Noted Quantitative Population Ecologist to Deliver Global Environmental Change Lecture at NC State

Posted on March 28, 2014 by

Dr. Barry Brook, the Australian Research Council Future Fellow III, Sir Hubert Wilkins Chair of Climate Change, and Director of Climate Science for The Environment Institute at the University of Adelaide in South Australia will deliver the inaugural Global Environmental Change Lecture at NC State University -“Power to save nature? The role of nuclear energy and ‘techno-fixes’ in conserving climate and ecosystems.”

The lecture will be held at the David Clark Labs on the NC State campus on April 8, 2014 from 4-5pm. (parking in the Dan Allen deck) and is open to the public.

Fossil fuels have supplied most of society’s energy demand for over two centuries. Yet, with the mounting problems of climate change, pollution, security and dwindling supplies, we now face the need for a near-total transformation of the world’s energy systems.

The talk will provide a critical overview of the challenges in—and potential solutions for—completely ‘decarbonzing’ our energy supplies, while also meeting the growing need for increased prosperity in the developing world.

It will be argued that of the options available, it is next-generation nuclear power and related technologies, based on modular systems with full fuel recycling and inherent safety, that offer the best chance of curing our fossil-fuel addiction.

Solving the ‘energy problem’ will not just help in mitigating climate change. It will also avoid destructive use of natural and agricultural landscapes for biofuels and diffuse energy generation, and allow societies to reduce their ‘footprint’ by sparing land and resources for biodiversity conservation

About Dr. Brook:

An innovative quantitative population ecologist, began his career studying how genetic variability affects the persistence of small populations. Since then his efforts have proliferated in many directions, with novel applications of simulation and statistical modeling to understand synergistic impacts on the biosphere. Read his blog>>

The NC State Global Environmental Change Lecture Series is organized by NC State College of Natural Resources professor L. Scott Mills and co-sponsored by the Southeast Climate Science Center.

Learn more about the NC State Global Change Forum>>

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Dr. Brooks will also deliver the weekly Forestry & Environmental Resources Seminar on April 7, 2014 from 3:30-4:30pm in Room 434 of Daniels Hall at NC State.
The topic is “Tipping Points and Metamodels: Forecasting and Abating Aggregate Human Impacts on Biodiversity”

People First Tourism is subject of WCOM radio program

Posted on March 28, 2014 by

NC State Parks, Recreation & Tourism Management professor Duarte Morais and two of People First Tourism’s micro-entrepreneurs were guests on WCOM-FM 103.5 (Chapel-Hill-Carboro Public Radio).

In the interview, broadcast on March 26, 2014, the guests discussed with host Lee Anne McClymont the evolution and impact of this innovative program. P1T uses web to cell technology to empower entrepreneurs to shape their future and creates dignified and sustainable livelihoods Glocally.

Listen to the WCOM podcast>> The interview starts at 2:44.

Learn more about People First Tourism P1T Website>> P1T Facebook>>

Professor Seeks Help to Make “Woods from the Land of Lemurs” a Reality

Posted on March 19, 2014 by

When a retired colleague asked Dr. Elisabeth Wheeler, an NC State University professor emeritus in the Department of Forest Biomaterials, to add his collection of 1200 photomicrographs showing the wood anatomy of 400 Madagascar tree species to her InsideWood collection, she knew she had to find a way to get it done.

Dr. Wheeler's at the exhibit featuring ehr work in the visitor center at the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado.

Dr. Wheeler’s work is featured in an exhibit in the visitor center at the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado.

Why? Once added to the InsideWood collection in the NC State Libraries, the micrographs will
– be an invaluable resource for archaeologists and paleontologists who are studying the environmental and cultural history of Madagascar – one of the world’s “biodiversity hotspots.”

– help with enforcing trade regulations that apply to Madagascar woods and hopefully contribute in some way to stopping illegal logging

– provide data useful to understanding how the flora of Madagascar evolved and provide insight into the relationships between environment and wood anatomy.

Her goal: To conserve and make freely available digital versions of a unique decades old collection of photomicrographs of Madagascar woods.

Her Solution: Creative – Use Kickstarter, the world’s largest crowdfunding platform to raise the funds needed to pay a student for the hundreds of hours required to properly digitize the photos and upload them.

Interested In Helping Dr. Wheeler? Visit “Woods From the Land of Lemurs”

NC State teams selected for this week’s ACC Startup Madness

Posted on March 18, 2014 by

Charles Grant Culbertson, Jr., a doctoral candidate in the Department of Forest Biomaterials in the NC State College of Natural Resources is part Thermaflow Solutions, one of two NC State teams representing the university at this Wednesday’s ACC Startup Madness competition.

The competition will be held at NC State’s James B. Hunt Library on Wednesday, March 19, 2014. Runoff competitions will be held throughout the day, narrowing the contestants down to the ‘Elite Eight’ who will compete in the final round beginning at 6:30 p.m. The Hunt Library is located at 1070 Partners Way on NC State’s Centennial Campus in Raleigh.

Representing NC State at the undergraduate level is Pennies 4 Progress, represented by co-founder Ryan O’Donnell, senior in the Poole College of Management.

NC State’s graduate team is ThermaFlow Solutions, a startup that leverages NC State technology to provide the latest in particle and cell analysis. The multidisciplinary team aims to disrupt industries from scientific research to heavy equipment manufacturers.

The startup team members are graduate students in the HiTEC program, part of the interdisciplinary technology entrepreneurship and commercialization concentration in Poole College’s Jenkins MGA program. Team members are:

Charles Grant Culbertson, Jr., doctoral candidate, Forest Biomaterials, December 2016, College of Natural Resources

Tristan Jung Hun Kim, Jenkins MBA candidate, May 2015,
Poole College of Management

Judd Melvin, Master of Microbial Biotechnology candidate, May 2015,
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Mukta Nag, Master of Microbial Biotechnology candidate, May 2014,
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Joseph M. Thomas, MS, Jenkins MBA candidate, May 2014,
Poole College of Management

The NC State teams will be competing against teams from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, the University of Maryland, Syracuse University, Florida State University, Georgia Tech, University of Miami, Wake Forest University, and Clemson University. Each of the universities was allowed to bring one team for each of the two divisions.

The competition schedule on March 19 begins with the first round at 10 a.m. The final ‘Elite Eight’ round begins at 5:30 pm. and winners will be announced at 6:45 p.m.

Students and the general public are invited to stop by throughout the day to view the team presentations. There is no charge for general admission but tickets are required. Register at the Startup Madness website. VIP tickets cost $50 and provide access to invitation-only reception on March 18, 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at HQ Raleigh, and reserved seating at the competition on March 19. Proceeds from VIP tickets help support the entrepreneurs.

Teams from the other schools will be arriving on March 18 and gathering for a reception at HQ Raleigh at 5:30 p.m. A Leadership Roundtable has been scheduled for 4 p.m., providing the teams’ advisors an opportunity to network and share best practices.

Prizes
Following are the prizes that the winning teams will receive.
FIRST PLACE $500 Cash Flight to Silicon Valley Meeting with Kleiner Perkins 1 Free MotoX from Republic Wireless
SECOND PLACE $250 Cash Marketing Consulting from Method Savvy 1 Free MotoX from Republic Wireless
THIRD PLACE $150 Cash Venture Consulting from Bull City Ventures
FOURTH PLACE $100 Cash Venture Consulting from Idea Fund Partners

ACC Startup Madness has partnered with HQ Raleigh and Poole College to present this event. This is the second year that Poole College has been an ACC Startup Madness sponsor.

Why We Should be Worried About the Rapid Growth in Global Households

Posted on February 19, 2014 by

Demographers are not as worried today as they were several decades ago about the prospect of a “population bomb,” a scenario where so many people come to populate the planet that we exhaust its resources. Population growth has slowed in many parts of the world. And in much of North America, Europe, China, and Brazil, fertility rates are so low that local populations are on pace to decline.

These trends, however, don’t cover the whole story of human impact on the environment. The growth in the number of humans on earth may be slowing. But something very different is happening in the growth of human households.

A “household explosion” long underway in developed countries is now rapidly accelerating around the world.

Researchers Mason Bradbury, M. Nils Peterson* , and Jianguo Liu identify some hidden but seismic shifts on this front in a new paper in the journal Population and Environment. For years – in some countries, centuries – the average household has been shrinking in size. As a result, the total number of global households is growing much faster than the growth of the world population itself.

Why does this matter? In the U.S. and Europe, the average household included about five people in the late 1800s. Now it has more like 2.5. That means the same number of people today live in twice as many homes, requiring twice as many resources to build and furnish them, to heat and cool them, to pave roads to their front doors.

Read the complete article>>

An excerpt from The AtlanticCities – February 14, 2014
Article author – Staff Writer Emily Badger

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* Dr. M. Nils Peterson is a professor in the Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology Program in the College of Natural Resources at North Carolina State University.