DUKENVIRONMENT MAGAZINE NICHOLAS SCHOOL OF THE ENVIRONMENT FALL 2015

WHY ARE WE MORE DIVIDED THAN EVER ON CLIMATE CHANGE?

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POLITICAL SCIENTIST MEGAN MULLIN EXPLORES THE CAUSES contents

DUKENVIRONMENT fall 2015 COVER STORY WHY ARE WE MORE DIVIDED THAN EVER ON CLIMATE CHANGE? NEWS//SCHOOL POLITICAL SCIENTIST MEGAN MULLIN EXPLORES THE CAUSES

09 ‘PLANKZOOKA’ LARVAL SAMPLER MAY REVOLUTIONIZE DEEP-OCEAN RESEARCH

11 CENTURIES-OLD SHIPWRECK DISCOVERED OFF NORTH CAROLINA

12 NOWACEK TESTIFIES BEFORE CONGRESS ON IMPACTS OF SEISMIC ACTIVITY ON MARINE LIFE

12 MARINE LAB TAKES TO THE AIR WITH DRONES

14 CHEMICALS IN HOUSE DUST MAY TRIGGER RECEPTOR LINKED TO OBESITY

14 SHIFTS IN ELECTRICITY GENERATION SPUR NET JOB GROWTH, BUT COAL JOBS DECLINE

16 IT’S MAGIC! NEW CONSORTIUM TO FOCUS ON CREATING FOOD AND FUEL FROM ALGAE

DEAN’S UPDATE

17 DIG DEEPER TO FIND A THOUSAND SEEDS OF CHANGE FEATURE 4 18 18 OUR DEEPEST ROOTS Nicholas School’s 25 Years of Success Owes Much to the Three Programs from Which it Formed

NEWS//STUDENTS

22 THE COMMUNICATION DILEMMA PhD Student Patrick Brown Discovers Just How Quickly Climate Change Results Can be Misconstrued

24 FOR THE LOVE OF BIRDS Dedicated PhD Students Turn Their Desire to Reduce Bird Deaths Caused by Building-Window Collisions Into a Research Project

28 SPECIAL AWARDS NEWS//ALUMNI 12 22

29 ON THE CASE Lauren Gloekler MEM’13 is Working to Solve the Puzzle of Chemical Exposure

33 ALUMS OF DUKE ENVIRONMENT GIVING

34 DUKE CELEBRATES 25 YEARS OF INTERDISCIPLINARY ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION WITH SPECIAL EVENTS, ANNIVERSARY CAMPAIGN

CALENDAR 35

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DUKENVIRONMENT 2 Administration Alan R. Townsend, Dean Brian McGlynn, Chair, Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences Jeff Vincent, Chair, Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy Cindy Lee Van Dover, Chair, Division of Marine Science and Conservation, and Director, Duke University Marine Laboratory Charlotte Nuñez-Wolff, Senior Associate Dean, Finance and Administration Dean L. Urban, Senior Associate Dean, Academic Initiatives Erika S. Weinthal, Associate Dean, International Programs Scottee Cantrell, Associate Dean, Marketing, Communications and Strategic Engagement Kevin McCarthy, Associate Dean, External Affairs Karen Kirchof, Assistant Dean, Career Services Sherri Nevius, Assistant Dean, Executive and Distance Learning Programs Cynthia Peters, Assistant Dean, Academic and Enrollment Services Robert Pitts, Assistant Dean, Strategic Reporting and Analytics John Robinson, Assistant Dean, Information Technology

Board of Visitors J. Blake Sullivan MF’89, Sullivan Forestry Consultants Inc., Americus, GA (Chair) Virginia Reynolds Parker T’80, Parker Global Strategies LLC, Stamford, CT (Vice Chair) Benjamin S. Abram E’07, Wyland Capital, Menlo Park, CA Marcia Angle MD’81, Durham, NC Elizabeth (Fielding) Arnold T’01, B’10, Durham, NC H. Ross Arnold III T’67, Quest Capital Corp., Atlanta, GA David B. Brewster MEM’00, EnerNOC Inc., Boston, MA R. Jeffrey Chandler T’84, Rose Grove Capital, New York, NY Steven Elkes, Makeover Solutions, Briarcliff Manor, NY Annie Falk, The Falk Foundation, West Palm Beach, FL Michael Falk, Comvest Partners, West Palm Beach, FL Philip N. Froelich Jr. T’68, Froelich Education Services, Tallahassee, FL Abigail Field Gerry T’02, Pound Ridge, NY Patricia Hatler T’76, Nationwide Insurance, Columbus, OH J Murray Hill T’79, B’80, Boulder, CO DUKENVIRONMENT Scott Jones MF’81, Forest Capital Partners, Boston, MA MAGAZINE Peter Layton, Blackthorne Capital Management, Whitewater, WI Anne Brownson Mize WC’68, Anne Mize & Associates, Seattle, WA is published twice a year by the Nicholas School of the Environment J. Curtis Moffatt T’73, Kinder Morgan Inc., Houston, TX Michael R. Parker, Parker Global Strategies LLC, Stamford, CT 18 EDITOR Rebecca Patton T’77, Wildlife Conservation Network, Palo Alto, CA Scottee Cantrell Edward M. Prince Jr. L’93, G’93, Neustar, Inc., Sterling, VA ART DIRECTOR Donald Santa T’80, Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, Washington, DC Amy Chapman Braun Bradley Schwartz E’79, Blue Canopy, Reston, VA Truman Semans, Jr. T’90, B’01, GreenOrder Inc., New York, NY SENIOR WRITER Barbara C. Smit T’79, Gladwyne, PA Tim Lucas Neil Smit Jr. T’80, Comcast Cable Communications, Philadelphia, PA Bradford Stanback T’81, Canton, NC CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Fred J. Stanback Jr. T’50, Salisbury, NC Norman L. Christensen, Laura Ertel, Lisa M. Dellwo, Tawnee Milko MEM’12 Shelli Stanback, Canton, NC and Kati Moore MEM’16 Allison Taylor T’84, Siemens Corp., Washington, DC WEB EDITORS Philip Turbin T’92, Bank of America, ML, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., New York, NY Stephanie Guay and Brian Johnson Frederick Vosburgh T’72, PhD’78, Physical Devices LLC, Raleigh, NC Charles T. Wegner IV T’79, The Jel Sert Co., West Chicago, IL Tim Profeta MEM/L’97, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Durham, NC (Ex-Officio) need to get in touch with dukenvironment? William K. Reilly, Aqua International Partners, L.P., San Francisco, CA (Ex-Officio) Visit us online at nicholas.duke.edu/dukenvironment Alumni Council subscribe (free) E-mail [email protected] Courtney Lorenz MEM’06, Skanska USA, San Francisco, CA (President) Shannon Lyons Green MEM’04, Lenfest Ocean Program, Pew Charitable Funds, Washington, DC CHANGE OF ADDRESS (President-Elect) E-mail [email protected] or call 919.613.8111 Kirsten Cappel MEM’04, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC (Past President) 22 EDITORIAL COMMENTS Patrick Bean MEM’08, King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, Saudi Arabia E-mail Scottee Cantrell at [email protected] Kristen Bremer DEL-MEM’13, US EPA, Durham, NC Nick DiLuzio MF’10, Newfields, Atlanta, GA © Copyright 2015 Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University Aleksandra Dobkowski-Joy MEM’98, Framework LLC, Stamford, CT U @DukeEnvironment John Gust MEM’04, Fannie Mae, Washington, DC Daniel Kolomeets-Darovsky MEM’10, The Selestos Group Inc., Durham, NC G @DukeEnvironment Ye Lin MEM’12, Aramark, Berkeley, CA Eric McDuffie DEL-MEM’13, Orange County Schools, Hillsborough, NC Dana Mooney MEM’04, Hitachi Consulting, Rockville, MD ON THE COVER Margaret Peloso MEM’06, Vinson & Elkins LLC, Washington, DC Photos by Istock photo. Syril Pettit MEM’97, Health and Environmental Science Institute (HESI), Washington, DC Ben Prater MEM’04, Wild South, Asheville, NC Paul Quinlan MEM/MPP’06, ScottMadden, Raleigh, NC Emily Duncan Rodgers MEM’06, Anadarko Petroleum Corp., The Woodlands, TX Stewart Tate MEM’96, The Shaw Tate Group, Charlotte, NC Esi Waters MEM’13, Norfolk Southern Corp., Norfolk, VA Kevin Wheeler MEM’99, Consortium of Ocean Leadership, Washington, DC Amy Havens MEM’16, Student Representative

Printed on Rolland Enviro™Satin and Enviro™Print, manufactured using Biogas (a gas produced from the decomposition of landfill waste), certified Processed Chlorine Free, EcoLogo certified and created from 100% post-consumer recovered fiber. © Copyright 2015 Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. Produced by the Nicholas School’s Office of Marketing & Communications. Nicholas School of the Environment Duke University • Box 90328 • Durham, North Carolina • 27708-0328, USA Tel 919.613.8004 • Fax 919.613.8719 • nicholas.duke.edu cover

DUKENVIRONMENT 4 Photo by Les Todd Les by Photo Photo by Les Todd EXPLORES THE CAUSES ON POLITICAL SCIENTIST DIVIDED WHY ARE WE MORE WE ARE WHY

MEGAN MULLIN CLIMATE CHANGE BY TIM LUCAS TIM BY THAN EVER

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PUNDITS have reminded us that “all politics is local” since American newspaper columnist Byron Price rst used the phrase in 1932 to explain how hometown issues and economics shape national elections. Old as the adage may be, it still holds true—especially, Megan Mullin’s research suggests, when it comes to the politics of climate Q change. “The evidence for the effect of local weather on public opinion regarding climate change is overwhelming,” says Mullin, associate professor of environmental politics at the Nicholas School. Numerous studies, by Mullin and other social scientists, have Z shown that many people conceptualize climate change, and form Z political attitudes about what we as a society should be doing in response to it, based more on personal experience than on scienti c evidence. Their experiences with, or perceptions of, recent unusual changes in local weather often play a central role. “As part of our psychological processes, we’re wired to reconstruct our experiences—real or perceived—into coherent stories that make sense to us,” Mullin says. “It’s human nature.” o But her research also suggests there’s more to it than that. For the past ve years, she’s been working to shed light on a tangle of underlying factors, both personal and political, that can shape beliefs about climate change, and to quantify what type of person is Z likely to be inuenced by these factors, how long the impacts can last, and to what extent they affect our decisions at the ballot box. A As the 2016 U.S. election cycle swings into full gear, Dukenvironment magazine sat down with Mullin for a Q&A to learn more about how personal experience affects our political attitudes on climate issues, her research on the phenomenon, and how she thinks it Z might affect who our next national leaders will be.

WHAT ROLE DO YOU THINK CLIMATE Q WHAT CAN BE DONE TO CHANGE THIS? CHANGE, OR ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN Q GENERAL, MIGHT PLAY IN THE UPCOMING “That’s a question a lot of people are trying PRESIDENTIAL AND CONGRESSIONAL Z to get a handle on. One piece of the puzzle Z ELECTIONS? A is to understand how the public interprets environmental problems. “Evidence suggests the environment is not Z In theory, democratic political processes are driving U.S. voters to the polls. supposed to be responsive to voters’ concerns, A Now that our politics have become more so if the severity of a problem changes, so too polarized, we see more partisan division should the response. But in a nation as large and Z on environmental issues than ever before— diverse as the United States, people experience especially with respect to climate change. widely different environmental conditions. It Because environmental issues are now part of a can be hard for political organizations to gauge bundle of positions and platforms that separates public response to problems that are difficult to the parties, it’s hard to find evidence that the observe and can vary dramatically from place to environment on its own drives many people’s place and over time. vote choices. People don’t vote with climate An example of my research in this area is on change in mind, at least not in general elections; the ways that people’s perceptions about climate they vote with a bundle of issues in mind. That’s change are shaped by personal experience with one reason it can be hard to make politicians recent local weather. responsive to environmental concerns.” A study I authored with Patrick Egan of New York University in 2012 in the Journal of

DUKENVIRONMENT 6 Politics found that these experiences can affect WERE SOME PEOPLE MORE LIKELY THAN attitudes about climate change in a significant OTHERS TO BE INFLUENCED BY RECENT and sizable fashion. For each 3.1 degrees Q EXPERIENCE WITH HOTTER THAN NORMAL Fahrenheit that local temperatures rose above WEATHER? normal in the week prior to a survey, we found Z that Americans became one percentage point “We saw the strongest effect among people with more likely to agree there is ‘solid evidence’ that A the lowest levels of education, who may be least Earth is getting warmer.” likely to have formed opinions about climate Z change ahead of time. We also saw strong HOW LONG DO THESE EFFECTS LAST? influence among political leaners—people who Q lean toward one party or the other but tend to “They’re fairly short-lived, typically disappearing be less informed about politics and have fewer Z after about a week. Periods of unusual weather strongly held issue positions. A that last a longer time can have a larger effect To some degree, however, we all are influenced on attitudes, but even these effects eventually by recent personal experience because when dissipate. Our study shows that even a heat we respond to surveys, we typically tap into Z wave leaves no impact on climate change belief information or experiences that are freshest in after about two weeks. It’s a powerful influence, our minds and most readily accessible. but not a lasting one.” Climate change is hard to understand. Local weather is easy to understand and seems WHAT ROLE DOES EXPOSURE TO POLITICAL relevant to the topic. So it’s understandable RHETORIC ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE SHAPE that our experience with local weather might Q THESE PERCEPTIONS? influence our perceptions about climate and how we all respond to survey questions.” Z “Exposure to policymakers’ polarized debate on climate can be a huge factor in shaping people’s Q AS A POLITICAL SCIENTIST, WHAT DO YOU A opinions, especially among people with strong MAKE OF THAT? political leanings or party affiliations. Z Although our analysis showed that Z “Considering that one of the chief effects of temperature’s effect on opinion was as large A climate change in the United States is to raise or larger than the impacts of race, education, the prevalence of unusually hot days, drawing religion, or gender, we nonetheless found that conclusions about the existence of a warming party ID and political ideology still were the Z climate from a recent string of usually hot local primary forces shaping people’s perceptions of weather isn’t entirely irrational. climate change. On the other hand, it does give you pause for One of the challenges in designing our study thought. Is this really how we are forming our was disentangling politics from the effect of opinions on difficult public policy issues such as personal experience. Because climate change climate change? is such a polarized issue in American politics, It’s not surprising that many people form people’s self-reported experiences of the assessments of complex, society-wide issues like weather can be misleading. We perceive that climate change based on personal experience. weather is hotter, or cooler, if that’s the pattern If you get mugged, you’re more likely to think we expect. This tendency may be especially that crime is getting worse; if you lose your job, strong when people are responding to surveys you’re more likely to believe unemployment that contain political content. is rising. Scientists call this process attribute In our 2012 study, to see how, or if, substitution. The problem is, it can lead you perceptions about climate are shaped by to discount other sources of information, such personal experience outside the lens of politics, as scientific research, that are much more we collected actual local weather data and relevant.” mapped temperature trends for the zip codes of respondents to five large national opinion surveys. Our findings showed that people’s responses to survey questions about belief in climate change correlated strongly to their geocoded experiences with recent local weather, independent of external political influences.” cover IT ALSO BEGS THE QUESTION THAT IF “Yes, but perhaps not as much as some people PEOPLE’S ATTITUDES ARE INFLUENCED BY might have hoped. Those who hoped the long- Q LOCAL WEATHER, AND LOCAL WEATHER IS A running debate we’ve had on climate change GETTING HOTTER ACROSS MUCH OF THE would close the gap between the scientific Z UNITED STATES, WHY AREN’T WE SEEING A Z consensus and the public’s divided beliefs are CHANGE IN OPINIONS? probably disappointed. The public has become more aware about “That’s the real question. Why is public opinion climate change, but levels of belief and concern not reflecting the concern we should be giving to have changed little over the last 20 years. The A the issue given the increasing seriousness and main change in opinion has been the emergence scope of the problem? of a partisan gap as those who identify as Z One answer is that the effects we found were Republican have become less worried about short-lived. Although temperatures in the United climate change, less likely to believe that it States have been rising, especially in winter so is attributable to human activities, and more far, a cold snap can counteract warm weather’s suspicious of mainstream news coverage about effects on opinion. But my colleague Patrick the issue. Politicians have had more success Egan and I suspect that long-term temperature than scientists in shaping the debate.” trends are exerting their own influence on opinion, and we currently have research under WHAT’S THE TAKEAWAY MESSAGE FROM way to investigate that possibility.” Q ALL THIS?

IN A COMMENTARY YOU PUBLISHED IN THE “As scientists and science communicators, JOURNAL NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE IN 2014, Z we need to engage with the public using Q YOU NOTED THAT SINCE 1988, WHEN CLIMATE A language and values that Americans recognize. SCIENTIST JAMES HANSEN PRESENTED THE Personal experience resonates more strongly Z FIRST TESTIMONY ON HUMAN ACTIVITY AND Z than scientific evidence. Rather than discount PLANETARY WARMING TO THE U.S. SENATE, people’s experiences, we need to communicate THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HAS BEEN EXPOSED science in a way that helps people interpret TO MORE THAN A QUARTER-CENTURY OF those experiences as being part of a broader SUSTAINED ATTENTION TO THIS ISSUE. THERE phenomenon. Politicians are skilled at this form HAVE BEEN HUNDREDS OF CONGRESSIONAL of communication—we scientists have a lot to HEARINGS ON IT, THOUSANDS OF PEER- learn from them.” REVIEWED STUDIES, AND TENS OF THOUSANDS OF MEDIA REPORTS. DOES YOUR Tim Lucas is senior writer for Dukenvironment magazine and is RESEARCH SUGGEST THAT ANY OF THIS HAS the Nicholas School’s director of marketing communications. MADE A DIFFERENCE?

LEARN MEGAN MULLIN joined the Nicholas School faculty in 2014, and teaches the courses, “Environment 577: Environmental Politics,” and “Environment 684: Politics of the Urbanized Environment.” In addition to her research on political and social processes related to climate change, she is widely cited for her research on MORE decentralized governance and water management. She is the author of Governing the Tap: Special District Governance and the New Local Politics of Water (MIT Press), which Z won the 2009 Lynton Keith Caldwell Award for the best book in environmental politics and policy. You can view her full faculty bio at nicholas.duke.edu/people/faculty/mullin, Z or watch a video about how politics shape the environment by going to youtube.com and typing Megan Mullin — I am Duke Environment in the search box.

DUKENVIRONMENT 8 news//SCHOOL

‘PLANKZOOKA’ LARVAL SAMPLER MAY REVOLUTIONIZE DEEP-OCEAN RESEARCH

cientists from Duke, The the deep ocean using a new sampling this summer aboard the R/V Atlantis off University of Oregon and Woods device mounted on a robotic submarine. the U.S. East Coast. Hole Oceanographic Institution They deployed the new sampler— Unlike sampling devices used in the (WHOI) have successfully nicknamed PlankZooka for its uncanny past, which often damaged the delicate Sconducted the first high-volume collection resemblance to two bazooka rocket planktonic specimens they collected, the of plankton, including animal larvae, from launchers—during a research expedition new SentrY Precision Robotic Impeller news//SCHOOL

Driven (SyPRID) sampler uses spinning Previous net-based sampling tools blades inside tubes to gently pump large limited researchers’ ability to study volumes of water, and the microscopic deep-sea larval distributions because organisms it contains, through a net the samplers were not able to get closer system housed within two carbon fiber than 50 meters to the sea bottom and composite tubes. could only move over long distances “Part of the beauty of its design is towed at an angle from the surface, notes that planktonic organisms are filtered Carl Kaiser, AUV program manager at gently so they remain intact for scientific the WHOI National Deep Submergence analysis,” says Cindy Van Dover, director Facility, which owns and operates Sentry. of the Duke University Marine Laboratory. “By contrast, Sentry is capable of On its maiden voyage, the SyPRID delivering the new sampling device to sampler was carried by the autonomous within two to three meters of the bottom, underwater vehicle (AUV) Sentry to a or any other desired depth, and within 1 depth of more than 2,150 meters—where five meters of any desired point or pressures exceed a bone-crushing 3,150 pattern of points in more than 95 percent psi—and drove a precise sampling pattern of the world’s oceans,” Kaiser says. for more than eight hours just above a “This could revolutionize how we natural methane seep. sample not only larvae but all plankton Thirty-nine deep-sea larvae, in the deep ocean,” says Van Dover. representing 16 different types of animals, “We can now pick and choose where we were collected during the survey. Genetic sample, rather than reaching into a deep and morphological analyses is to be bucket and grabbing everything, from conducted on the preserved specimens. everywhere, on the way back up.” “The SyPRID sampler can allow us to Van Dover, Kaiser and Young jointly gain a much clearer picture of where the developed the concept for an AUV- larvae go and where they concentrate deployed precision sampler, which was in the deep ocean,” says Craig Young, then designed and built by engineers at 4 director of the Oregon Institute of Marine WHOI led by Kaiser and Andrew Billings. Biology (OIMB). “The uniqueness of this The research expedition, which seeks system is its ability to sample precise to understand the genetic, oceanographic areas, at depth, for long periods of time and larval connections among seep while filtering enough volume to find the ecosystems in the Atlantic, also includes relatively rare organisms in the water.” scientists from North Carolina State Natural methane seeps play an University. important but poorly understood role in Funding for the expedition and for the IMAGES the ocean ecosystem. The organisms that development of Sentry and the SyPRID 1 An octant or sextant and pottery jug from the wreck site give some sense of the age depend on methane from the seeps play Sampler comes from three National of the wreck found by scientists off the a substantial role not only in the marine Science Foundation grants. North Carolina coast. Photo by WHOI; food web but also in altering the quantity The methane seep the SyPRID sampler 2 Brick pile from the newly discovered of methane released to the ocean surface explored was identified by Van Dover on shipwreck, with a drift of Sargassum weed from the surface ; and, potentially, in the overall chemistry a previous expedition. Laurel Hiebert of Photo by WHOI 3 The research vessel R/V Atlantis with of the ocean. OIMB led the on-board team responsible the submersible Alvin hanging off its stern. Scientists lack a clear understanding for sorting and preserving the collected Photo by Luis Lamar, WHOI; of how sedentary or slow-moving animals larvae. Svetlana Maslakova co-leads the 4 Launch of autonomous underwater move between the widely separated OIMB team with Young. vehicle Sentry from the research vessel R/V Atlantis. seeps, how new seeps are populated, and Photo by Cindy Van Dover, Duke University; how resilient these ecosystems may be 5 One of nine glass bottles observed in the face of ocean change. Studying the at the site of the shipwreck. Photo by WHOI microscopic planktonic larval stages of these animals may shed light on many of these processes.

DUKENVIRONMENT 10 3 2

Centuries-Old Shipwreck DISCOVERED OFF NORTH CAROLINA

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canning sonar from a scientific expedition has revealed major advances in our ability to access and explore the ocean, the the remains of a previously unknown shipwreck more than deep sea holds its secrets close,” says expedition leader Cindy a mile deep off the North Carolina coast. Artifacts on the Van Dover, director of the Duke University Marine Laboratory. wreck indicate it might date to the American Revolution. “This discovery underscores that new technologies we’re SMarine scientists from Duke, North Carolina State University developing to explore the deep-sea floor yield not only vital and the University of Oregon discovered the wreck this information about the oceans, but also about our history,” says summer during a research expedition aboard the Woods Hole David Eggleston, director of the Center for Marine Sciences Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) research ship R/V Atlantis. and Technology (CMAST) at NC State and one of the principal They spotted the wreck while using WHOI’s robotic autonomous investigators of the science project. underwater vehicle (AUV) Sentry and the manned submersible After discovering the shipwreck, Van Dover and Eggleston Alvin. The team had been searching for a mooring that was alerted NOAA’s Marine Heritage Program of their find. The NOAA deployed on a previous research trip in the area in 2012. program will now attempt to date and identify the lost ship. Among the artifacts discovered amid the shipwreck’s broken The expedition has been focused on exploring the ecology of remains were an iron chain, a pile of wooden ship timbers, red deep-sea methane seeps along the East Coast. Van Dover is a bricks (possibly from the ship cook’s hearth), glass bottles, an specialist in the ecology of deep-sea ecosystems that are powered unglazed pottery jug, a metal compass, and another navigational by chemistry rather than sunlight, and Eggleston studies the instrument that might be an octant or sextant. ecology of organisms that live on the seafloor. The wreck appears to date back to the late 18th or early 19th “Our accidental find illustrates the rewards—and the challenge century, a time when a young United States was expanding its and uncertainty—of working in the deep ocean,” Van Dover says. trade with the rest of the world by sea. “We discovered a shipwreck but, ironically, the lost mooring was “This is an exciting find, and a vivid reminder that even with never found.” news//SCHOOL told the committee. Recent technological advances and market forces have led NOWACEK TESTIFIES BEFORE CONGRESS ON industry to extend the geographic scope of IMPACTS OF SEISMIC ACTIVITY its exploration into once remote areas of the oceans, especially at higher latitudes ON MARINE LIFE and into deeper waters. In some cases, the loud blasts ouglas Nowacek, Repass- generated by the air guns used to conduct Rodgers University Associate the seismic surveys can be detected Professor of Conservation underwater more than 2,500 miles away. Technology, testified before Numerous studies have shown that Da U.S. House of Representatives these sound bursts—which can reach subcommittee this summer about the 260 decibels and may continue, almost impacts of seismic activity on whales and nonstop, for weeks or months on end—can other ocean life. disrupt or harm marine life. Whales, for His testimony included policy-relevant instance, rely on underwater sound for recommendations for how to reduce the communication and navigation and to potential harm. find food and avoid predators. Exposure Nowacek, an expert on marine to repeated loud blasts from a seismic ecology and bioacoustics, presented his survey can mask the sounds they rely on testimony to the House Natural Resources and lead to stress, disorientation, changes Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and in foraging and nursing behaviors, and, in Mineral Resources. extreme cases, direct physical damage. Seismic surveys associated with At 260 decibels, the noise generated by underwater oil and gas exploration are a seismic air guns roughly approximates the major contributor to ocean noise, Nowacek noise at “the epicenter of a grenade blast ISTOCK Photo

MARINE LAB TAKES TO THE AIR WITH DRONES uke University has opened new facility will offer courses, starting a new research and training in summer 2016, to train students and facility for the use of working professionals on how to use “Given the breadth of marine science unmanned aircraft systems— unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in expertise concentrated at university Dcommonly referred to as drones—in coastal research and conservation. and government labs in eastern North marine science and conservation. It also is developing UAS-centered Carolina, we believe there is significant The Marine Conservation Ecology marine science educational outreach opportunity for us to work together and Unmanned Systems Facility is located at programs for local high school students. establish our region as a global leader the Duke University Marine Laboratory in “Unmanned aircraft systems have the in the development and use of this new Beaufort, N.C. ability to collect large volumes of data technology for research,” Johnston says. It flew its first operational missions from even the most remote or extreme Drones can be used for a wide array earlier this month to support University locations. They are transforming how of difficult or dangerous research of North Carolina researchers who were we study and learn about the marine and conservation jobs, he says. These mapping nesting beaches and at-sea environment,” says David Johnston, include identifying and analyzing aggregations of endangered olive ridley executive director of the new facility and marine debris in remote locations; sea turtles in Costa Rica. assistant professor of the practice of monitoring protected and endangered In addition to flying research missions marine conservation ecology at Duke’s species and their habitats; assessing for private and public partners, the Nicholas School. fisheries stocks; monitoring the effects

DUKENVIRONMENT 12 flight planning,mission execution, Everette Newton. manager andretired U.S. AirForce Col. in marineenvironments,” says program aircraft systems safely andeffectively certification, andoperate unmanned needed to achieve state andFAA with thebasic skillsandknowledge will provide students andprofessionals marine crises. entanglements orstrandings andother emergency responses to marineanimal and sea-level rise; andsupporting of climate change, coastal erosion decades-old guidelines.” standards, hesays, are based “on levels, Nowacek says. These current use to set acceptable sound-exposure impacts regulatory agencies currently far exceeds theprojected short-term exposure to these sound blasts often and to disrupt essential behavior patterns.” noise levels that are likely to cause impacts the Atlantic Ocean would beexposed to ocean animalslocated inthatwidearea of hours perday. Ifthese permits are granted, 10 or12seconds, andwould operate 24 discharge its airguns approximately every the subcommittee. “Each survey would Delaware border to central Florida,” hetold of theeast coast from theNew Jersey/ of seismic airguns alongabroad range allow thecontinuous overlapping firing of Ocean Energy Management would under consideration by theU.S. Bureau human eardrum,” Nowacek notes. and would easily cause therupture of the Skills covered in the course will include “The facility’s new education program To address thisproblem, Nowacek The cumulative impact of chronic “The seismic testing permits currently

Photo by Scott Taylor convened by theInternational Unionfor on apanel of independent scientists, years andserved for more than10years and other ocean life for more than20 underwater noise onmarinemammals uploadedfiles/nowacektestimony.pdf. testimony atnaturalresources.house.gov/ their intended seismic activity. justify thesize andgeographic reach of as new guidelines requiring companies to species andimportant habitats, aswell seasonal closures to protect vulnerable monitoring beexpanded. the lengthandgeographic scope of the seismic surveys can take place, andthat marine populationsberequired before new comprehensive monitoring of regional may occur. harm—short-term andcumulative— scientifically based threshold atwhich realistic” metric for establishing a proposed theadoption of anew “more using unmanned aircraft systems for of safety and operational training Marine Labfollowing eight months established thenew facility attheDuke Carteret HighSchool, Newton says. project for graduating seniors atEast based Advanced Placement science student UAS aUAS- clubandsupport Public School System willkickstart a in conjunction withtheCarteret County together.” of these systems andhow they work important to understand thecomponents lead engineerof thenew facility. “It’s efficient missions,” says JulianDale, the enhance students’ ability to flysafe and “Building theirown systems willgreatly their own unmannedaircraft systems. be given thechance to buildandfly restrictions andrules. Students may overview of federal andstate airspace data management andanalysis, andan Nowacek hasstudied theeffects of You can read Nowacek’s fullwritten He also recommended theuse of He recommended thatmore Johnston, Newton andDale An outreach project beingdeveloped

Photo by Chris Kleponis needed-manage-ocean-noise. edu/news/new-international-standards- recent paper onthetopic atnicholas.duke. reduce it. noise, andpossible mitigationstrategies to seismic surveys andother anthropogenic peer-reviewed papers ontheimpacts of is theauthorof nearly adozen widelycited development onWestern Gray Whales. He the impacts of offshore oilandgas the Conservation of Nature, to minimize go to superpod.ml.duke.edu/uas/. densityturtle atCape Lookout.” estuarine reserves andestimating sea local partners, includingmappinglocal exciting projects we’re working onwith help facilitate plansfor anumberof aircraft system flights andshould us to conduct commercial unmanned weeks,” Johnson says. “This willallow Section 333 exemption incoming anticipate beingawarded ourFAA capacity earlier thismonth and and platforms. access to thelatest UAS technologies and mapping,to provide thefacility with builds commercial drones for research senseFly, aSwiss firmthatdesigns and and Hawaii. They have partnered with Carolina,North Florida,Nova Scotia coastal and marineresearch ineastern You can learn more abouthismost To learn more aboutthenew facility, “We achieved initial operational news//SCHOOL ome chemicals commonly found in house dust may trigger a key receptor linked to human obesity, according to a Duke-led study. SThe study, though preliminary in CHEMICALS IN nature, adds to a growing body of evidence that a wide range of chemical mixtures used as flame retardants and HOUSE DUST added to lubricants, hydraulic fluids and MAY TRIGGER plastics can bind to the PPARgamma receptor and, under the right conditions, RECEPTOR LINKED activate it. This activation during early TO OBESITY development “may be a key factor in obesity,” says Heather Stapleton of Duke’s Nicholas School, who led the study. Stapleton is the Dan and Bunny Gabel Associate Professor of Environmental Ethics and Sustainable Environmental Management. PPARgamma—short for peroxisome proliferator-activated nuclear receptor Z gamma—regulates fat metabolism, cell proliferation and cell death. Stapleton and her team published their new findings in July in the peer- reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology. ISTOCK Photo ISTOCK

SHIFTS IN ELECTRICITY GENERATION SPUR NET JOB GROWTH, n the four years following the 2008 recession, the coal industry lost more than 49,000 jobs, while the BUT COAL JOBS DECLINE natural gas, solar and wind industries Itogether created nearly four times that amount, according to a new study. A county-by-county geographical analysis of the losses and gains shows that few new jobs were added in regions hardest hit by coal’s decline, particularly counties in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. “Our study shows it has not been a one-for-one replacement. The counties that were very reliant on the coal industry are now in the most difficult position,” says Lincoln Pratson, who is the Truman and Nellie Semans/Alex Brown & Sons Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences.

ISTOCK Photo

DUKENVIRONMENT 14 Previous studies by Stapleton’s agonists—meaning they could bind to and “We are continuing to build on this team have shown that many activate the receptor. “But what was research to determine what type of chemicals, including the widely used very interesting,” says Stapleton, “was health effects may be caused by this organophosphates and polybrominated the level of activation observed following level of activation in children,” says diphenyl ether (PDBE) metabolites, can exposure to an environmentally relevant Stapleton. bind to PPARgamma. But the studies mixture of these contaminants in house Stapleton and Fang authored the new also showed that binding to the receptor dust samples.” study with Thomas F. Webster, professor did not always activate it. The researchers found signs of of environmental health at the Boston To better understand whether significant PPARgamma activation in University School of Public Health. environmental exposures can trigger the more than half of the 25 dust samples Funding came from the National receptor’s “on switch,” Stapleton and her collected from homes, offices and gyms, Institute of Environmental Health colleagues conducted their new study at a level of exposure that would be Sciences and from Boston University using a reporter gene assay to monitor similar to a child’s daily dose. School of Public Health pilot funding. PPARgamma activation in house dust Further research is now under way to samples. They chose to study chemicals test the laboratory findings in conditions in dust samples because indoor dust that simulate the type of chronic, low- is an important pathway through level exposure to these chemicals that which humans—especially infants and occurs in the real world. young children—become exposed to environmental contaminants. Young children ingest about 50 milligrams of house dust a day, according to U.S. EPA estimates. Analysis by Stapleton’s co-author, PhD student Mingliang Fang, showed that 28 of 30 semi-volatile compounds commonly found in indoor dust were “weak or moderate” PPARgamma

To estimate changes in electricity Overall, regions that had the largest incentive-free, and there is almost no generation employment, Pratson and energy job increases were the Northeast, development of green energy there research analyst Drew Haerer examined Southwest, Midwest and West. Regions compared to other regions.” data relating to both direct and indirect that experienced the greatest job losses Haerer said one way for states that job growth and loss for each industry. overall were Appalachia, the Uinta Basin depend heavily on the coal industry to This included operations and maintenance of Utah and Colorado, and parts of the cope with changing energy trends may jobs at electric power plants, as Powder River Basin in Montana and be to transition to clean coal technology, well as operations and maintenance Wyoming. which reduces coal plants’ negative jobs in resource extraction and fuel The lack of geographic overlap of job environmental impacts. transportation. loss and job creation is the result of many Pratson and Haerer published their Data for solar and wind generator factors, Pratson says. “The areas where study in the peer-reviewed journal Energy operations and maintenance jobs were a lot of coal is mined in Appalachia, for Policy earlier this year. They conducted provided by the industries themselves. example, are very rugged and heavily the study with no external sources of Job changes in the coal and natural gas forested—not easy places to set up solar funding. industries were derived using a model panels or wind farms.” that analyzed year-to-year economic Differences in the availability of state activity and energy production occurring incentives for renewable energy also had within each sector of the two industries an effect, noted Haerer. to estimate gains or losses in employment “States with incentives have more that supported electricity generation. growth,” he says. “The Southeast is news//SCHOOL

by Kati Moore, MEM’16 water and don’t have to compete with traditional crops for arable land, so to the ackary Johnson, Arthur P. degree to which they can produce food Kaupe Assistant Professor of cheaply, they are highly attractive.” Molecular Biology in Marine Substituting algae protein in animal Science, has received a three- feed may have human benefits as well. Zyear grant for up to $5.2 million from the Because algae are high in iron, including U.S. Department of Energy to establish algae protein in poultry feed would a consortium to study the extraction, increase the amount of iron in the meat IT’S development and commoditization of produced. Chicken is not considered a various products from algae. good source of iron compared with beef, The Marine Algae Industrialization but algae protein products could change Consortium—or MAGIC—will include both that. MAGIC! university and corporate partners. Previous work by Johnson and his Algae-based oil has been pursued as a colleagues at Cornell University has NEW CONSORTIUM renewable source of fuel since the 1970s, shown that some types of algae produce but high production costs prevented it proteins that can be successfully TO FOCUS ON from becoming a competitor with crude incorporated into swine and poultry feed. CREATING oil. The consortium’s goal, Johnson says, “Our work now is to identify better is to find ways to drive down the cost products, and make all those processes FOOD AND of oil extracted from algae. To do this, more efficient,” Johnson says. FUEL FROM they need to maximize the value of other MAGIC will conduct research on the products that can be made from algae, entire process of getting algae products such as proteins. to market, from algae selection and “To make algae a competitive player cultivation, to extraction and product ALGAE in this field you have to consider all the preparation, creation of mass production things the algae are producing,” Johnson methods, and techno-economical life says. “We’re essentially trying to make oil cycle analysis. the waste product, so that it can compete Each step of the research process will with fossil fuels.” include multiple investigators. “It’s a team The key is to strike a balance. effort, and each partner brings their own One of the MAGIC researchers’ goals expertise,” says Johnson. will be to find the types of algae and the In addition to Duke, the new specific growing conditions that result in consortium will include the University low-cost oil while providing high-quality of Hawaii, Archer Daniels Midland, protein products. Bentley University, Bucknell University, “They’re not mutually exclusive, but Cornell University, OpenAlgae, Shell you can’t optimize everything at once,” Global Solutions (US) Inc., University of Johnson says. “There are trade-offs. Nordland, The University of Southern That’s where the economic analysis Mississippi, and Valicor Renewables. comes in.” The mix of university and corporate Protein extracted from the algae may partners means a mix of environmental be used in a variety of ways. MAGIC will and economic goals. But at the end of the study using algae protein as a component day, Johnson says, they all want the same of fish, poultry and swine feed, and as a thing: a cost-effective, environmentally substitute for current protein products in friendly source of fuel and food. the food industry, such as whey, which is “Everyone’s committed to finding that derived from milk. balance.” “It turns out that whey is not very environmentally friendly,” Johnson says. Katie Moore MEM’16 is a Nicholas School “If you can replace milk protein with communications student assistant. algae protein, you can skip the methane produced by cows, the land use, the ISTOCK photo water use. Marine algae don’t use fresh

DUKENVIRONMENT 16 dean’s update

DIG DEEPER TO FIND A THOUSAND SEEDS OF CHANGE by Alan R. Townsend, Dean, Nicholas School of the Environment

n the fall of 1995, I boarded a to understand many of its implications, Only six months before my inaugural distressingly shabby 727 for my even though it may seem like common Amazonian flight, the first Conference first flight across the Amazon sense. Facts and figures only take of the Parties (COP)—intended to Basin. I glued myself to the small you so far, even if you happen to be spur international action on climate Iwindow, wanting to take in every drawn to the wonder and importance change—was held in Berlin. The 21st second of a vast sea of green that I of scientific evidence. In the end, such meeting will convene in Paris imagined stretching to every horizon. most people make choices because later this month, in a world that has For portions of the flight, I wasn’t of what they experience, who they still not made anywhere near enough disappointed: there were moments know, how they feel. Put another way, progress in confronting one of the where the forest seemed to define the if we want to both understand and fix greatest challenges in human history. entire surface of the planet, soft green climate change—or any other major Will this COP meeting be the watershed hues occasionally punctuated by bursts environmental issue—we have to know moment? I’m an eternal optimist by of yellow or pink flowers that only what makes people tick. nature … but I doubt it. hinted at the riot of life below. That’s why the Nicholas School Instead, my optimism is maintained But as we landed, the lasting image deliberately mixes the social and by what I see at smaller scales. In local was not of what I could see, but what natural sciences under a single roof, communities, in cities, in states, in I couldn’t. Again and again, from the from faculty to educational programs. private sector companies, all starting southern edge of the Basin to the It’s why you will see stories on climate to take on the challenges of changing heart of the forests around Manaus, change in this single issue that look the world—be that climate or other thick blankets of smoke obscured the not only at how the earth system threats—in pragmatic, collaborative and landscape. The forest was quite literally works, but how the people upon that meaningful ways. For all the seemingly being moved from ground to sky, acre earth make their choices. It’s why intractable (and yes, depressing) upon countless acre at a time. Meg Mullin, one of our newest faculty gridlock and absurdity we may see Manaus was to be but a stopover members, is here. You can read about in national or international politics, before I caught another flight, but I had how Meg seeks to understand how our dig a little deeper and one can find to wait a day to leave. At my intended personal experiences and views shape thousands of seeds of change, destination an hour east along the our political choices, and in turn how sprouting in places where people are Amazon River, there was too much those choices define the potential for transcending the traditional bounds of smoke to fly. progress on issues such as climate discipline or culture or political bent Prior to that flight, I certainly cared change. to get inspired around solving a true about how humans were changing the And as you leaf through the pages grand challenge. planet—so much so that I’d chosen of this issue, you’ll see another theme I see that at the Nicholas School a career defined by studying global emerge: history. The Nicholas School time and time again, and I think it’s environmental change. But after that is approaching its 25th year, a year no accident that our now thousands flight, I felt it. The environmental in which we will commemorate a of alumni are making this happen in crossroads at which the world generation of innovation and real world myriad ways quite literally all around stood became more personal, more impact. And a year in which we will the world. As our 25th birthday as a immediate, more urgent. I also learned reflect not only on where we have been, school of the environment looms, that’s a lesson that day, but it took me years but where we are going. truly something to celebrate. feature our deepest roots Nicholas School’s 25 Years of Success Owes Much to the Three Programs From Which it Formed By Norman L. Christensen

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DUKENVIRONMENT 18 iam ill pr w es t o n

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Twenty-five years ago Duke President William Preston Few began searching this past May, an ad hoc Committee in the mid-1920s for new faculty who would help on Environmental Programs presented its ndings to the him transform his then small college into a complex, Duke University Board of Trustees. The committee observed internationally recognized university. University of Wisconsin that arbitrary boundaries—boundaries between academic ecologist A.S. Pearse seemed like just the person to lead disciplines, governance units, basic and applied science, Duke’s biology program into this new era. teaching and research—are among the most signi cant Pearse was widely recognized for the quality and remarkable challenges to the sustainable conservation and management diversity of his work. In addition to pioneering studies of of Earth’s environmental resources. Duke, they argued, was freshwater lake plankton, he had recently published important uniquely positioned to meet these challenges, and that it work on the ecology of parasitic diseases such as hookworm should seize the opportunity by creating a School of the and yellow fever. He had just completed a term as president Environment. The trustees agreed and unanimously resolved of the Ecological Society of America and published the rst that such a school—one of the rst of its kind in the world— textbook ever in animal ecology. Convincing Pearse to join should come into being on July 1, 1991. Duke’s faculty in 1927 was indeed a recruitment coup. The committee’s recommendation and the board’s resolution were indeed prescient. Today, the Nicholas School of the School of Forestry Environment is recognized worldwide as a center of excellence Included in Duke’s gift were nearly 5,000 acres of land for interdisciplinary education and research focused on our surrounding what would soon become Duke University’s sustainable future. Duke’s long history of interdisciplinary West Campus. These lands clearly played a role in attracting collaborations, the consistent support from university leaders, Pearse to Duke. In 1926 and 1927 letters to President Few, and the contributions of time and resources from many friends he not only noted the opportunities that they would provide and alumni are certainly among the factors contributing to its biological studies, but suggested that they could be the success. foundation for the creation of a graduate school of forestry As we approach our silver anniversary, it is especially similar to the distinguished program at Yale, but focusing important to remember that our school was not created ex on southeastern forests. In pursuit of this vision, Pearse nihilo, out of nothing; it owes much of its success to more than contacted the director of the Forest Service Southeastern 50 years of development and evolution in each of the three Experimental Station, E.H. Frothingham, asking for programs from which it was formed: the School of Forestry guidance. Frothingham directed him to an up-and-coming and Environmental Studies, the Duke University Marine forest ecologist, Clarence Korstian, who had himself been Laboratory and the Department of Geology. But how were trained at Yale. these three programs created? To a greater or lesser extent, the After visiting with both men, Pearse convinced Few to meet energy and vision of one individual, Arthur Sperry Pearse, with Korstian in 1927. Initially, Few was most interested in was important to the genesis of each one. the question of what to do with the land and asked Korstian Flush with resources from James B. Duke’s remarkable gift, whether Duke ought to dedicate it formally for teaching

Photos courtesy of the Nicholas School, Duke Marine Lab and Duke University Archives okho feature . bo ut .g c

and research, much as Harvard and Yale had done with their and public agencies. The school was renamed Forestry and eponymous forests. Environmental Studies in 1970, and its priorities and mix Primed by Pearse, Korstian replied that, given the growing of disciplines subsequently expanded to include such topics importance of forests and forestry in the Southeast, such a as environmental policy, biodiversity conservation, water forest would indeed be valuable, but it “ought to be organized quality management, wetlands, and environmental toxicology. as a very de nite adjunct to a graduate school of forestry.” He Interdisciplinary education to meet an ever growing list argued further that training and research in such a forest and of environmental challenges was the centerpiece of the school should not be limited to what people could extract school’s newly created professional Master of Environmental from forests, as “this had led in the past to men receiving Management (MEM) program. a limited education in forestry.” A Duke Forest and School of Forestry ought to focus on the long-term conservation of Duke University Marine Lab forests and all of the values that they provide. Arthur Pearse’s vision and energy also were central to the Subsequent to this meeting, Pearse wrote to forestry schools creation of the Duke University Marine Laboratory. About the and departments at Michigan, Cornell, Yale and Syracuse for same time he was connecting Duke to Clarence Korstian, he was information on their faculty and curricula, which he then educating President Few and the Duke Board of Trustees about forwarded to Few. After continued conversations over several the increasing importance of coastal issues and marine biology, years, and with the promise that a forestry school would be and about the potential of establishing year-round teaching and created eventually, Few convinced Korstian to come to Duke research facility on the North Carolina coast. in 1930 to direct the newly dedicated Duke Forest. Over He and other Duke colleagues explored a number of potential the next several years, Korstian re ned his vision for a Duke sites for such a facility, and they became convinced that Piver’s School of Forestry, and The Board of Trustees enthusiastically Island, a 20-or-so acre piece of land near the town of Beaufort, supported that vision and voted to approve creation of the would be ideal. In addition to its accessibility and location school in 1938. on the central coast, the presence of the Federal Fisheries Innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration in both Laboratory (now the NOAA Mid-Atlantic Coastal Fisheries education and research were embedded in the cultural Center) on the north end of the island made this location ideal. genome of the School of Forestry from the moment of its In 1935, the Duke Trustees voted to move forward with the creation. The school’s mission was centered on Korstian’s purchase of the south portion of the Piver’s Island. Over the vision for “ecological forestry,” what today we call sustainable next three years, three small dorms, a two-room building for forestry. From the beginning, the school’s faculty was highly classes, and boathouse and dock were built. In the summer of interdisciplinary, including ecology, economics, management, 1938, 16 students and several faculty decamped on the island forest pathology, soil chemistry and wood technology. and the Duke University Marine Laboratory was born. Because of their unique training, the graduates of the Up to 1950, the Marine Lab served largely as an outpost for school’s Master of Forestry (MF) program were widely studies and a relative few summer courses offered by Durham recruited to leadership positions with both private companies campus biologists. It was in that year that C.G. Bookhout was

DUKENVIRONMENT 20 n Pilkey ri r in o 1 9 6 5

appointed as the Marine Lab’s rst full-time director. Bookie, dynamics guru, joined the department in 1965. Faculty were as he has affectionately known by everyone, had been among gradually added so that by the mid-1980s, the department the rst faculty to teach at the lab, and he energetically pursued had grown to include faculty programs in paleontology, the Pearse’s vision of it as a year-round teaching and research center. dynamics of Earth’s crust, seashore change, oceanography, and Material dredged from the nearby Gallant’s Channel was hydrology, to name a few. added to the south end of Piver’s Island. This allowed lab to For most of these years the department was housed in add three new buildings in 1954 and an additional dormitory the Art Museum on Duke’s East Campus. Because of the in 1963. In collaboration with the University of North integration of Duke’s Geology Department, the Nicholas Carolina’s Institute of Marine Studies, Marine Lab faculty School is unique among environmental programs in convinced the National Science Foundation to locate a new representing the full diversity of environmental science. But oceanographic research vessel, the R/V Eastward, at the lab just as important as bona des in the physical sciences, geology in 1961. The R/V Eastward was replaced by the R/V Cape brought long traditions of excellence in undergraduate Hatteras in 1981. education and integration of basic science with its real-world With these facilities and resources, the lab was able applications. to recruit a diverse resident faculty who held primary The importance of these three programs to the development appointments in the departments of zoology, botany, cell of the Nicholas School is evident in the identity of its three biology, and geology. The hands-on learning and the seamless divisions: Environmental Science and Policy, Earth and Ocean integration of research and education were the hallmark of Sciences, and Marine Science and Conservation. But the lab’s undergraduate and graduate programs from the very boundaries between these divisions have blurred, and many beginning. faculty hold appointments in more than one division. Environment Hall which opened in April 2014, is Department of Geology designed to facilitate even more interaction and collaboration In a 1930 letter to distinguished ecologist and Wisconsin among divisions. Furthermore, the disciplinary composition colleague Chancey Juday, Pearse noted that Duke’s and educational programs in each division have changed programs in the natural sciences were still very much in the signi cantly; each one now includes disciplinary expertise development stage. He made particular note of the fact that from social and natural sciences, and each one is heavily the university had no faculty in the earth sciences. Indeed, it invested in the school’s undergraduate, professional and would be another six years before Duke hired Willard Berry, graduate programs. Each plays an essential role in the its rst geologist. Nicholas School’s mission to “create knowledge and leaders for Although I could nd no written con rmation, I believe a sustainable future.” we can be pretty sure that Pearse was prominent among those supporting Berry’s appointment. However, geology Norman L. Christensen is founding dean of the Nicholas School remained a one-man out t until 1949 when Duncan Heron and professor emeritus in the Division of Environmental Sciences was recruited. Orrin Pilkey, a sedimentologist turned coastal and Policy.

Footnotes • A.S. Pearse’s papers, including hundreds of letters written and received over his entire career, are available in the Duke Archives. I am grateful to the staff of Duke’s David Rubenstein Library for helping me access these materials. • Many of the details of Clarence Korstain’s vision and the formation of the school are described in a document titled, “Clarence Korstian: Forty Years of Forestry.” This is a transcription of a 1959 interview of Korstian by Elwood R. Maunder which is available in the archives of the Forest History Society. • Much of the history of Piver’s Island, the Federal Fisheries Laboratory and the Duke University Marine Laboratory can be found in A Story of North Carolina’s Historic Beaufort, Wilson, M.M. 2007, The History Press, Charleston, SC. • My thanks to Duncan Heron for helping me understand the geological origins.

Photos courtesy of the Nicholas School, Duke Marine Lab and Duke University Archives featurenews//STUDENTS

Photo by Jon Gardiner

the COMMUNICA- TIONb dilemma

PHD STUDENT PATRICK BROWN DISCOVERS JUST HOW QUICKLY CLIMATE CHANGE RESULTS CAN BE MISCONSTRUED

by Kati Moore MEM’16

DUKENVIRONMENT 22 of global average temperatures from and then, such predictions become even PhD student Patrick decade to decade. Unfortunately, this is more dif cult. Brown understands the importance of the time scale that is most important to Brown has been interested in weather communication. Any scienti c research policymakers who want to know what and climate since elementary school, requires some level of distillation to be the climate will be like 10 to 50 years when he built his own weather stations made understandable to the general pub- from now. to monitor local weather patterns and lic, and climate science is no different. Climate models tend to agree on make forecasts for friends and family. Last April, Brown published a paper the physics of year-to-year variability, After graduating from the University in the journal Scienti c Reports that Brown explains. They also agree that, as of Wisconsin at Madison, he worked for looked at the statistical likelihood that long as greenhouse gas concentrations a year at Weather Central, LLC, draw- the globe was on a more moderate versus continue to rise, signi cant warming ing local and national weather maps for extreme warming trajectory given that will occur in the next hundred or so newspapers. the global average temperature had been years. It’s the time in between that is He went on to earn a master’s degree trending slightly downward over the harder to predict. in meteorology and climate science previous 11 years. Brown and his co- A good analogy for this, says Brown, from San Jose State University, where authors found that it was more likely we is waves and tides. At a certain point in he became interested in climate models. had been on a more moderate path. time, if we know the current state of the He applied to the Nicholas School for “It wasn’t actually a groundbreaking ocean, we can predict how the next few its interdisciplinary approach to climate conclusion,” Brown says. But the media, waves will affect the water line on the science. “like a game of telephone,” he says, beach. This is like predicting the weather “As I became more interested in translated and re-translated his nd- for tomorrow or the rest of the week. climate change, as opposed to weather, I ings until they were touted as evidence We also know if the tide is going in or realized how important the ocean surface against climate change. out, so we can predict where the average is, how important the land surface is, “It was frustrating to see that,” Brown water line on the beach will be several how important the biosphere is, and says. He responded via a personal blog hours from now. This is like modeling how important long timescales that post and through various media outlets. the average temperature a hundred years incorporate geology are. I wanted to be He also responded directly to dozens of from now, given a certain increase in in a department that incorporated all emails asking for clari cation, an oppor- greenhouse gas concentrations. those aspects.” tunity he says he appreciated. Predicting where the water line will In his rst year at the Nicholas School “You can’t always communicate ev- be in 10 minutes is much more dif cult. he met his now ancée, Heidi Winner, erything you want in the paper or press The tide won’t have had a large effect MEM’13. They live in Durham and release—sometimes it’s hard to be able yet, and we have almost no way to pre- have one cat. Brown enjoys hiking and to tell exactly what’s meant. It’s nice to dict the state of individual waves that running, but his main hobby, he says, is be able to ask a direct question.” far out. This is like trying to predict the his blog. This is where he posts videos Brown studies under Wenhong Li, weather or even average temperature a and articles explaining his research and assistant professor of climate in the few decades from now, Brown says. climate science in laymen’s terms. Nicholas School’s Division of Earth The decade-to-decade timescale is “The internet is full of misinformation and Ocean Sciences. Brown’s research when natural variations are large com- and information created by people that includes comparing climate models and pared to anthropogenic inputs. Though frankly don’t know what they’re talking identifying ways to improve them. greenhouse gas concentrations may be about. In this small area I feel like I do The goal, he says, is not necessarily to rising steadily over 100 or more years, know what I’m talking about, so I want lower the uncertainty associated with you might not see much change in aver- to have something out there.” these models. age global temperature from one decade You can read Brown’s blog at “There are certain limits on the to the next due to unpredictable changes patricktbrown.org. predictive power of climate models,” he in air and ocean cycles. says. “Sometimes it’s better to just ask, And once you factor in social and po- Kati Moore MEM’16 is a Nicholas School how much uncertainty is there?” litical changes that might affect green- communications assistant. Most uncertainty lies in the variation house gas concentrations between now news//STUDENTS

for the love of BIRDS Dedicated PhD Students Turn Their Desire to Reduce Bird Deaths Caused by Window Collisions Into a Research Project by Lisa M. Dellwo

DUKENVIRONMENT 24 Bird image by istock, student photos by Amy Chapman Braun news//STUDENTS

s CHECK OUT THE PROJECT’S WEBSITE BETWEEN 265 AND SCOTT WINTON’S BLOGS: AND 988 MILLION 1 sites.duke.edu/birdcollisions BIRDS ARE KILLED 2 blogs.nicholas.duke.edu/birds/ ANNUALLY BY 3 birdaholic.blogspot.com/ COLLISIONS WITH BUILDINGS IN THE U.S.

DUKENVIRONMENT 26 nyone who lives in a wooded Management (MEM) students, involving seven campus buildings or neighborhood is familiar with Charlene Wu, Erika Zambello, and in a subsidiary project in which anyone Athe problem of birds ying into Thomas Wittig, are coauthoring a could report a death anywhere on windows. This most likely happens journal article with Cagle, Ocampo- campus using the iNaturalist app. because the birds see the forested Peñuela, and Duke PhD student Scott It passed unanimously. According landscape reected in the glass. Like Winton that will address the observed to Winton, any resolution passed by many dedicated birders, Natalia patterns of bird-window collisions. GPSC is forwarded to high campus Ocampo-Peñuela was concerned about This is not Ocampo-Peñuela’s rst administrators and members of the this issue, particularly on the Duke involvement in research on bird- university’s Board of Trustees. campus where she is a PhD student window collisions. As an undergraduate 168 bird deaths might not sound studying tropical bird ecology. ecology major at Ponti cia Universidad like an actionable problem, but the big She was concerned enough to urge Javeriana in Bogota, she began picture is that building collisions are Duke administration to address the documenting bird mortality on second only to feral and free-ranging pet problem in building construction and campus after an administrator told her cats as a human-related source for bird renovation. But like any good scientist, about deaths associated with window mortality in the United States. A recent she decided that collecting data would collisions. The work was published in a scienti c paper states that between strengthen her case. Colombian ornithology journal the year 265 and 988 million birds are killed Her PhD work involves bird after she graduated. annually by collisions with buildings in conservation in her native Colombia. “I Winton signed onto the project at the U.S. normally work with live birds,” she says. about the time as Cagle. But Winton “Nationwide, buildings kill many But Ocampo-Peñuela became known as decided to address the problem through hundreds of millions of birds each the person to contact on campus when a another route. year—a major source of their mortality. bird was found dead next to a building. Winton was the Nicholas School’s And they need not: this is something “People started bringing dead birds Environmental Science and Policy where simple engineering can x the to my of ce,” she says. Her research representative on the Graduate and problem,” says Stuart Pimm, Doris started with an Excel spreadsheet in Professional Student Council (GPSC). Duke Professor of Conservation Ecology which she logged each victim’s species In 2015, he introduced a resolution to in the Nicholas School and Ocampo- and location. But logging serendipitous the council asking Duke administration Peñuela’s advisor. “I’m delighted that, nds was not suf ciently rigorous to “consider bird collision mitigation as part of its commitment to being scienti cally. So in 2013, she approached during the design and planning process green, Duke has chosen to embrace these Nicholas School instructor Nicolette of all future campus buildings.” In simple solutions.” Cagle about enlisting master’s students addition, the resolution asked Duke to The problem was most recently in in a data collection effort. consider retro tting existing buildings the news when the Minnesota Vikings Since that time, according to Cagle, and to become a leader in a bird-friendly revealed the plans for a stunning new 30 master’s students and a handful of campus movement. football stadium, to be constructed undergraduates and Duke employees The resolution was based on the along the migratory corridor of the were involved in data collection for results of more than a year of data Mississippi River, complete with walls a project, spearheaded by Ocampo- collection on campus in which 168 of bird-unfriendly glass. In January, the Peñuela, involving bird collisions on bird deaths were documented, either team declined to redesign the stadium campus. Three Master of Environment in the formal data collection project using fritted glass, which has a pattern news//STUDENTS that makes the glass more visible to clear viewing for the humans inside the comparing bird deaths associated with birds. building. LEED-certi ed buildings to non-LEED On the Duke campus, you can see “The solution came from a collaborative buildings, which was approved and then fritted glass on the recently built Penn review of the study from the Nicholas got under way this fall. Pavilion and on the street sides of the School research team and Facilities “LEED buildings are designed for Nicholas School’s new Environment Management architectural and energy ef ciency, views and lighting,” Hall, and those airy buildings— engineering staff,” Noonan says. she says. “All of these speak to more according to the surveys—have very few Duke’s Fall 2014 data collection windows, more glass.” bird collisions associated with them. effort became part of a larger project in MEM student Erika Zambello, with Where you would not nd fritted which researchers on 40 campuses across Ocampo-Peñuela’s help, took the lead in glass, until recently, is on the the country gathered bird-window gathering data across 15 campuses. Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary collision data during fall bird migration. “Soon, we will be able to elucidate Engineering, Medicine and Applied Principal investigator Stephen B. if green buildings are more dangerous Sciences (CIEMAS), a 322,000-square- Hager of Augustana College is still to birds, and hopefully push for a foot LEED-certi ed complex completed analyzing data that he hopes will reveal more strict, bird-friendly protocol to in 2004. In surveys conducted from whether the amount of window space certi ed buildings, contributing to Spring 2014 through Spring 2015, 72 in a building is a factor in bird strikes, ongoing work by the American Bird percent of the bird deaths documented as well as whether being surrounded by Conservancy,” says Ocampo-Peñuela. on campus (81) were attributed to this green space rather than other buildings building. is a quanti able factor. Lisa M. Dellwo is a writer specializing Now, perhaps, that rate will decline. That project was conducted under in nature, environment, science, and John Noonan, vice president for the umbrella of the Ecological foodways, based in Down East Maine. Her facilities management at Duke, reports Research as Education Network previous article for Dukenvironment was a that toward the end of the summer, a (EREN), an organization devoted to profile of Duke Ph.D.s Andrew Gronewold patterned lm had been applied to four involving undergraduate students in and Craig Stow, focusing on their Great towers and the outward-facing bridge collaborative research projects. With Lakes research. facades at CIEMAS. The printed dots on EREN, Ocampo-Peñuela says, “You the lm reduce reectivity and visually pitch an idea that needs replicates and breaks up the glass expanse for birds in access to a network of researchers.” In ight while still maintaining 98 percent May, she pitched an idea for a study

STUDENT SPECIAL AWARDS Virlis L. Fischer Award Goes to the graduating professional degree student with the THE DEAN’S AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING highest academic achievement. Given by Bernice Fischer in RESEARCH PAPER FOR 2015 memory of her husband. Given annually since 2008 to recognize outstanding research and writing done by a current PhD candidate who has a LUKE SLIVINSKI of St. Petersburg, Fla.; MEM’15, manuscript accepted or published in a peer-reviewed journal. Coastal Environmental Management This year’s co-winners were acknowledged at the spring graduation ceremony and received a check for $1,500 each. Sara LaBoskey Award Given in recognition of personal integrity and academic PATRICK BROWN (ADVISOR, WENHONG LI) excellence. “Comparing the Model-Simulated Global Warming Signal to Observations using Empirical Estimates of Unforced Noise,” PATRICK HUNNICUTT of Midlothian, Va,; BA, Scientific Reports, (Brown, Li, Cordero and Mauget, 2015) Environmental Sciences and Policy, Graduation with Distinction doi:10.1038/srep09957. PhD candidate, Earth and Ocean Sciences Thomas V. Laska Memorial Award Given by the Earth and Ocean Sciences faculty to the most SARAH BRODY (ADVISOR, SUSAN LOZIER) outstanding senior major. “Changes in Dominant Mixing Length Scales as a Driver of Subpolar Phytoplankton Bloom Initiation in the North Atlantic,” VIRGINIA ISAVA of Coral Springs, Fla.; BS, Geophysical Research Letters, (Brody and Lozier, 2014) Earth and Ocean Sciences, Graduation with Distinction doi:10.1002/2014GL059707. PhD, Earth and Ocean Sciences, Duke University, May 2015

DUKENVIRONMENT 28 photo by istock news// ALUMNI PROFILE CHEMICAL EXPOSURE IS WORKING TO SOLVE THE PUZZLE OF ON THE CASE ON THE LAUREN GLOEKLERMEM’13 BY TAWNEE MILKOMEM’12 news//ALUMNI PROFILE photos by Val Westover Photography Westover Val by photos

ntil the late 1970s, workplace safety and health litigation. it. She assists with applying the full millions of U.S. Any given day in the of ce nds her spectrum of available toxicological and workers were exposed combing through scienti c literature, epidemiological data to assess exposure to asbestos mineral deposition testimony and other legal levels and risk of disease in some of her bers once widely documents. Her objective: reading client cases. used in construction, and summarizing large volumes Regularly, she queries: What products maritime and of information in order to create a did this person work with? How often manufacturing comprehensive occupational and did they work with them, and how were industries. exposure history for the purposes of they using them? What do we know Today, asbestos is recognized as a estimating the potential health risk about the target chemical, and how known human carcinogen, one that posed by speci c instances of exposure does the body process it? Where does it Umay increase the risk of lung cancer, to asbestos and other environmental accumulate? How fast is it removed? mesothelioma and asbestosis following toxins. “The biggest thing I’ve learned from suf cient doses decades after initial “It really is like detective work,” she working here is that there’s always two exposure. Though the 1980s and 1990s says. “Using science in its purest form, sides to the story,” she says. “You can’t saw it phased out of most commercial we’re compiling the facts to help clients assume anything. You have to start from uses, manufacturers are now being faced solve the puzzle of chemical exposure.” the beginning, look at all the details, with hundreds of thousands of asbestos- Gloekler is as much in the business of read the scienti c literature, and then related lawsuits—what one global asking questions as she is of answering objectively put the facts together into policy think tank has called the longest, them. The company’s investigative one picture.” most expensive mass tort in U.S. history. process involves collecting detailed Gloekler has possessed a scientist’s Enter Lauren Gloekler, associate information about a suspected health curiosity since youth. Graduating from health scientist for California-based hazard, usually a chemical, and University of Texas–Arlington in 2008 consulting rm Cardno ChemRisk. evaluating the relationship between a with a bachelor’s degree in biology, she Gloekler, MEM’13, handles and speci c exposure amount, or “dose,” was soon drawn to the Nicholas School’s reviews client cases in the eld of and the human body’s response to Ecotoxicology and Environmental

DUKENVIRONMENT 30 “I LIKE TO MAKE NEW DISCOVERIES. I LIKE HELPING PEOPLE AND FEELING LIKE I’M MAKING A DIFFERENCE BY USING SCIENCE TO GIVE OUR CLIENTS AND THE PUBLIC INFORMATION THAT HASN’T BEEN THERE BEFORE.”

Health MEM concentration, but researchers were also investigating Mandarin translations of research was originally keen on studying the problems that arise from ame retardant documents. nexus between chemicals in food and compounds. Immersing herself in a foreign culture sustainable agriculture. Supported by a $2,500 Nicholas was a key aspect of her time abroad. Then, in her rst semester, she took School International Internship award, She recalls arriving at Hong Kong “Chemical Fate of Organic Compounds,” Gloekler developed a Masters Project to International Airport on a Saturday and, taught by Ecotoxicology and assess ame retardant exposure among as she was dropped off at her hostel, Environmental Health (EEH) program students at Shantou University in being told, “We’ll see you Monday.” chair Heather Stapleton. Stapleton’s southern China and at City University “I was literally all alone in the most course transformed Gloekler’s interest, from handling everyday electronics. densely populated area in the world,” and future, completely. The data collection process involved Gloekler says, then laughs. “It was “Heather got me super red up visits to students’ dormitories to collect insane. I’m an adventurous eater, so I about chemistry,” Gloekler says dust samples and hand-wipes, as well spent a lot of time exploring the city enthusiastically. In particular, she as to administer behavior and lifestyle and trying new foods. There was a lot was fascinated by the idea of how questionnaires that could help build of dining by myself and making friends a chemical’s structure relates to a better picture of potential ame with people on the streets.” what Stapleton calls the chemical’s retardant exposure pathways. Her international experiences have “personality,” which in turn relates to its Preliminary studies have linked the played directly into her leadership behavior in the environment. Does the accumulation of ame retardants in role at Cardno ChemRisk, where clear chemical volatilize into the air? Does the body to a variety of developmental communication and a background in it solubilize in water? Does it like to impairments in children, as well as other research design has been critical. She adhere to things? potential health effects like disruptions and several colleagues are also working These characteristics not only affect in endocrine activity. Gloekler’s on two studies that stem from her where in the environment chemicals will study, the rst documenting levels of research with ame retardants at the ultimately end up and how long they PBDEs and replacement compounds Nicholas School. might stay there, but how people might measured in hand-wipes from a Chinese One, a simulation study to better be exposed to them through everyday population, lent more data toward the understand migration of ame products like cosmetics, personal care mystery of how humans are exposed to retardants from baby products, was products, furniture and electronics. these chemicals in the rst place and among a group of research projects Motivated by environmental what behavioral variables inuenced the that were internally funded by Cardno chemistry’s real-world applicability, levels of exposure. ChemRisk. The company encourages Gloekler quickly became involved “Until we understand how chemicals its employees to conduct research to with Stapleton’s ongoing research in are transported out of a product and advance scienti c knowledge in new children’s exposure to environmental how we come into contact with them, areas of toxicology, epidemiology, contaminants—speci cally, it’s really dif cult for us to evaluate occupational health and safety and polybrominated diphenyl ethers, risk to human health,” explains related disciplines, and completed or PBDEs, a class of widely-used Stapleton, who has been exploring the papers are submitted to relevant peer- brominated ame retardants that are relationship between ame retardants reviewed journals for publication. designed to reduce ammability. and environmental health for more than In her study, Gloekler is ultimately Gloekler also joined forces with then- a decade. trying to understand the ame retardant EEH program chair David Hinton, Despite lack of uency in Cantonese transfer ef ciency from a baby product Nicholas Professor of Environmental or Mandarin, Gloekler successfully to a child’s hand, and subsequently from Quality, to achieve her dream of navigated the logistics of leading the hands into the body via hand to spending a summer internship abroad. international research teams at Shantou mouth contact. Are PBDEs and other In a stroke of fate or luck, Hinton had and City University, including ame retardant compounds transferred recently developed a relationship with demonstrating proper sampling by contact with a product? If so, which Hong Kong’s City University, whose techniques and managing English- products? Or are they in a home’s dust news//ALUMNI PROFILE photos by Val Westover Photography Westover Val by photos particles, and does exposure to dust ‘What is it? How much is there? Is that gaps. In future research, she also hopes to particles lead to higher PBDE exposure? a level that I need to be concerned delve into new areas of study, including As one might expect, one of the about based on how much or little I foods and dietary supplements. primary routes for chemical exposure use the product?’ I am more wary of “I like to make new discoveries. in young children is through hand to jumping to conclusions.” I like helping people and feeling like mouth transfer. At the same time, Gloekler wishes I’m making a difference by using “You have to think about it as if you there was an easier way for the general science to give our clients and the were the consumer using the product,” public to access reliable information public information that hasn’t been Gloekler explains. explaining the complexities of chemical there before,” she says. “I mean, there’s “If you’re a mother and you have a exposure, and the toxicology of common nothing better you could ask for, really, baby, you know the baby’s on or using chemicals found in consumer products. than using your interests to do some a baby product ‘x’ amount of hours per To that end, Gloekler, who blogged good.” day. Then they’re likely putting their for The Nicholas School about her hands in their mouth ‘x’ amount of Hong Kong internship, has returned to Tawnee Milko MEM’12 was the Nicholas hours per day. That can all play into the blogosphere to write about timely School’s coordinator for the Nicholas exposure level.” occupational health and toxicology Ambassador Initiative from 2012 through One would think that constant topics. In her most recent post, she September 2015. She is now planning a contact with studies and real -life cases took a closer look at the scienti c and trip around the world. We will miss her about the potential hazards of everyday regulatory literature surrounding the and wish her well on her journey. chemical exposure would be enough to health and safety issues of nail salon make anyone a cautious, if not nervous, workers, prompted by a May 2015 series consumer herself. For Gloekler, however, of New York Times articles on the subject. the opposite has proved true. Gloekler seeks to not only review “I’ve realized that just because a existing information and, if necessary, product contains a chemical doesn’t make suggestions for possible necessarily mean that it’s harmful to improvements or to ll in information my health,” she says. “I try to tackle the issue like a scientist would, asking,

DUKENVIRONMENT 32 photo by Braden Gunem, bradengunem.com ALUMS OF DUKE ENVIRONMENT

We’re getting ready to kick off our third I am Duke Environment Photo Contest. If you are a member of the Nicholas School community—faculty, staff, students, alums, board of visitors members and donors— we encourage you to join these Nicholas School alumni. They shared how they are forging a sustainable future by submitting photos.

Brandon Semel BS ’13 Bronwyn Llewellyn MEM ‘06 Nari Sohn BS ’12

Peter Griffith BS ’78 Venai Shenoy MEM ’12 Jordan Williams MEM ’07

Sylvia Earle PhD ’66 and Britta Victor MEM ’13, Kirsten Hagfors Dave Shreffler T’ 85 Harriet Nash MEM ’01 MEM/MBA ’13, and Maureen Quinlan MEM ’13

THE CONTEST RUNS BETWEEN NOV. 9 AND 24 AND FEATURES PRIZES FOR THE WINNER

Go here to find out more: NICHOLAS.DUKE.EDU/IAMDUKEENVIRONMENT I am Duke Environment is an ongoing photo social media campaign sharing the faces and voices of Duke’s Nicholas School. giving Duke Celebrat 25 years of Interdisciplinary Environmental Education with Special Events, Anniversary Campaign by Laura Ertel our campus to successfully address these pressing environmental issues. The 25 years since the creation of the interdisciplinary School of the Environment at Duke have been lled with momentum • Buildings such as Environment Hall on the Durham and milestones. As founding Dean Norman L. Christensen campus and the Pilkey Center at the Marine Lab, and recounts on page 18, an enduring spirit of inquiry and Durham-based labs such as the Duke River Center, innovation has led the seeds of this school, planted in the nurture that spirit of cross-disciplinary collaboration 1930s, to blossom into a multi-faceted program. It is now and demonstrate Duke’s commitment to inform known globally for preparing graduates for successful careers and advance sustainable building and management in a wide range of elds and advancing research that has practices. opened new doors to environmental understanding and stewardship. These successes and many others, along with the This coming year, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the philanthropic support of our many friends and alumni, visionary convergence of the Duke Marine Laboratory, School have burnished Duke University’s international reputation of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and Department of and drawn top students and world-class faculty to join our Geology that set the stage for Duke’s rising reputation as community. one of the world’s premier institutions for interdisciplinary environmental education, research and real-world impact. A YEAR OF CELEBRATIONS Yet we are not just looking back: We also are laying the Over the next year, the Nicholas School will celebrate several groundwork to ensure continued leadership and excellence for milestones. (In October we marked the rst milestone of 75 the next quarter-century and beyond. years of forestry education at Duke.) Save these dates and visit the Nicholas School website for additional details coming soon. IGNITING INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATIONS The 1991 merger of programs and faculty to create an STANBACK INTERNSHIP ANNIVERSARY interdisciplinary School of the Environment and Earth SYMPOSIUM: A CELEBRATION OF 20 YEARS Sciences (renamed the Nicholas School of the Environment April 14, 2016 in 1992) has led to collaborations and achievements beyond Features a day of speakers, networking and environmental those even dreamed of by school founders. fellowship. Hear from former Stanback interns who are now leading signi cant environment organizations in the United • Educational programs, such as our Coastal States and around the world. Environmental Management and Energy and Environment concentrations for professional master’s 25TH ANNIVERSARY GALA students and the Marine Science concentration for Nov. 17, 2016 undergraduates, draw on the collective wisdom Join us to celebrate the school’s history and future as we and resources of our divisions of Marine Science recognize past and current leaders and philanthropists who and Conservation, Earth and Ocean Sciences, and have made the Nicholas School what it is today. Environmental Sciences and Policy and other programs throughout Duke. A CAMPAIGN FOR THE NEXT QUARTER-CENTURY Philanthropy has always played an essential role in the growth • Experiential learning opportunities, such as the and leadership of the school. As we revel in the school’s 25th Stanback Internships and eld trips to environmental anniversary, we also must set the stage for the continued hotspots, teach our students that tackling complex real- excellence of Duke Environment for the next quarter-century world environmental issues requires diverse perspectives and beyond, says Nicholas School Dean Alan Townsend. and teamwork. As a result, our alumni are breaking In the nal two years of the Duke Forward Campaign— new ground a wide range of environment-related elds. having surpassed our rst fund-raising milestone—the Nicholas School will launch a new multi-million initiative to • Research initiatives in Water Resource Management raise additional resources for nancial aid for the professional and Environment and Human Health underscore the graduate and PhD level students to help recruit talented necessity of harnessing wide-ranging expertise across students and lower their debt obligations after graduation.

DUKENVIRONMENT 34 calendar EVENTS+ HAPPENINGS of Interdisciplinary Environmental Education with Special Events, Anniversary Campaign Mark your calendar for the following dates and monitor our website at nicholas.duke.edu for additional events. NOV. 5-6 APRIL 7-8 PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS VISITATION DAY SPRING MASTERS PROJECT SYMPOSIUM Environment Hall and Levine Science Environment Hall, Duke West Campus Research Center (LSRC) (Nov. 5) Contact: Academic & Enrollment Services Duke West Campus 919-613-8070 or [email protected] This new initiative also will Duke University Marine Lab (Nov. 6) Beaufort, NC APRIL 7-8 support a handful of important Contact: Academic & Enrollment Services RESIDENTIAL AND DEL-MEM MP Dean’s initiatives, including 919-613-8070 or SYMPOSIUM health in the environment, energy [email protected] Environment Hall, Duke West Campus in the environment and new Contact: DEL Program, 919-613-8082 or educational programs in forest NOV. 12, 6-8:30 PM [email protected] DUKE FOREST ANNUAL GATHERING nance and biodiversity, and marine New Hope Improvement Association Center APRIL 14-15 conservation. 4012 Whitfield Road, Chapel Hill. N.C. SPRING MEETING OF THE NICHOLAS “Environmental issues remain Contact: Office of the Duke Forest, SCHOOL BOARD OF VISITORS persistent and pernicious, and 919-613-8013 or [email protected] Board Room, 5th Floor, Environment Hall Duke West Campus we must do everything we can to DEC. 1 Contact: Kevin McCarthy, 919-613-8019 or ensure that Duke can continue to be WINTER MASTERS PROJECT (MP) [email protected] agile and equipped to remain at the SYMPOSIUM forefront of environmental thought MEM and MF candidates master project APRIL 14-15 presentations SPRING MEETING OF THE NICHOLAS and action,” says Townsend. “In Environment Hall/ LSRC SCHOOL ALUMNI COUNCIL particular, we need to strenghten Duke West Campus Board Room, 5th Floor, Environment Hall our ability to offer increased Contact: Academic and Enrollment Services Duke West Campus nancial aid packages to passionate, 919-613-8070 or Contact: Glenda Lee, 919-613-8035 or driven students who will be part of [email protected] [email protected] the solution. This 25th anniversary DEC. 10, 6-8 PM APRIL 26-27 initiative will help us do just that.” PROSPECTIVE STUDENT OPEN HOUSE TIMBERLAND INVESTMENTS FOR Duke in DC, Washington, D.C. PROFESSIONALS Laura Ertel is a freelance writer Contact: Academic & Enrollment Services DEL Executive Education (open 919-613-8070 or enrollment courses) based in Durham, N.C. [email protected] Durham campus Contact: DEL Program, 919-613-8715 or JAN. 8, 9 AM-3 PM [email protected] PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS VISITATION DAY + Environment Hall/ LSRC MAY 7-8 Duke West Campus DEL-MEM PLACE-BASED SESSION Contact: Academic & Enrollment Services LSRC A158 919-613-8070 or Duke West Campus FOR INFORMATION— [email protected] Contact: The DEL Program, 919-613-8082 or ABOUT THE NICHOLAS [email protected] FEB. 26 SCHOOL’S 25TH STANBACK INTERNSHIP PROGRAM MAY 14, 9 AM ANNIVERSARY CAMPAIGN INTERVIEW DAY NICHOLAS SCHOOL RECOGNITION Searle Center CEREMONY FOR GRADUATE AND AND HOW YOU CAN HELP, Duke West Campus PROFESSIONAL DEGREE CANDIDATES CONTACT ASSOCIATE Contact: Rhonda Sarmento, 919-613-4442, Contact: Nancy Kelly, 919-613-8090 or DEAN KEVIN MCCARTHY, [email protected] [email protected] OFFICE OF DEVELOPMENT APRIL 1-2 ADMITTED STUDENTS VISITATION AND ALUMNI RELATIONS, WEEKEND 919-613-8003. Searle Center Duke West Campus Contact: Academic & Enrollment Services 919-613-8070 or [email protected]

DUKENVIRONMENT NON-PROFIT ORG. MAGAZINE U.S. POSTAGE PAID Box 90328 DURHAM, NC PERMIT #60 MAGAZINE Durham, NC 27708 SURVEY Spend 10 minutes to tell us what you think about Dukenvironment magazine and get a chance to win one of three $100 REI gift certi cates. Get started now! nicholas.duke.edu/ 5dukenvironment/survey

DUKENVIRONMENT 36