By Carol Peters, EOAS Communications Team As the first and oldest museum in America dedicated to geology, the Rutgers Geology Museum plays a vital role in the education of Rutgers University and local K-12 students and New Jersey residents. From exhibits featuring rare New Jersey minerals dating back to the early-1800s, to the legendary Ice Age Mastodon skeleton that was …
Diversifying the Geosciences
A new grant will launch a project that aims to break down barriers keeping underrepresented students from pursuing careers in earth sciences. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has made a $250,000 grant to Rutgers to increase the number of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students earning degrees in the geosciences. The geosciences—which include the study of Earth and its bodies of water, natural …
JCNERR and Rutgers Aid in Collaborative Research Consortium Project to Manage the Barnegat and Great Bays
The Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JCNERR) and several partners were awarded a grant to implement the newly-established New Jersey Consortium for Resilient Communities. JCNERR is managed by Rutgers NJAES, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The project, “Barnegat Bay and Great Bays Resilience Observing Network: Tracking the Changing Environment to Inform the Management of Estuarine …
Rutgers Interdisciplinary Pilot Project Connects High School Youth to University Science
A unique, cross-school collaborative pilot project, funded by Rutgers Center for Agricultural Food Ecosystems (RUCAFE) in the New Jersey Institute for Food Nutrition and Health, provides high school youth from diaspora communities the opportunity to co-create original science-based video stories with Rutgers researchers. The project, titled FAME (Food, Agriculture and Marine Ecosystems) is based on an innovative informal STEM learning model connecting …
SEBS Associate Professor Siobain Duffy Appointed DEENR Chair
Announcement by Laura J. Lawson, Interim Executive Dean of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences and Interim Executive Director of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. Dear Colleagues, I am pleased to announce the appointment of associate professor Siobain Duffy as the new chair of the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources (DEENR) at the School of Environmental …
Maslo Lab Combines Expertise to Research Snake Fungal Disease
Morgan Mark (SEBS’22), Tyler Christensen (Ph.D. Candidate), and Bobby Kwait (Ph.D. Candidate)—all members of assistant professor Brooke Maslo’s lab—were recently awarded funding from the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians (ARAV) for their project examining the seasonal dynamics of snake fungal disease in free-ranging eastern copperheads. Snake fungal disease (SFD) is a recently discovered fungal pathogen, Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, that is impacting snake populations in …
Rutgers Among University Teams Awarded $28.7 Million in Department of Defense Funding
The Department of Defense (DoD) recently announced $28.7 million in grants to 17 university-based faculty teams through its FY2021 Minerva Research Initiative to support research in social and behavioral science. Among the DoD awardees is a faculty team comprising Malin Pinsky, associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, that was awarded $1.3 million to fund a three-year project …
The Annual Personal Bioblitz Connects People with Nature – Will it Break Records Again this Year?
What is that spider on that rock? That yellow spring flower is strange; what is it? Is that a weed in my backyard? Should I remove it? What kinds of birds will I see this spring? Wow, that’s a weird-looking red, black and white bug; what is it? Is there more than one kind of chipmunk in our forests? By …
ONJSC Compiles Top 10 NJ Weather Events of 2021
By Carol Peters, EOAS Communications Team From the snowiest February on record in Northern NJ, to summer hail, to the devastation wrought by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, a number of dramatic, dangerous, and deadly weather events occurred in NJ last year. David Robinson, New Jersey State Climatologist and #EOAS faculty member, reports on how he and his staff ranked …
Onset of Modern Sea Level Rise Began in 1863, International Study Finds
An international team of scientists including Rutgers researchers has found that modern rates of sea level rise began emerging in 1863 as the Industrial Age intensified, coinciding with evidence for early ocean warming and glacier melt. The study, which used a global database of sea-level records spanning the last 2,000 years, will help local and regional planners prepare for future …