DOCSLIB.ORG

2017 Annual Report to the Vice President for Research I

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

Annual Report – FY2017 Research Activity for the period July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017 Annual Report - FY 2017 Research Activity for the period of July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017 Table of Contents i. Executive Summary ...............................................................................................................1 Major Accomplishments ..................................................................................................1 Climate Futures (Appendix: i) A-i Highlights .........................................................................................................................1 I. Overview .................................................................................................................................3 A. Overview ....................................................................................................................3 B. Mission .......................................................................................................................3 C. Vision .........................................................................................................................3 D. Status of Strategic Plan (Appendix: ii) ................................................................. A-ii E. Administration and Staffing Structure (Appendix: A) .......................................... A-1 II. Pathway 1: Serving Maine ..................................................................................................4 A. Community Engagement ............................................................................................4 B. Economic Development .............................................................................................4 C. Workforce Development ............................................................................................5 D. Collaborations with UMaine System Campuses ........................................................5 E. Collaborations with Other Outside Institutes/Organizations/Maine ..........................5 F. Collaborations with Other Outside Institutes/Organizations/Outside of Maine .........5 III. Pathway 2: Financial Sustainability .................................................................................6 A. E&G Support; Salary and Operating Support ............................................................6 B. MEIF Support .............................................................................................................6 C. Research Funding; Submitted & Awarded, Trends (Appendix: B) ...................... A-2 D. Brief Overview of Each Major New Award (Appendix: C) ................................. A-3 E. Return on Investment .................................................................................................7 F. Revenue Centers .........................................................................................................7 G. Private Giving/Alumni Cultivation ............................................................................7 H. Initiatives to Increase Fiscal Efficiency .....................................................................7 IV. Pathway 3: Culture of Excellence .....................................................................................8 A. Faculty Achievements (Awards, Recognitions etc.) ..................................................8 B. Research & Scholarship Summary (Publications, Presentations etc. Appendix: D) (Data not available until after 30 June when faculty annual reports are due.) C. Curricular Innovations/Integration with UMaine Education Mission ........................8 D. Program Integration ...................................................................................................8 V. Pathway 4: Student Engagement, Student Success ..........................................................8 A. Undergraduate Student Research, Scholarship or Creative Activities .......................8 B. Undergraduate Student Awards .................................................................................9 C. Graduate Student Research, Scholarship or Creative Activities (Appendix: E) ......................................................................................................... A-5 D. Graduate Student Awards ..........................................................................................9 E. Retention and Graduation Numbers, Initiatives .........................................................9 F. Degrees Granted .........................................................................................................9 G. Highlighted Student Profile (Appendix: F) ........................................................... A-6 VI. Pathway 5: Preserving-Restoring Infrastructure ...........................................................9 A. Renovation/Construction Projects Initiated/Completed ............................................9 B. Renovation/Construction Projects Planned for Coming Year (i.e., vetted with Facilities Management .......................................................................................9 VII. Summary of Anticipated Challenges ..............................................................................9 VII. Summary of New Initiatives ..........................................................................................10 2017 Annual Report to the Vice President for Research i. Executive Summary Major Accomplishments (overarching): Climate change is a major security issue for our country and the world and a defining element for the 21st century. It impacts human and ecosystem health, the economy, causes geopolitical stress, and increases the likelihood of storms, floods, droughts, wildfires and other extreme events. The Climate Change Institute has a legacy of transformational contributions to the understanding of the physical, chemical, biological and social complexity of climate change and the application of these findings at local to international scales. One of the several transformational contributions made by the Climate Change Institute is the understanding that the wind systems that deliver moisture, heat and pollutants and that impact surface ocean currents and sea surface temperature throughout the planet can shift in a matter of a few months to years with dramatic and sustained changes in water availability, storms and health at local to regional scales. The Institute uses this perspective to understand and aid in prediction of future hemispheric scale weather impacts, notably extreme events, with the most recent being abrupt warming of the Arctic with consequences for Northern Hemisphere climate and the strengthening and poleward migration of winds around Antarctica resulting in massive changes in water availability and sea surface temperatures throughout the Southern Hemisphere. To address the likelihood of continued abrupt changes and extreme events in climate the Institute continues to conduct field research, laboratory analyses, and to develop software to aid in the understanding of non-linear climate responses for use in climate adaptation and sustainability planning. In 2014 the Institute launched a framework for developing climate change adaptation and sustainability planning that includes continually enhanced, publicly available software to understand past, present and future changes in climate and vulnerability to climate change through the formulation of plausible scenarios for the prediction of annual to multi-decadal scale climate change. This framework now forms a primary initiative for CCI entitled Climate Futures (http://www.climatefutures.net/) (Appendix i). Within Climate Futures CCI is undertaking plausible scenario climate planning for: West Africa, the Southern Hemisphere continents, Central Asia and Maine. In addition, CCI is in the process of developing an Arctic Futures Institute with the UM Law School and the World Ocean Observatory as an offshoot of the Arctic Council meetings in Portalnd last Fall. This activity is intended to provide a mechanism for a Maine-wide focus on physical, chemical, biological and social science, busness, policy and law in the Arctic. CCI and SPIA continue to share a highly successful NSF IGERT that is the first of its type in the nation – A2C2 (Adaptation to Abrupt Climate Change) - a building block for graduate-faculty involvement in Climate Futures. The Institute continues to maintain its high level of research funding, return on indirect, publications, outreach and its role as the focal point for the UM’s climate change research excellence. Selected examples (youngest to oldest based on report) of additional highlights of major accomplishments follow (selection derived from the CCI News and Events section of our website, for more details concerning each item listed below go to: http://climatechange.umaine.edu/: • Climate change directory created to connect public with experts, information - Spaulding Climate Change Institute - FY2017 Annual Report 1 • John Mahon named 2017 Distinguished Maine Professor • Portland Press cites researchers about March of Science • The ‘war on science’ doesn’t just hurt scientists. It hurts everyone. - Washington Post - J. Gill • Jankowski, Kilroy, St. Amand awarded graduate research fellowships • Elias’ essay on importance of science results in meeting with Congress • Mayewski teams with LumenARRT! for large-scale video project • Emerging climate change research focus of Hal Borns Symposium • UMaine Printing Services recognized by national group for
Recommended publications
  • Coastal-Change and Glaciological Map of the Palmer Land Area, Antarctica: 1947–2009

    Coastal-Change and Glaciological Map of the Palmer Land Area, Antarctica: 1947–2009

    Prepared in cooperation with the British Antarctic Survey, the Scott Polar Research Institute, and the Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie Coastal-Change and Glaciological Map of the Palmer Land Area, Antarctica: 1947–2009 By Jane G. Ferrigno, Alison J. Cook, Amy M. Mathie, Richard S. Williams, Jr., Charles Swithinbank, Kevin M. Foley, Adrian J. Fox, Janet W. Thomson, and Jörn Sievers Pamphlet to accompany Geologic Investigations Series Map I–2600–C 2009 U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey U.S. Department of the Interior KEN SALAZAR, Secretary U.S. Geological Survey Marcia K. McNutt, Director U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2009 For product and ordering information: World Wide Web: http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod Telephone: 1-888-ASK-USGS For more information on the USGS--the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment: World Wide Web: http://www.usgs.gov Telephone: 1-888-ASK-USGS Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Although this report is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted materials contained within this report. Suggested citation: Ferrigno, J.G., Cook, A.J., Mathie, A.M., Williams, R.S., Jr., Swithinbank, Charles, Foley, K.M., Fox, A.J., Thomson, J.W., and Sievers, Jörn, 2009, Coastal-change and glaciological map of the Palmer Land area, Antarctica: 1947–2009: U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Investigations Series Map I–2600–C, 1 map sheet, 28-p.
  • APC(18)1St Meeting ANTARCTIC PLACE-NAMES COMMITTEE

    APC(18)1St Meeting ANTARCTIC PLACE-NAMES COMMITTEE

    APC(18)1st Meeting ANTARCTIC PLACE-NAMES COMMITTEE MINUTES – MEETING Thursday 10th MAY 2018 AT 11:00 AM. DRAFT Present: Mrs Philippa Foster-Back Chair Dr Adrian Fox British Antarctic Survey (Secretary) Ms Elena Field Observer/Minutes Dr Mark Brandon Ad hoc Member Mrs Catherine Cheetham PCGN Dr Alistair Crame British Antarctic Survey Mr Stuart Doubleday Polar Regions Department, FCO Prof. Julian Dowdeswell Scott Polar Research Institute Dame, Prof. Jane Francis British Antarctic Survey Mr Robert Headland Royal Geographic Society Mrs Rachel Morgan Ad hoc Member Ms Camilla Nichol UK Antarctic Heritage Trust Ms Jane Rumble Polar Regions Department, FCO Dr Mike Thomson Expert Member 1. Apologies for absence: Apologies for absence were received from Suman Chowdhury, Andy Willett, and Paul Woodman. The absentees sent comments in advance. 2. Place name decisions [APC(17)24] and matters arising from ACP(17) 2nd meeting SGSSI place names from previous APC meetings. Jane Rumble suggested that the SGSSI government would benefit from a definitive list of place names which need confirmation to aid review of the names by Commissioner Nigel Phillips. Action Points • Secretary to gather information and pass on to Government of South Georgia. The Secretary had sent all this material previously, but since the meeting collated for the Government of South Georgia the papers and maps from the APC meetings going back to November 2016, together with the pro forma papers for Commissioner of SG signoff, and an Excel spreadsheet that summarises all this and relates the recommended name to the proposal number. Prior to November 2016 any SG names that have been through the APC process should be up-to- date in the gazetteer and web-map.
  • Subglacial Topography and Ice Flux Along the English Coast Of

    Subglacial Topography and Ice Flux Along the English Coast Of

    1 Subglacial topography and ice flux along the English Coast of 2 Palmer Land, Antarctic Peninsula 3 4 Kate Winter1, Emily A. Hill1, G. Hilmar Gudmundsson1, John Woodward1 5 1Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria 6 University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK 7 Correspondence to: Kate Winter ([email protected]) 8 9 Abstract. Recent satellite data have revealed widespread grounding line retreat, glacier thinning, and associated 10 mass loss along the Bellingshausen Sea sector, leading to increased concern for the stability of this region of 11 Antarctica. While satellites have greatly improved our understanding of surface conditions, a lack of radio-echo 12 sounding (RES) data in this region has restricted our analysis of subglacial topography, ice thickness and ice flux. 13 In this paper we analyse 3,000 km of 150 MHz airborne RES data collected using the PASIN2 radar system (flown 14 at 3 – 5 km line spacing) to investigate the subglacial controls on ice flow near to the grounding lines of Ers, 15 Envisat, Cryosat, Grace, Sentinel, Lidke and Landsat ice streams as well as Hall and Nikitin glaciers. We find that 16 each outlet is topographically controlled, and when ice thickness is combined with surface velocity data from 17 MEaSUREs (Mouiginot et al., 2019), these outlets are found to discharge over 39.25 ± 0.79 Gt a-1 of ice to floating 18 ice shelves and the Southern Ocean. Our RES measurements reveal that outlet flows are grounded more than 300 19 m below sea level, and that there is limited topographic support for inland grounding line re-stabilisation in a 20 future retreating scenario, with several ice stream beds dipping inland at ~5 degrees per km.