Events, News and Media

Form to join our Departmental Email List for interested Majors and Minors and Events Calendar!

This year the Environmental Science department has put together a Thursday Night Series for students to come together via zoom at 8pm for topical presentations, discussions, informational meetings and fun!

Thursday Night Events and Seminar Series
Attend five events and we’ll send you a T-shirt!
All Events Thursday, 8pm, NYC Time
via Zoom for BC students only

Spring 2021 Events:

April 1 Program Planning

April 8 Senior Seminar Poster Session, 4:30pm EST

April 15 Last day of Thursday classes

Past Events:

March 25 Beyond Barnard Resources Event

March 18 Katey Lesneski, Director of Restoration Science at Coral Vita

March 11 Science Communication - Brenda Ekwuzel, Senior Climate Scientist and Director of Climate & Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists

March 4           Spring Break
February 25    Midterms

February 18    Environmental Policy and Politics - Jamie Consuegra ’06, Director, Congressional and External Affairs, Climate & Clean Energy Program, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

February 11    I’ve got a Masters: Jamie Yu ‘14 - Masters in Computer Science, Lindsay Garten ‘13 Masters in Environmental Science and Policy, Therese Chen ‘15 - Master of Public Health Sciences.

February 8 Summer Research Planning (Dallas Abbott and Mike Kaplan, LDEO joining us at 8:30pm)
A MONDAY

February 4      Law Night - Daisy de Wolff ‘17 and Astrika W. Adams ‘12

January 28      Rachel Silvern ‘14, PhD, Atmospheric Chemistry and Public Policy

January 14 Welcome Back! A meet with Mentors.

Fall 2020 Events:

December 10 A Time for Reflection
What we learned this semester, planning for the spring. Forging a scientific identity.

December 3   Summer Research Programs Overview and Strategies
SRI, REU, Lamont, etc.

November 26 Thanksgiving Break

November 19  Tiffany Sanchez Assistant Professor, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia.
Public Health: Graduate School and Beyond Introduction

November 12 Program Planning for Spring 2021
Attend and participate in our Program Planning Meeting for Majors and Minors in Environmental Science, Majors in Environment and Sustainability and Environmental Biology as well as for those interested in one of the Majors/Minor.

November 5 Young Alumnae Panel with Beyond Barnard: Liora Hostyk '14, Valentina Strokopytova '16, Natalia Figueredo '14

October 29 Nina Yang ’12, 4th year Graduate Student at USC.
Warming oceans and the implications for marine biogeochemistry + taking a gap year before grad school and other career thoughts

October 15 Megan Maurer, Earth Institute Post Doc
A Cultural anthropologist's take on Cities and Sustainability: Trees in New York City

October 8 Kailani Acosta, Lamont Doherty Graduate Student, CU
Nutrient Cycling in the Gulf of Mexico/Creating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Geosciences

October 1 Nature Share!
Participants share the nature around them

September 24 Study Abroad Night
Barnard Seniors present their experiences studying abroad

September 17 Trivia Night!
Join for a night of fun facts

September 19 Opening Night

Stay tuned for other departmental events throughout the year

Check out our Newsletter Archive!

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--From 2019-2020

2020 Senior Seminar Poster Session: a great success!

2020 Poster Session Invitation — 2020 Poster Session Poster

This year, the annual Senior Seminar Poster Session, was held on April 23, via Zoom. Barnard and Columbia Environmental Seniors presented their thesis work in a virtual poster session where students described their projects in 30 seconds, and afterwards meeting. The result was a good deal of effective and personal sharing of thesis research--with restrictions, new innovation and successes to be proud of!

Poster authors and titles (in alphabetical order):

Berlinger, Arden: Fitness Benefits of Helping Behavior in a Cooperatively Breeding Bird, the Superb Starling (Lamprotornis superbus)
Billinge, Sophie: Environmental Tracers as Early Detectors of Groundwater Contamination due to Hydraulic Fracturing
Calcio, Margaret: Coral δ18O-derived Record of Hydroclimate from the Gulf of Chiriquí, Panama
Craig, Bridget: A Numerical Reef Growth Model for the Last Interglacial Double Coral Reef Terrace on Barbados
Dalton, Bronte: Methane Emission Analysis in California fromAirborne Measurements and Back Trajectory Modeling
Davis, Casey: Encapsulation of Metal-Organic Frameworks for Carbon Capture
Dey, Christy: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Oil Production in Guyana: A Natural Capital Approach
Fernandez Odell, Clara: Estimating Aboveground Biomass, Carbon Storage, and Forest Change in a Northeastern Deciduous Forest
Fleming, Will: Testing Models of Andesite Genesis and Melt Differentiation at Volcanic Arcs Using Olivine Trace Elements in Sierra Chichinautzin Volcanic Field, Mexico
Franks, Nicki: Impact of the Kilauea Eruption in 2018 on Coffee Farms
Gates, Rachel: Understanding the Role of Light and Nutrients for Phytoplankton Growth in the Mississippi and Amazon River Plumes
Gill, Alison: The Effect of Sea Level Rise on the Erosion of Crane Beach Barrier Island
Goodman, Maxwell: Estimating the Albedo-Sequestration Tradeoff Boundary for High-Latitude Afforestation
Hadavi, Cyrus: How Social Networks Impact the Use of Preventive Practices Against Ticks and Lyme Disease on Staten Island
Herrera, Alexandra: Using Citizen Science to Ground Truth Remote Sensing Models To Monitor Coral Bleaching and Analyzing the Components of Successful Citizen Science Programs
Hockenberry, Zoë: Flood Mitigation Infrastructure Management: Tradeoffs for Flood Protection and Ecosystem Health
Jackson, Gabriela: The Effects of Leaf Age on Day Respiration in Phaseolus vulgaris (French bean), Helianthus annuus (sunflower), and Xanthium strumarium (cocklebur) Plants
Klotz, Vivian: Nutrient Addition Effects on Phytoplankton Communities in the Amazon and Mississippi River Plumes
Kodama, Sam: Investigating the Erosional History of Wilkes Subglacial Basin with Thermochronology of Ice-Rafted Pebbles
Komita Moussa, Ella: The Impact of the Urban Environment on NYC Street Trees
Kwong, Charlotte: Extending the Tropospheric Ozone Flux Record in a Northern Hardwood Forest
Lautin, Sabrina: A Reconstruction of Cenozoic Seawater Ba Concentrations from Ba/Ca Ratios Recorded in Planktic Foraminifera Shells
Levy, Marina: Making Change: Why Do New York City College Students Engage in Climate Activism?
Lott, Annette: Hydrographic Changes and Heinrich Events in the Labrador Sea
Masciana, Alana: Analyzing Transient SF6 and CFCs as Indicators of Changes to Atlantic Overturning Circulation 1980-Present
Monnen, Christina: Effects of Long-Tailed Finch Cross-Tutoring on Juvenile Bengalese Finch Song Development
Naimark, Jacob: Evaluating the Response of Surface Ozone Precursor Gases to Drought in the Eastern US Using Satellite Observations
Nogueira, Isadora: Don't Bury our Park: Contested Resiliency on Manhattan's Lower East Side
Nordin, Bailey: Using Low-Temperature Thermochronology to Date Glacial Erosion and Uplift in the Transantarctic Mountains
Pace, Grant: Quantifying the Blue Carbon Reservoir in Long Island Sound, CT and Jamaica Bay, NY Salt Marshes
Palmer, Emma: Assessing Coyote (Canis latrans) Boldness in Urban and Rural Environments of New York State
Palmer, Grace: Soil Carbon Storage and Recovery From Acidification in a Temperate Deciduous Forest
Powell, Kelly-Marie: Ice Sheet Instability in the Pacific Sector of the Southern Ocean
Richardson, John:Trends in Upper Ocean Nutrient Remineralizing Exoenzyme Activities
Shamsie, Maneeha: Framing Climate Change: A Study of Competing Narratives
Shapiro, Molly: Analysis of Noble Gases and Oxygen Dissolved in Atlantic Ocean Water as a Proxy Measurement for Biological Productivity
Shi, Sarah: What Happened in the Years to Hours Prior to the Volcán de Fuego Eruption of 2018?
Strickland, Emily: Spatial Distribution of Cape Buffalo and Plains Zebra at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy as Connected to Precipitation and Grass Species Diversity
Zhang-Sun, Jeffrey: The Effects of Hosts on the Distribution of Three Tick Species on Staten Island, NY, USA

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We are very pleased to announce the Department of Environmental Science new hires:

Welcome Assistant Professor Elizabeth Cook

We are very pleased to introduce our new faculty hire in Sustainable Development: Assistant Professor Elizabeth Cook is an urban ecosystem scientist with interdisciplinary expertise in social and natural sciences, including ecology, cultural geography, and sustainability sciences whose research focuses on future urban sustainability and human-environment feedbacks. She seeks to advance a broader understanding of cities through the integration of trans-disciplinary frameworks, mixed methods, and a comparative approach with examples from cities in Latin and North America. She will be teaching Data Analysis and Senior Seminar this Fall. Dr. Cook earned her PhD at Arizona State University where she was an NSF-funded Fellow in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) program. She was previously awarded a Chilean National Commission on Science and Technology (CONICYT) Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia.

Welcome Assistant Professor Logan Brenner

We are also very pleased to announce our new faculty hire in Environmental Science: Assistant Professor Logan Brenner received her BA in Geosciences from Skidmore College where she studied the composition of stalagmites to construct a history of climate in Yucatan, Mexico and received her Masters and PhD in Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. She is engaged in study of the geochemical composition of corals to understand past ocean conditions as a Post Doc at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and has projects in the Great Barrier Reef and along the Pacific Coast of Panama developing histories of sea surface temperature and hydroclimate. Logan will be teaching the Workshop class and Senior Seminar in the fall.

Welcome Eleanor Ludkey, Program Manager

The new Program Manager in Environmental Science Department, Eleanor Ludkey, received her undergraduate degree in hydrology from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. Since then she has been working for the Department of the Interior in a variety of different roles including interning as an assistant hydrologist at Saguaro National Park and as a biological science technician for the fisheries program at Grand Canyon National Park. Most recently she was working at the United States Geological Survey in Long Island as a hydrologic technician monitoring surface and groundwater.