin­guished Lec­ture Mar­cia McNutt, direc­tor, U.S. Geo­log­i­cal Sur­vey. The first lec­ture, titled “Lessons from Japan: Advanc­ing Earth­quake Aware­ness,” will be Thurs­day, April 21 at 3:30 p.m. A recep­tion will be held fol­low­ing the lec­ture in the Sil­ver Fam­ily Geol­ogy Museum. On Fri­day, April 22, McNutt will give a lec­ture titled, “USGS Sci­ence in the Gulf: The Deep­wa­ter Hori­zon Oil Spill,” at 2 p.m. Both lec­tures will be held in Northrop Hall room 122.

A dynamic speaker and a renowned sci­en­tist, she will be talk­ing about two of the most sig­nif­i­cant geo­log­i­cal events in the recent past. As direc­tor of the USGS, McNutt is respon­si­ble for lead­ing the Nation’s largest water, earth, bio­log­i­cal sci­ence and civil­ian map­ping agency. Its mis­sion is to pro­vide the sci­en­tific data that enable deci­sion mak­ers to cre­ate sound poli­cies for a chang­ing world.

McNutt pre­vi­ously served as pres­i­dent and chief exec­u­tive offi­cer of the Mon­terey Bay Aquar­ium Research Insti­tute (MBARI), in Moss Land­ing, Calif. She has par­tic­i­pated in 15 major oceano­graphic expe­di­tions and served as chief sci­en­tist on more than half of those voy­ages. McNutt has pub­lished more than 90 peer-reviewed sci­en­tific arti­cles. Her research has ranged from stud­ies of ocean island vol­can­ism in French Poly­ne­sia to con­ti­nen­tal break-up in the West­ern United States to uplift of the Tibet Plateau.

McNutt is a mem­ber of the National Acad­emy of Sci­ences, the Amer­i­can Philo­soph­i­cal Soci­ety, and the Amer­i­can Acad­emy of Arts and Sci­ences. She was awarded by the Amer­i­can Geo­phys­i­cal Union the Macel­wane Medal in 1988 for research accom­plish­ments by a young sci­en­tist and the Mau­rice Ewing Medal in 2007 for her sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to deep-sea exploration.

McNutt received a bachelor’s in Physics from Col­orado Col­lege and Ph.D. in Earth Sci­ences from Scripps Insti­tu­tion of Oceanography.

Media con­tact: Steve Carr (505) 277‑1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu

Posted in Events, Sustainability | |

Earth Day Conference Explores ‘Constructing Space(s)’

April 18, 2011 | By Sari Krosinsky
Courtesy of NASA

Cour­tesy of NASA

Writ­ing Across Com­mu­ni­ties presents the sec­ond annual Earth Day con­fer­ence, “Con­struct­ing Space(s)’: Mak­ing our Home(s) in the Twenty-First Cen­tury,” on Fri­day, April 22, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. in the Stu­dent Union Build­ing, ball­room A and fiesta room. The keynote speaker is M. Jim­mie Killingsworth of Texas A&M.

The con­fer­ence brings together stu­dents, fac­ulty and com­mu­nity mem­bers in con­ver­sa­tions about a broad range of prac­ti­cal and the­o­ret­i­cal issues in envi­ron­men­tal­ism and envi­ron­men­tal sci­ences. Panel dis­cus­sions draw on per­spec­tives and exper­tise from human­i­ties, social sci­ences and hard sciences.

The keynote speech is at noon in SUB ball­room A. Killingsworth is pro­fes­sor and head of the Eng­lish depart­ment at Texas A&M. His books include “Ecos­peak: Rhetoric and Envi­ron­men­tal Pol­i­tics in Amer­ica” and “Whitman’s Poetry of the Body: Sex­u­al­ity, Pol­i­tics, and the Text.” Killingsworth also par­tic­i­pates in local nature edu­ca­tion pro­grams and is a mem­ber of the Bra­zos Val­ley Chap­ter of Texas Mas­ter Naturalists.

Event coor­di­na­tor Erin Pen­ner Gal­le­gos said of the con­fer­ence theme, “the idea of con­struct­ing space is both the­o­ret­i­cal and prac­ti­cal.” She said the con­fer­ence “invites dis­cus­sion about how phys­i­cal, rhetor­i­cal and spir­i­tual con­struc­tions of space can best be under­taken sus­tain­ably, eth­i­cally and in con­cert with one another.”

Visit Earth Day con­fer­ence or e-mail earthdayconference@gmail.com.

Media con­tact: Sari Krosin­sky (505) 277‑1593; e-mail: michal@unm.edu

Posted in Events, Sustainability | |