Job Posting: Assistant Professor of Forest Health at Virginia Tech

The Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in forest health. The successful candidate will build an outstanding and internationally recognized research program focused on biotic threats (insect pests, pathogens, and/or invasive plants) to forest health. The selected candidate will have a passion to instruct and mentor undergraduate and graduate students, and will complement departmental strengths in physiology, genomics, ecology, wildland fire ecology, silviculture, management, urban forestry, human dimensions, and geospatial analysis.

Community Fundraiser Supports Building and Stewardship of Local Trails

The Poverty Creek Trails Coalition (PCTC) creates, maintains, and improves multi-use trail systems in the New River Valley through coordinated volunteer effort. As a member of the group's community board, you can catch IGC Fellow Kirsten Bretz out building trails with the PCTC crew! She's promoting this upcoming fundraiser event to help the group purchase equipment that will vastly expedite their ability to create and maintain new and existing trails in the New River Valley area. 

Thursday October 13, 6:00 PM ET

Rising Silo Brewery in Blacksburg

IGC Fellow Compiles Tips for Making an Accessible Collaboration Environment

IGC Fellow Amir Mortazavigazar's perception of equality changed a few years ago when he read a memoir by Judith Heumann, a disability rights activist. Two years later, he was able to speak with Judith during a webinar organized by InclusiveVT about how we can empower people with disabilities in our collaborative work and study environments. Inspired by these experiences, Amir contributes a blog post, titled "10 Ways to Make An Accessible Collaborative Environment for People with Disabilities", as part of a writing assignment for the IGC 2nd Seminar course this fall.

GCC Affiliate Julia Gohlke Earns NASA Grant to Study How Extreme Weather Impacts Health

Julia M. Gohlke, associate professor of environmental health in the Department of Population Sciences at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, has been awarded a $1 million grant from NASA. She will work alongside co-principal investigators Ryan Calder, assistant professor of environmental health and policy at the college and faculty affiliate of the Global Change Center; Samarth Swarup of the University of Virginia; and Benjamin Zaitchik of Johns Hopkins University. 

With this grant, Gohlke will improve the ways that government agencies estimate damage caused by extreme weather events. "I'm really excited about the applied aspects of this grant. I've worked on the epidemiology side, figuring out the detrimental health impacts of these extreme weather events, and I'm really excited about translating that into a policy framework that I know that the U.S. government is actually using,” said Gohlke. 

GCC Affiliate Luis Escobar Contributes to NPR Conversation About Zoonotic Diseases

Luis Escobar, assistant professor in the department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, is featured in an NPR article about the possibility for zoonotic diseases like COVID-19 and monkeypox to become more common. Escobar said that in looking to the future, researchers have neglected past data in their work to combat disease spread. "The research I do is a bit to anticipate the future," he said. "But we're putting a lot of effort to try to reconstruct the past. We're analyzing data from the last century – in terms of wildlife diseases, climate, forest laws in the last 100 years – and with that, we are understanding what is happening now."

GCC Founding Affiliate Deborah Brosnan Deploys New Manmade Coral Reefs for Restoration Efforts

Researchers have deployed a new type of coral reef restoration technique off the coast of Antigua and Barbuda. The “coral modules", which are manmade structures with 2,000 living coral attached, were designed to help reverse the effects of climate change, which has killed almost all the islands’ coral reefs. The new coral modules are meant to help protect the islands’ coastal communities from the impact of storms and sea level rise. The modules were created by climate scientist and marine biologist Deborah Brosnan and entrepreneur John Paul DeJoria with the help of the Antigua and Barbuda government. The efforts is part of OceanShot, the coral reef restoration project led by Brosnan.