[ECOLOG-L] call for submissions - multidisciplinary student publication
Hello Ecolog, Below is the call for submissions for the inaugural issue of "Shift:", a multi-disciplinary student created, student research and design publication. Submissions of work and research related to the concept of emerging infrastructure are encouraged from students of all disciplines. Students of Landscape Architecture at North Carolina State University have taken on the mission of creating this forum for students to exchange ideas and explore current and pressing topics from multiple points of view. As a previous student of ecology, I believe that the natural sciences have a large role to play in the field of emerging infrastructure and I hope that spreading the word of this new publication to your ears may elicit excitement and interest from potential submitters and readers alike. The deadline is in a week, so please encourage any students that may qualify to submit their intriguing explorations. Many thanks, Leslie Morefield BS Biology, Appalachian State University 2005 Candidate, Master of Landscape Architecture: NCSU 2011 Public Relations Officer, "Shift:" leslie.morefi...@gmail.com http://design.ncsu.edu/shift * NCSU Student ASLA Publication Shift: MISSION STATEMENT We are a student-run organization seeking to provide a scholarly and provocative forum for emerging issues at the forefront of theory and practice in landscape architecture and related disciplines. GOALS & OBJECTIVES Feature student research & innovation impacting landscape architectural theory and practice, Foster creative interaction across related disciplines, Increase awareness of emerging landscape architectural theory and practice within academic and professional communities. CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS ISSUE #1 SHIFT: Infrastructure Infrastructure is the enabling foundation of contemporary civilization, evolving over centuries to meet society's ever-changing needs. Disturbing trends suggest societal needs are increasingly outpacing the capacity of our existing infrastructure strategies and available technologies. This moment in history demands a reconsideration of the conventional, centralized, and technocratic practice of orthodox infrastructure that has subjugated ecological systems and neglected social interconnectedness. Initiatives such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 have invested hundreds of billions of dollars into U.S. infrastructure improvements but these funds are being directed largely towards shovel-ready improvements to antiquated infrastructure systems. Some of these improvements are indeed necessary, but they are merely short-term solutions. A SHIFT towards a new, integrated approach to infrastructure design and management is imperative. How this needed paradigm shift occurs will depend on creative decision-making and powerful collective efforts led by designers, planners, and communities at every level. This emerging framework of infrastructure must prioritize the quality and health of human experience while operating symbiotically within its ecological context. Rather than adhering to the rigid and deterministic models of the past, this new model must become a reflexive process that adapts temporally and spatially across diverse contexts and scales. The inaugural issue, SHIFT: Infrastructure will focus on issues that surround emerging infrastructure, and provide an opportunity to re-think our approach to confronting their many challenges. Our aim is to broaden the traditional notion of infrastructure to include areas such as culture, ecology, and economy, and incorporate differing levels of time, context, and scale; from rural to urban, from local to global, from immediate to imagined. How can the evolution of infrastructure be managed to maximize human and environmental health? How can integrated design approaches develop synergies among infrastructural systems that promote social equity, ecological resiliency, and economic prosperity? We call for exceptional examples of student research and innovation that answer these questions and advance the practice of Landscape Architecture and allied professions. Submission Deadline: June 1, 2010 JURY Mark Johnson - FASLA, Founder of Civitas Inc. Jeff Hou - Chair, Associate Professor, University of Washington Landscape Architecture Kristina Hill - Director, Landscape Architecture, University of Virginia William Wenk - FASLA, Wenk Associates Walter Kulash - PE More Jury Members TBA For more information on the call and how to submit visit our website: http://design.ncsu.edu/shift Keywords: research, student, writing, infrastructure, health, ecology, landscape
[ECOLOG-L] Graduate Student Position
Greetings, As of May 24, I have support for a graduate student interested in how biotic and/or abiotic factors impact disease transmission. There is a good bit of flexibility within this broad description to include climate change, vector or host population dynamics, habitat structure and use, etc. Note that this is largely a modeling project but there is opportunity to also do some empirical research. Hence, some modeling experience or programming in r or Matlab (or a lower level language) is preferred but a keen interest counts as well! I'm looking for someone to start this Fall or Spring. If interested, I encourage you to check out www.tiehh.ttu.edu for information on our program and to email me for more information about the research and our lab. thanks, Chris Salice chris.salice AT ttu.edu
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Science and Religion Dogmatic conflict?
Splendid thread! (And I don't mean that in any Two Cities, Dickensian sense.)
Personally, I find great harmony between(+among) science(s)+religion(s). In my
esteem, science(s) and religion(s) share essential similarities in their
both/all being modes of human thought. I find affinity in M.
Moore's(+Einsten's+Rilke's+a lot of people's) idea of translatability of
ideas/matters/energies, although I take some exception to some extensions
thereof. In science(s), we often attempt to describe existence(s) using
methods/techniques/instruments to detect, describe and - often - quantify
energies of objects...
[[riff on objects]] The idea of objectivity concerns me (apparently
paradoxical reflexivity intended). Personally, I think it's impossible to
observe something without the observer exerting influence on the observed - the
linking of all things, eh? (And that pesky thread again!) Relatively
recently, I had a sort of Archimedes/Edison/ah-ha! moment myself when listening
to J.J.N.L.Y.T. Gyatsothe - the current (ohms and all) Dalai Lama - discuss the
interface(s) of science and religion; what struck me was his comparison of
meditation techniques and the scientific method - which J. Shevtsov introduced
in excerpting E.O. Wilson: this D. Lama talked about how some meditation
practices are every bit as methodical and rationally thought-out as aspects of
scientific inquiry; he talked about how those meditative approaches had been
developed, refined and passed down by generations of practitioners who were
able to come to some inter-subjective ( - that's a particular phrase that !
sticks with me - ) way to describe the specific methods they used to achieve
certain and equally specific mental/spiritual/extant states, and then to
describe what those states were like with similar accord. As, J.J. Roper
notes, these people thought a lot about these approaches and modes, with an
almost scientific attention. In such framing, I see no evidence for
irresolvable discord among ideas of rationality, empiricism, mysticism,
intuition, emotion, poetry and so on; rather, I see incorporation and synthesis
of human capacity. I see a nuanced beauty. (We'll get to truth.) I think
hooking monks up to fMRI machines may provide a different means of describing
what they could tell you in their own particular idioms, and without all the
electric and petrochemical infrastructure. [[return from riff]]
And, personally (I'm going to stop with that adverb since it's inherent in my
expressions), I don't find science(s) to be bound, except in how we choose to
apply what we call science - it's a matter of applied interpretation, in my
esteem. I think questions of divinity and unifying aspects of the universe
(maybe multi-verse?) can be investigated/accessed with as much methodology,
logic and deliberateness (see above and also Aquinas, T. 'round about 1270-ish)
as questions of physical sciences. I think ideas and emotions are just as
observable as insects. "I will show you fear in a handful of dust."
I'd also like to touch on something that M. Moore brought up: do we really
want to know? Or, modified: can we really know? Surely not by logic alone...
I've (thankfully) never taken classes on logic but from what I've read of
infinite regress (e.g., evidence for our evidence), axiomatic assumptions,
Agrippa and Gödel, I gather that logic is problematic, and like its cousin,
mathematics, is shot through with unreason and paradox and conundrum (nod to
D.F. Wallace, RIP). Proposition Q: Proposition Q is not provable. Truth:
Truths are only provable when true. As D. Pursell notes, truth is tricky to
define, especially with our inherently abstract, ambiguous
language/representational/number systems (nods to D. Pursell + W. Tyson + D.F.
Wallace here + all intellectual predecessors who led to them) - water is not
the word water. Language can impede and facilitate communication, depending on
who's in the audience. We always seem to start with the ifs given. I like the
id!
ea of only opining on what one could explain to one's mother, yet that assumes
one wants to talk to her, or can find her. {{Uh-oh, now I'm thinking about my
thoughts... oy indeed!}}
I also think (believe, opine, tra la la) it's unfair to paint religion(s) as
the only human endeavor plagued by dogmatism and imperialistic-oriented
evangelism (and any number of other -isms). I think science, journalism,
politics and any human activity can be manipulated by power-hungry, overzealous
authoritarian interests who profit from suppressing questioning and independent
thought. I think one big benefit of what we call science relates to the
peer-review/inter-subjective process of debate, culling, further study and
tentative agreement... I think religion(s) are just as capable of harboring
lunatic rogues and science(s) - that doesn't condemn either entire enterprise,
if they are in fact so separate. For exam
[ECOLOG-L] Postdoctoral position - ecological genetics of Invasive Species
Postdoctoral Position: Ecological Genetics of Invasive Species. A postdoctoral position in ecological genetics is available at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The successful candidate will work on a collaborative project examining genetic structure of an invasive plant in its native and introduced ranges in the lab of Drs. Sara Hoot, Gretchen Meyer and Mai Phillips. Using existing plant collections, the postdoctoral associate will assist in the following projects: 1) develop molecular markers to investigate genetic variation of Solidago gigantea in its native range (US) and introduced range (Europe), 2) explore relationships among the genetic data and previously-collected datasets on secondary chemistry, susceptibility to herbivory, and growth and reproductive characters of the same plants, and 3) develop a molecular phylogeny of the Solidago canadensis complex (including the species most closely related to S. gigantea). A Ph.D. and a strong background in ecological genetics, systematics, or evolution is required. Experience extracting and amplifying DNA from plant tissue is preferred, and interest or experience with genetics of invasive plants is desirable. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has a strong research group in ecology and evolution (http://www4.uwm.edu/letsci/biologicalsciences/grad/eeb/index.cfm) and Milwaukee is a vibrant city offering many cultural and recreational opportunities (http://www4.uwm.edu/visitors/amazing_milwaukee.cfm). We offer a competitive salary and full benefits. The position is for one year with an opportunity to contribute to grant-writing for further funding. Start date will be between July - Aug 2010. Review of applications will begin June 10 and continue until position is filled. To apply, send letter of interest highlighting your relevant experience and interests, a complete CV, and contact information for 3 referees to Gretchen Meyer (gme...@uwm.edu or by mail to UWM Field Station, 3095 Blue Goose Rd, Saukville WI 53080).
[ECOLOG-L] SERDP Student Travel Awards: Deadline June 1!
SERDP Student Travel Awards 2010 The Ecological Society of America (ESA) announces the availability of ten (10) travel awards of $500 each to students presenting papers at ESA's 2010 Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. These awards are sponsored by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP). SERDP is the U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD) environmental science and technology program, executed in partnership with DOE and EPA. SERDP invests in basic and applied research, and exploratory development. Students with abstracts accepted in one of four areas are eligible to apply: * Ecological Systems Ecology and Management * Living Marine Resources Ecology and Management * Watershed Processes and Management * Species Ecology and Management Deadline: June 1, 2010 - One week left to submit your application! Eligibility Please note that students whose research or research assistantship position is currently being funded by DOD SERDP are not eligible for this award. Students whose research involves ecological systems or species that are relevant to a DoD natural resource management concern have preference, though the research does not need to have been conducted on a DoD installation. For full application information, please go to http://www.esa.org/education_diversity/serdp_awards.php
[ECOLOG-L] Masters of Professional Science Follow-up
I just wanted to thank everyone for their advice; it has left me with many good points to consider. Gratefully, Karen
