It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, January 19, 2024
Need for speed: How hummingbirds switch mental gears in flight
Hummingbirds use two distinct sensory strategies to control their flight, depending on whether they’re hovering or in forward motion, according to new research by University of British Columbia (UBC) zoologists.
“When in forward fight, hummingbirds rely on what we call an ‘internal forward model’—almost an ingrained, intuitive autopilot—to gauge speed,” says Dr. Vikram B. Baliga, lead author of a new study on hummingbird locomotion published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. “There’s just too much information coming in to rely directly on every visual cue from your surroundings.”
“But when hovering or dealing with cues that might require a change in altitude, we found they rely much more on real-time, direct visual feedback from their environment.”
The findings not only provide insights on how the tiny, agile birds perceive the world during transitions in flight, but could inform the programming of onboard navigation for next generation autonomous flying and hovering vehicles.
Hummingbird flight recorder
The researchers had hummingbirds perform repeated flights from a perch to a feeder in a four-metre tunnel. To test how the birds reacted to a variety of visual stimuli, the team projected patterns on the chamber’s front and side walls. Each flight was videoed.
In some scenarios, the researchers projected vertical stripes moving at various speeds on the side walls to mimic degrees of forward motion. Sometimes, horizontal stripes on the side mimicked changes in altitude. On the front wall, the researchers projected rotating swirls, designed to create the illusion of a change in position.
“If the birds were taking their cues directly from visual stimuli, we’d expect them to adjust their forward velocity to the speed of vertical stripes on the side walls,” says Dr. Baliga. “But while the birds did change velocity or stop altogether depending on the patterns, there wasn’t a neat correlation.”
However, during flight, the hummingbirds did adjust more directly to stimuli indicating a change in altitude. And during hovering, the birds also worked to adjust their position much more closely to shifting spirals the research team projected on the front wall.
“Our experiments were designed to investigate how hummingbirds control flight speed,” says Dr. Doug Altshuler, senior author on the paper. “But because the hummingbirds took spontaneous breaks to hover during their flights, we uncovered these two distinct strategies to control different aspects of their trajectories.”
PENN STATE RESEARCHERS DEMONSTRATED 3D INTEGRATION OF SEMICONDUCTORS AT A MASSIVE SCALE, CHARACTERIZING TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DEVICES USING 2D TRANSISTORS MADE WITH 2D SEMICONDUCTORS, ENABLING ELECTRONIC GADGETS TO POSSIBLY BECOME SMARTER AND MORE VERSATILE.
CREDIT: ELIZABETH FLORES-GOMEZ MURRAY/MATERIALS RESEARCH INSTITUTE AT PENN STATE
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Moore's Law, a fundamental scaling principle for electronic devices, forecasts that the number of transistors on a chip will double every two years, ensuring more computing power — but a limit exists.
Today's most advanced chips house nearly 50 billion transistors within a space no larger than your thumbnail. The task of cramming even more transistors into that confined area has become more and more difficult, according to Penn State researchers.
In a study published today (Jan. 10) in the journal Nature, Saptarshi Das, an associate professor of engineering science and mechanics and co-corresponding author of the study, and his team suggest a remedy: seamlessly implementing 3D integration with 2D materials.
In the semiconductor world, 3D integration means vertically stacking multiple layers of semiconductor devices. This approach not only facilitates the packing of more silicon-based transistors onto a computer chip, commonly referred to as “More Moore,” but also permits the use of transistors made from 2D materials to incorporate diverse functionalities within various layers of the stack, a concept known as “More than Moore.”
With the work outlined in the study, Saptarshi and the team demonstrate feasible paths beyond scaling current tech to achieve both More Moore and More than Moore through monolithic 3D integration. Monolithic 3D integration is a fabrication process wherein researchers directly make the devices on the one below, as compared to the traditional process of stacking independently fabricated layers.
“Monolithic 3D integration offers the highest density of vertical connections as it does not rely on bonding of two pre-patterned chips — which would require microbumps where two chips are bonded together — so you have more space to make connections,” said Najam Sakib, graduate research assistant in engineering science and mechanics and co-author of the study.
Monolithic 3D integration faces significant challenges, though, according to Darsith Jayachandran, graduate research assistant in engineering science and mechanics and co-corresponding author of the study, since conventional silicon components would melt under the processing temperatures.
“One challenge is the process temperature ceiling of 450 degrees Celsius (C) for back-end integration for silicon-based chips — our monolithic 3D integration approach drops that temperate significantly to less than 200 C,” Jayachandran said, explaining that the process temperature ceiling is the maximum temperature allowed before damaging the prefabricated structures. “Incompatible process temperature budgets make monolithic 3D integration challenging with silicon chips, but 2D materials can withstand temperatures needed for the process.”
The researchers used existing techniques for their approach, but they are the first to successfully achieve monolithic 3D integration at this scale using 2D transistors made with 2D semiconductors called transition metal dichalcogenides.
The ability to vertically stack the devices in 3D integration also enabled more energy-efficient computing because it solved a surprising problem for such tiny things as transistors on a computer chip: distance.
"By stacking devices vertically on top of each other, you're decreasing the distance between devices, and therefore, you're decreasing the lag and also the power consumption,” said Rahul Pendurthi, graduate research assistant in engineering science and mechanics and co-corresponding author of the study.
By decreasing the distance between devices, the researchers achieved “More Moore.” By incorporating transistors made with 2D materials, the researchers met the “More than Moore” criterion as well. The 2D materials are known for their unique electronic and optical properties, including sensitivity to light, which makes these materials ideal as sensors. This is useful, the researchers said, as the number of connected devices and edge devices — things like smartphones or wireless home weather stations that gather data on the ‘edge’ of a network — continue to increase.
"’More Than Moore’ refers to a concept in the tech world where we are not just making computer chips smaller and faster, but also with more functionalities,” said Muhtasim Ul Karim Sadaf, graduate research assistant in engineering science and mechanics and co-author of the study. “It is about adding new and useful features to our electronic devices, like better sensors, improved battery management or other special functions, to make our gadgets smarter and more versatile.”
Using 2D devices for 3D integration has several other advantages, the researchers said. One is superior carrier mobility, which refers to how an electrical charge is carried in semiconductor materials. Another is being ultra-thin, enabling the researchers to fit more transistors on each tier of the 3D integration and enable more computing power.
While most academic research involves small-scale prototypes, this study demonstrated 3D integration at a massive scale, characterizing tens of thousands of devices. According to Das, this achievement bridges the gap between academia and industry and could lead to future partnerships where industry leverages Penn State’s 2D materials expertise and facilities. The advance in scaling was enabled by the availability of high-quality, wafer-scale transition metal dichalcogenides developed by researchers at Penn State's Two-Dimensional Crystal Consortium (2DCC-MIP), a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Materials Innovation Platform and national user facility.
"This breakthrough demonstrates yet again the essential role of materials research as the foundation of the semiconductor industry and U.S. competitiveness," said Charles Ying, program director for NSF's Materials Innovation Platforms. "Years of effort by Penn State's Two-Dimensional Crystal Consortium to improve the quality and size of 2D materials have made it possible to achieve 3D integration of semiconductors at a size that can be transformative for electronics."
According to Das, this technological advancement is only the first step.
"Our ability to demonstrate, at wafer scale, a huge number of devices shows that we have been able to translate this research to a scale which can be appreciated by the semiconductor industry,” Das said. “We have put 30,000 transistors in each tier, which may be a record number. This puts Penn State in a very unique position to lead some of the work and partner with the U.S. semiconductor industry in advancing this research.”
Along with Das, Jayachandran, Pendurthi, Sadaf and Sakib, other authors include Andrew Pannone, doctoral student in engineering science and mechanics; Chen Chen, assistant research professor in 2DCC-MIP; Ying Han, postdoctoral researcher in mechanical engineering; Nicholas Trainor, doctoral student in materials science and engineering; Shalini Kumari, postdoctoral scholar; Thomas McKnight, doctoral student in materials science and engineering; Joan Redwing, director of the 2DCC-MIP and distinguished professor of materials science and engineering and of electrical engineering; and Yang Yang, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics.
The U.S. National Science Foundation and Army Research Office supported this research.
BRYAN F. SHAW, PH.D., PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY, ASSISTS HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS FROM THE TEXAS SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED WITH CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENTS IN HIS ACCESSIBLE LAB. SHAW LEADS A TEAM OF RESEARCHERS WHO ARE REMOVING LONGSTANDING BARRIERS TO THE STUDY OF CHEMISTRY AND OTHER CENTRAL SCIENCES FOR STUDENTS WITH BLINDNESS AND LOW VISION (BLV), FROM INACCESSIBLE SCIENCE LABS, LACK OF NON-VISUAL EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS, AND TECHNOLOGIES NOT YET OPTIMIZED FOR THOSE WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS.
WACO, Texas (Jan. 10, 2024) – A first-of-its-kind tactile learning device developed by Baylor University chemistry professors to make science accessible to students with blindness or low vision (BLV) has opened the possibility of the transfer of any scientific data or images for sighted students into functional, thorough formats for students with blindness. The study was published today in the journal Science Advances.
The latest research from Bryan F. Shaw, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Baylor, focused on the development of a codex using lithophane – an ancient art form – to convert images from scientific textbooks into tactile formats for students with BLV. The study, in collaboration with John L. Wood, Ph.D., The Robert A. Welch Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Baylor, documents experiences from students with the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (TSBVI), who have partnered with Shaw on a variety of in-person learning opportunities and research projects.
“This is the first example that we know of in which blind high school students are able to visualize nanoscopic and microscopic imagery with tactile sensing at the exact same resolution as their sighted peers,” Shaw said. “That’s the focus of this paper—getting materials in the hands of high schoolers and seeing the results.”
The study, which incorporated students from TSBVI, demonstrated that students with blindness or low vision could accurately describe, recall and distinguish high-resolution data and imagery at an average accuracy of 88 % – comparable to sighted peers.
For Shaw, a burgeoning research focus on science accessibility stems from experiences with his 15-year-old son, Noah, who was diagnosed as an infant with retinoblastoma, an aggressive pediatric eye cancer. Today, Noah is thriving despite losing one eye and having limited vision in his remaining eye, and Shaw has developed a mix of approaches to make science data and science labs accessible to those with blindness and low vision. Past projects have been funded by the National Institutes of Health Science Education Partnership Award, the National Science Foundation and the Robert A. Welch Foundation. Shaw’s latest paper is his fourth in Science Advances.
(See roundup of past research on inclusive science efforts from Bryan F. Shaw’s Baylor laboratory.)
Tactile sensing through ancient medium
TSBVI students were able to visualize this data through the use of lithophanes. Likely created in China as early as the seventh century and popularized in Europe in the 1800s, lithophanes are thin engravings made from translucent materials, now 3D-printed with raised imagery suitable for tactile learning. Through use of lithophanes, students with blindness can feel what their sighted counterparts can see. The study suggests that beginning students can visualize, comprehend and discern high-resolution nanoscopic or microscopic images as well as a sighted person.
92.2% for sighted interpretation of back-lit lithophanes and
79.8% for tactile interpretation by blind folded students with normal eyesight.
Sighted participants were able to accurately interpret digital images on a computer screen at 88.4% by eyesight. For 80% of questions, the blind chemists’ tactile accuracy was equal or superior to visual interpretation of lithophanes, suggesting that lithophanes could function as a shareable data format. In fact, Shaw said some of the blind chemists in the study has such tactile sensitivity that they could feel tactile features of the data that sighted individuals could barely see themselves.
The latest study followed TSBVI students in their ability to visualize changes in images from high-resolution, nanoscopic and microscopic images through touch. The students involved in the study were provided their first high-resolution tactile codex (or book) of real-life microscopic and nanoscopic imagery, which also can be found in science books for sighted students.
“Lithophane codexes are just that simple—lithophane books,” Shaw said. “But this is the first example of a lithophane book that we know of and the first time it’s been put in the hands of high-school students.”
For example, students used a tactile codex of a butterfly at various degrees of magnification in an electron microscope. Using the image of a butterfly as the base, students could go deeper into the innerworkings of the insect. They started with the shape of a butterfly, which many of the students had never felt. From there, students felt a butterfly wing image as viewed through a microscope, with fish scale-like images making the intricacy of the butterfly’s wing accessible. Magnified even higher through a microscope, a third image featured a single scale, with the final image showing the chemical structures that comprise the scaled wings of a butterfly.
Students were tested for their understanding of the layers of scales and cells on each lithophane, with students demonstrating mastery of the images through touch.
“When you develop a new drug, you do all the science to create a drug, but when you give it to a person and it works, that testing period is over,” Shaw said. “That’s what we have here through these images and the lithophane codex.”
The study also brought students from TSBVI into research labs at Baylor and introduced them to universal chemical graphics. These graphics allowed students to feel the structures of molecules that were reactants and products in chemical reactions. In real time, students felt different structures of molecules as the molecules were reacted in front of them by graduate students with the Baylor Synthesis and Drug-Lead Discovery Lab, co-directed by Wood.
Equality and accessibility
To help educators who serve these students, Shaw’s team developed an equation to determine how many pages a codex could accommodate based on the diameter of the binding. As an example, the 1000 images found in a standard biochemistry textbook would need four lithophane books measured at 10 centimeters in width.
“Lithophanes make the high-resolution, serious scientific data 100% accessible to students with blindness. They won’t be missing out on anything,” Shaw said. That’s what is beautiful about this. It’s equality and equivalence. We can sit around with sighted and non-sighted people and talk about the exact piece of data, and it’s beautiful.”
Students with blindness and low vision (BLV) have long faced barriers to the study and discipline of chemistry, often due to the long-standing inaccessibility of science labs to people with disabilities, a lack of non-visual educational materials, and technologies not yet optimized for those with visual impairments. Shaw’s laboratory will continue to focus on methods to eradicate those barriers for students with blindness and other disabilities in the future.
“It is critical to show students in high school and even earlier that they belong in science—it is open to them if they want to join—regardless of their diverse abilities, or so-called disability,” Shaw said. “When I think about my son or other children with disabilities, what they do in their 30s and 40s depends on what we do for them now. And many scientists are too busy for that. But at Baylor, it’s not that way. There’s an ethos here.”
Lithophane of butterfly wing
Baylor University chemist Bryan F. Shaw shows a tactile lithophane codex of a butterfly, which high-school students from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired used as the base image, allowing them to go deeper into the innerworkings of the insect. They started with the shape of a butterfly, which many of the students had never felt. From there, students felt a butterfly wing image as viewed through a microscope, with fish scale-like images making the intricacy of the butterfly’s wing accessible. Magnified even higher through a microscope, a third image featured a single scale, with the final image showing the chemical structures that comprise the scaled wings of a butterfly. Students were tested for their understanding of the layers of scales and cells on each lithophane, with students demonstrating mastery of the images through touch.
CREDIT
Matthew Minard/Baylor University
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
In addition to Bryan F. Shaw (corresponding author) and John L. Wood, the research team included Emily A. Alonzo (first author), Travis J. Lato, Mayte Gonzalez, Trevor L. Olson, Quentin R. Savage, Levi N. Garza, Morgan T. Green, Jordan C. Koone, Noah E. Cook, Chad M. Dashnaw, Darren B. Armstrong and Matthew J. Guberman-Pfeffer, Ph.D., Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Baylor University; Lisa S. Garbrecht, Madeline L. Haynes and Miriam R. Jacobson, Expanding Pathways In Computing (EPIC), Texas Advanced Computing Center; Mona S. Minkara, Ph.D., Department of Bioengineering, Northeastern University; Hoby B. Wedler, Ph.D., Wedland Group, Petaluma, Calif.; and Bernd Zechmann, Ph.D., Center for Microscopy and Imaging, Baylor University.
This project was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health (R25GM146265), National Science Foundation (CHE: 2203441), and Welch Foundation (AA-1854). J.L.W. acknowledges support from the Welch Foundation (Chair, AA-006) and the National Science Foundation (CHE-1764240).
ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.
ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments in the sciences, humanities, fine arts and social sciences, as well as 11 academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. The College’s undergraduate Unified Core Curriculum, which routinely receives top grades in national assessments, emphasizes a liberal education characterized by critical thinking, communication, civic engagement and Christian commitment. Arts & Sciences faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit the College of Arts & Sciences website.
Universal pictures: A lithophane codex helps teenagers with blindness visualize nanoscopic systems
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
10-Jan-2024
COI STATEMENT
B.F.S. is listed on patent US10043413B2 as an inventor, “Oral-based method and system for educating visually impaired students.” The other authors declare that they have no competing interests.
HEALTH KULTIST FAVORITE
Can drinking alkaline water help prevent kidney stones? Not likely, study finds
Other options provide higher alkali content for raising pH, reports Journal of Urology
"While alkaline water products have a higher pH than regular water, they have a negligible alkali content – which suggests that they can't raise urine pH enough to affect the development of kidney and other urinary stones," comments senior author Roshan M. Patel, MD, of University of California, Irvine.
Alkaline water as alternative to prescription drugs for stone prevention?
Alkaline water, sometimes called high pH water, is an increasingly popular category of bottled water. Compared to tap water, with a typical pH around 7.5, alkaline water is manufactured to have a higher (more alkaline) pH – in the range of 8 to 10.
Consumption and sales of alkaline water have increased sharply in recent years. Proponents claim various health benefits, including improved hydration and increased urinary pH. Raising pH is a key strategy to prevent formation of certain types of urinary stones (uric acid or cystine) in patients with previous stones. (The Urology Care Foundation™ offers information on kidney stone prevention.)
Potassium citrate tablets are commonly prescribed to prevent recurrent stones. However, many patients do not follow recommended treatment – often related to the need to take large pills several times per day. If alkaline water could raise urinary pH, it might be an attractive alternative for stone prevention.
To assess the potential for high pH water to prevent urinary stones, Dr. Patel's team measured the pH of five commercially available alkaline water products. They also reviewed published data on other types of drinks and over-the-counter products with the potential to raise urinary pH.
Despite higher pH, alkaline water has 'trivial' alkali content
The five brands tested in the study had a similar pH, in a narrow range around 10. One product contained a small amount of citrate, which was not listed on the product label. Otherwise, the tested alkaline waters had no organic anions that can be metabolized to alkali by the body – as supplied by potassium citrate tablets.
At a pH of 10, the tested products would have an alkali content of just 0.1 milliequivalent per liter (mEq/L). That's a "trivial" concentration compared to the body's typical metabolic acid production of 40 to 100 mEq/L per day, according to the authors.
In contrast, some other commercially available products do have the potential to increase pH – notably including orange juice, with an alkali content of up to 15 mEq/L. Orange juice also has the lowest estimated cost to achieve the target alkali concentration of 30 mEq per day.
Baking soda was among the most effective and cost-efficient alternatives, although with potential concerns related to sodium content. Newer products dissolvable in water also appeared to provide useful and affordable options. The article includes a graphic table comparing the alkali content of various products and their costs in reaching target alkali levels.
"Our findings may help to guide the selection of other treatments, including beverages and over-the-counter products, for preventing recurrent urinary stones," adds Dr. Patel. The researchers note the limitations of their laboratory study and emphasize the need for clinical trials of the options for raising urinary pH.
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The Official Journal of the American Urological Association (AUA), and the most widely read and highly cited journal in the field, The Journal of Urology® brings solid coverage of the clinically relevant content needed to stay at the forefront of the dynamic field of urology. This premier journal presents investigative studies on critical areas of research and practice, survey articles providing brief editorial comments on the best and most important urology literature worldwide and practice-oriented reports on significant clinical observations. The Journal of Urology® covers the wide scope of urology, including pediatric urology, urologic cancers, renal transplantation, male infertility, urinary tract stones, female urology and neurourology.
About the American Urological Association
Founded in 1902 and headquartered near Baltimore, Maryland, the American Urological Association is a leading advocate for the specialty of urology, and has more than 23,000 members throughout the world. The AUA is a premier urologic association, providing invaluable support to the urologic community as it pursues its mission of fostering the highest standards of urologic care through education, research and the formulation of health care policy. To learn more about the AUA visit: www.auanet.org
Wolters Kluwer provides trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers and students in effective decision-making and outcomes across healthcare. We support clinical effectiveness, learning and research, clinical surveillance and compliance, as well as data solutions. For more information about our solutions, visit https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/health.
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Wolters Kluwer reported 2022 annual revenues of €5.5 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 20,900 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.
SEVEN INDIVIDUALS HAVE BEEN ELECTED TO THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA'S GOVERNING BOARD AND BOARD OF PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: PRESIDENT-ELECT PETER GROFFMAN, GOVERNING BOARD MEMBER ANGEE DOERR, GOVERNING BOARD MEMBER ALEX MOORE, GOVERNING BOARD MEMBER YUDE PAN, BOARD OF PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION MEMBER ROGER VIADERO, BOARD OF PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION MEMBER AUDREY MAYER AND BOARD OF PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION MEMBER ARVIND BHUTA.
CREDIT: DAVID ROZENBLYUM (GROFFMAN), STEPHEN WARD (DOERR), ALEX MOORE (MOORE), RICHARD BIRDSEY (PAN)
The Ecological Society of America is pleased to announce its recent election results for four Governing Board positions and three positions for its Board of Professional Certification. Those selected by the membership to serve on the Governing Board are President-Elect for 2025 ‒ 2026 Peter M. Groffman, City University of New York; Board Member Angee N. Doerr, Oregon State University; Board Member Alex C. Moore, University of British Columbia; and Board Member Yude Pan, USDA Forest Service. Three Certified Senior Ecologists elected by the membership to serve on the Board of Professional Certification are Arvind A. R. Bhuta, USDA Forest Service, Audrey L. Mayer, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Roger C. Viadero, Western Illinois University’s Institute for Environmental Studies.
ESA’s new president-elect for 2025, Peter M. Groffman, is a Professor at the City University of New York Advanced Science Research Center and the Earth and Environmental Sciences Program at the Graduate Center, and the Brooklyn College Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. Groffman’s research focuses on climate effects on ecosystem biogeochemical processes related to carbon and nitrogen cycles. He was a Convening Lead Author for the 2013 U.S. National Climate Assessment Chapter on Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, a lead author for the Second (Wetlands) and the Third (North America) Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
“I am delighted and honored to serve on the ESA Governing Board. ESA has been my primary academic home since 1983 and it has been a great pleasure to watch as our discipline has grown and made great progress in basic science, with application to pressing societal problems,” said Groffman. “ESA has been fundamental to this progress, catalyzing the multidisciplinary interactions and facilitating diversity, equity and inclusion that are essential to this progress.”
Groffman’s participation in ESA includes service as Chair of the ESA Soil Ecology (1997 – 2000) and Biogeosciences (2010 – 2012) Sections, ESA Awards Committee (2001 – 2007), member of the Rapid Response Team (2009 – current) and Editorial Board of Ecology (1999 – 2009).
“Dr. Groffman will bring to ESA a unique and timely set of leadership skills,” said ESA President Shahid Naeem. “From microbes to global biogeochemical cycles, from urban to forest ecosystems, from soil to water, from national environmental policy to media, one would be hard pressed to find someone as broad in experience, skills, and scope as Peter. Given the Society’s broad mission to advance the science and practice of ecology to empower people to secure a thriving planet, we’re thrilled to have him join ESA’s governing board at its helm.”
ESA is also pleased to welcome three additional new Governing Board members for 2024 ‒ 2027 who share collective responsibilities in determining the strategic direction of the Society and providing oversight. These new members are Angee Doerr, Alex Moore and Yude Pan.
Angee Doerr, Board Member, is an Assistant Professor of Practice with Oregon State University and Oregon Sea Grant. She focuses on marine coastal resources, providing community outreach, education and research to advance sustainable economic growth for coastal industries. Doerr is currently a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserves with more than 21 years of Active and Reserve service. For more than a decade, she has actively engaged with ESA participating as Vice Chair/Chair/Past Chair of the Early Career Section, as a current member of the Publications Committee — including a stint as Chair of the Committee — and is a current Subject-matter Editor for Ecological Applications. Doerr’s ESA efforts include ESA Career Track planning and providing input to the new ESA Visioning project.
Alex Moore, Board Member, is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia. They are currently building a research program that emphasizes community engagement and equity in ecology and conservation. Moore conducts research focusing on the role of predator-prey interactions as well as global change stressors in coastal ecosystems and engages in practices that integrate community values and perspectives into this work. In addition to research, Moore is actively involved in championing diversity, equity, inclusion and justice in academia. At UBC, they participate in an effort to hire Black scholars through a cluster hire initiative, they co-founded the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Language Project and they are a planning committee member for the Inclusive Science Communication Symposium.
Yude Pan, Board Member, is a Senior Research Scientist associated with the unit of Climate, Fire and Carbon Cycle Sciences, Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service. Her research topics are primarily focused on forest responses to multiple environmental stresses and changing climate, global forest carbon budgets and forest carbon management for climate mitigation. Pan received the Forest Service Chief’s Distinguished Science Award. She is an elected Fellow of the Ecological Society of America, was a Bullard Fellow of Harvard Forest and she most recently served as an Embassy Science Fellow at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Other current and former leadership positions include serving as an Advisory Board Member, International Tree Mortality Network of IUFRO; member of the Carbon Cycle Scientific Steering Group, United States Carbon Cycle Science Program; and member of the Global Forest Expert Panel of FAO on Biodiversity, Forest Management and REDD+. Within ESA, Pan was Chair of the Asian Section, a Council Member and served as a Subject-matter Editor for Ecosphere, Ecological Applications, and Ecological Monographs since 2010.
The Board of Professional Certification also welcomes three new members who will serve three-year terms, beginning Jan. 1, 2024, and concluding Dec. 31, 2026. ESA’s certification program aims to serve the needs of ecologists who wish to establish and validate their professional credentials, to define minimum standards of education and experience for professional ecologists, to encourage all practicing ecologists to meet such standards and to create and maintain public confidence in the advice and opinions of certified ecologists by establishing a procedure for critical peer evaluation based upon defined minimum education, experience and ethical requirements. This year’s newly elected members are Arvind Bhuta, Audrey Mayer and Roger Viadero.
Arvind Bhuta, ESA Board of Professional Certification, is a Natural Resources Specialist for the Cooperative Forestry Unit, USDA Forest Service’s State, Private and Tribal Forestry Branch. He collaborates with other colleagues to collect, analyze and present geospatial data to provide insights on changing rural forest landscapes. Prior, he worked in the Forest Service’s National Forest System Branch as an ecologist for the National Forests in Alabama and a forester (biometrician) for the National Forests in Oregon and Washington. He also continues research in a variety of different areas from dendrochronology to forest ecology to human/environment interactions and supports diversity, equity and inclusion both in the workplace, through serving on ESA’s Diversity Committee until the end of this year and with other nonprofit scientific and educational organizations such as the Society of American Forestry and the American Association of Geographers. In addition to being an ESA Certified Senior Ecologist he is also a Certified GIS Professional.
Audrey Mayer, ESA Board of Professional Certification, is a Field Office Supervisor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Over the course of her career, she has worked in academia as a researcher and professor (University of Cincinnati, University of Helsinki [Finland], Michigan Technological University) and as an ecologist for the federal government (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). In Mayer’s current position with the Service, she oversees regulatory and field programs including consultations for federally listed species, renewable energy projects, oil and hazardous spill response and remediation, coastal resiliency efforts and habitat restoration partnerships with state and private landowners.
Roger Viadero, ESA Board of Professional Certification, is a Professor and Director of Western Illinois University’s Institute for Environmental Studies and Chair of the University’s interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Environmental Science. Viadero focuses on the remediation of natural aquatic systems adversely impacted by human activities. As an aquatic environmental engineer, he integrates traditional engineering analysis with principles of ecology and related sciences to develop resilient remediation approaches that work with natural processes. In addition to being an ESA Certified Senior Ecologist, he is also a Board Certified Environmental Engineering Member of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists with a specialization in site remediation. Viadero has also worked as an expert witness in state and federal jurisdictions.
The current ESA Governing Board Members are President Shahid Naeem, Columbia University, through August 2024; Immediate President-Elect Stephanie Hampton, Carnegie Institution for Science; Immediate Past-President Sharon Collinge, University of Arizona; Vice-President for Finance Jeannine Cavender-Bares, University of Minnesota, through August 2026; Secretary Emilio Bruna, University of Florida, through August 2025; Board Member Diane Pataki, Arizona State University, through August 2024; Board Member Carmen Cid, Eastern Connecticut State University, through August 2024; Board Member Jennifer Funk, University of California, Davis, through August 2024; Board Member Jay Lennon, University of Indiana, through August 2025; Board Member Kelly Ramirez, University of Texas at El-Paso, through August 2025 and Board Member James Rattling Leaf, University of Colorado Boulder, through August 2026.
ESA thanks its dedicated members who participated in the election.
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The Ecological Society of America, founded in 1915, is the world’s largest community of professional ecologists and a trusted source of ecological knowledge, committed to advancing the understanding of life on Earth. The 8,000 member Society publishes six journals and a membership bulletin and broadly shares ecological information through policy, media outreach, and education initiatives. The Society’s Annual Meeting attracts 4,000 attendees and features the most recent advances in ecological science. Visit the ESA website at http://www.esa.org.
