Weekly Newsletter

February 23, 2021
 
 
Dear colleagues-  

I look forward to joining many of you to hear more about Indiana’s wetlands Wednesday at our virtual forum at 3 pm, led by the C4E Water Challenges SRA, I hope all affiliates also feel welcome to attend the open Chemical Exposures SRA meeting on Thursday. Lots of events are coming up in March, and I encourage you to reach out to any students (undergrad or grad) and post-docs who have done research with Environmental Justice themes to submit their poster for the EJ Symposium in March.  Deadline is March 12, info below. Please also consider sending the link to the undergraduate newsletter, Earth Today, to your students. This issue highlights ABE and provides undergraduates with lots of information on campus programs, resources and events tailored to them.

Shout out also to the many affiliates with new published research as well as news items and media attention, including Ellen Wells (HHS), Roshi Nateghi (Industrial Eng), Andrew Whelton and Caitlin Proctor.

Please send on any news, publications and events you’d like us to promote by Friday of each week. And as a reminder, we strongly encourage you to visit our website before you submit proposals to see how we can help support your efforts along with directions on how to affiliate through the SPS process.

 
Upcoming Events
The Value of All Wetlands: Indiana Researchers Weigh In

Wednesday, February 24 | 3:00 - 5:30 PM



In this virtual forum sponsored by the Center for the Environment's Water Challenges Signature Research Area, researchers from several Indiana universities will share research on the value of isolated wetlands, which are vital to the health of Indiana’s ecology, water and people. These unique and important ecosystems are currently threatened by Senate Bill 389, which would repeal critical wetland protections in Indiana. Speakers will share short presentations about many ecosystem functions that isolated wetlands provide including: flood storage, wildlife habitat, water quality improvements, and carbon storage.

C4E affiliate and convener of the Water Challenges SRA Sara McMillan will moderate a discussion with speakers from Purdue University, Indiana University, Notre Dame and IUPUI who will share short presentations about many ecosystem functions that isolated wetlands provide including: flood storage, wildlife habitat, water quality improvements, and carbon storage. 

Part 2 of this event will begin immediately following Part 1 and will be hosted by the Hoosier Environmental Council, White River Alliance, and the Indiana Land Protection Alliance. Speakers from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Army Corps of Engineers, and environmental consulting will use a case study project to illustrate how federal and state laws work to protect isolated wetland functions and conclude with possible changes to these policies being discussed in the current Indiana legislative session.

Click here for more information and a list of speakers.
 
C4E Affiliates Presenting at AMAP Brown Bag Seminar Series

Tuesday, February 23 | 12:00 PM
Wednesday February 24, 2:30 PM 



C4E affiliates Andrew Flachs (ANTH) and Sorin Adam Matei (LAMB, CLA ADR) will be presenting this week as part of Advanced Methods at Purdue (AMAP) Brown Bag Seminar and Workshop series.

Dr. Flachs will be 
presenting an AMAP Brown Bag lunch titled: "Story Maps for Collaborative Multimodal Data Presentation" on Tuesday 2/23 at noon, and Dr. Matei will be presenting on "Network Analysis" as part of an all-day workshop series on Wednesday 2/24 at 2:30.

Click here to attend Dr. Flachs' presentation.

Click here to join Dr. Matei's presentation.
 
Chemical Exposures Signature Research Area - Open Meeting

Thursday, February 25 | 10:00 AM



The C4E Chemical Exposures Signature Research Area will hold their first collaborative project meeting on Thursday Feb. 25 from 10-11am. The PFAS Project Collaboration between the Hoverman and Sepulveda research groups will be highlighted this month with presentations by postdoctoral researchers Drs. Wes Flynn and Ty Hoskins.
  • Dr. Wes Flynn’s presentation is titled “Understanding the impact of PFAS on a wetland ecosystems”
  • Dr. Ty Hoskins’ presentation is titled “Assessing bioaccumulation and toxicity of PFAS in amphibians to enable ecological risk assessment”
Click here for more information and a link to join the meeting.
 
Submit a Poster for the 2021 Environmental Justice Symposium

March 25 & 26, 2021



The Center for the Environment is working with several organizations on campus and in conjunction with several other institutions of higher education in Indiana to organize a free two-day virtual, regional symposium entitled, 
Next Steps – Environmental Justice, Climate Change, and Racial Justice,” on March 25-26, 2021.

We invite all students to submit a relevant research poster related to conference themes to present at the Symposium March 25-26, 2021. This symposium focuses on intersections among racial justice, law, climate change, environmental policy, and the arts. You can learn more about how to submit a student poster for the conference here. 

The deadline to submit posters and abstracts is Friday March 12, 2021. Please announce to students.

Registration is required to attend the Conference - register by clicking here.
 
Science Diplomacy: US and Latin America in a New Era of Cooperation

Tuesday March 16 | 3:00 - 5:00 PM



Save the Date for this upcoming Discovery Park Distinguished Lecture featuring Dr. Frances Colón, science and environmental policy expert and science diplomat during the Obama administration. After her presentation, she will be joined by Anne Slaughter Andrew, Former U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica in the Obama Administration, for a follow-up discussion. More information and link to register here.
 
Affiliates in the News
Bill Author, Purdue Expert Urge Hearing For Bill On Lead Testing In Preschools, Day Cares
WFYI Indianapolis | February 2021


Kelly Wilkinson, Indy Star  

Center affiliate Andrew Whelton (CE, EEE) recently weighed in on an Indiana State House bill that 
would require preschools and day care centers to test for lead in drinking water and take action if lead levels are too high. Listen to the entire story here and be sure to stay up-to-date on environmental legislation by visiting the Center's Legislative Outlook page.
 
Texas grid failure strengthens calls to climate-proof energy infrastructure
MPR News | February 2021



Purdue C4E affiliate and assistant professor of Industrial Engineering Roshi Nateghi was quoted in this Minnesota Public Radio story on the recent failure of Texas' power grid as a result of the severe winter storms of last week.
 
Panel probes relationship between scientists and journalists, highlighting areas for growth
Emma Ambrose, Purdue Ag Comms | February 2021

  
Academics, politicians, scientists, members of the public and journalists convened on February 11 to attend a virtual panel entitled Journalism, Science, and Policy: Communicating Risk and Relevance. The discussion centered on water quality and the symbiosis of scientific research and journalism. Center affiliates Andrew Whelton (CE and EEE), and Caitlin Proctor (ABE and EEE) hosted and moderated the discussion between three prominent science writers: Ken Ward Jr, Deborah Blum, and Seth Siegel. Read more about the event and watch the recording here.  
 
Featured Publication
Characterization and within-site variation of environmental metal concentrations around a contaminated site using a community-engaged approach
Wells et al., Chemosphere, 2021


Check out a brand new publication by C4E affiliate and 
Associate Professor of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, Ellen Wells. The article examines research characterizing environmental contamination in soil within and around areas near Chicago and northwest Indiana that have seen levels of arsenic and other heavy metal contamination. Access the article here.

 


Issue 4 of Earth Today
, our monthly environmental newsletter for Purdue undergraduates, is out now. This month features a spotlight on Purdue's Agricultural and Biological Engineering program, undergrad research opportunities, and some upcoming events open to students.


Faculty are encouraged to forward the link to their students.
 
Funding Opportunities & Webinars

COVID-19 Funding OpportunitiesThis list is updated frequently.

Webinar: NSF Center for Advancement and Synthesis of Open Environmental Data and Sciences
3:00 PM to 4:00 PM on February 23

AFRI New Investigator Webinars
New investigators and administrators that work with new investigators are encouraged to participate in one or more webinars on March 1-4, 2021 to learn more about funding opportunities in the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) competitive grants program at the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). More information is available here. Registration is required to participate in each of the webinars.

The webinars are designed to provide information about AFRI programs, introduce new NIFA staff to applicants, and answer questions. In person visits to NIFA are not possible due to the pandemic. Webinars provide an efficient and transparent mechanism to disseminate information to a broad audience. 


NASA-ROSES 2021  
Through this ROSES NRA, NASA encourages the participation of the space and Earth science communities in SMD's research and technology programs. These programs form the foundation of both the basic and applied research that allows NASA's space and Earth science programs to be properly planned and carried through to the successful interpretation of data and its application to the needs of end users.
NSF Future Manufacturing (FM)  
The goal of Future Manufacturing is to support fundamental research and education of a future workforce to overcome scientific, technological, educational, economic and social barriers in order to enable new manufacturing capabilities that do not exist today. It will require new advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, new cyber infrastructure, new approaches for mathematical and computational modeling, new dynamics and control methodologies, new ways to integrate systems biology, synthetic biology and bioprocessing, and new ways to influence the economy, workforce, human behavior, and society. Deadline: May 14

DOE ARPA-E OPEN 2021  
Potential applicants to this FOA are strongly encouraged to examine the OPEN projects in these volumes and all of the projects supported in the previous four OPEN solicitations for examples of the creative and innovative R&D ARPA-E seeks in its OPEN solicitations. The objective of an ARPA-E OPEN FOA is simple, yet comprehensive: to support high-risk R&D leading to the development of potentially disruptive new technologies across the full spectrum of energy applications. Areas of research responsive to this FOA include (but are not limited to) electricity generation by both conventional and renewable means; electricity transmission, storage, and distribution; energy efficiency for buildings, manufacturing and commerce, and personal use; and all aspects of transportation, including the production and distribution of both renewable and non-renewable fuels, electrification, and energy efficiency in transportation. Deadline: April 6 – Concept paper

 
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