‘climate change’
Vanderbilt researcher selected to present at UN’s COP27 in Egypt
Sep. 26, 2022—Vanderbilt University has been selected to present in two venues at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly referred to as COP27, Nov. 15 at Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Vanderbilt research assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and Vanderbilt Climate Change Initiative Director Leah Dundon’s proposal on Vanderbilt’s ongoing research in marine shipping...
Engineering grad students attend COP26, present their work on NSF-supported project
Feb. 8, 2022—Two engineering graduate students and 14 undergraduate students represented Vanderbilt University 3,923 miles away in Glasgow, Scotland, as official delegates to the United Nations international climate change negotiations—dubbed COP26. The extraordinary opportunity was facilitated by Leah Dundon, director of the Vanderbilt Climate Change Initiative and research assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Dundon secured for Vanderbilt official United...
PhD student mentors undergrads on week-long STEMSEAS expedition
Jan. 24, 2022—Shipboard program open to all undergraduate majors As a Vanderbilt undergraduate, Miguel Moravec took part in a research cruise that used multibeam sonar to map areas of the Queen Charlotte Fault off the Southeast Alaskan coast. He and other students also visited Exit Glacier Park and saw first-hand how fast glacier ice had receded over...
Tennessee flash floods are an example of climate change impacts to come
Aug. 25, 2021—The historic rain and flash flooding that swept central Tennessee on Saturday, Aug. 21, 2021, devastated the small city of Waverly, about 60 miles west of Nashville. A flash flood watch issued Friday quickly became a “flash flood emergency” Saturday. On Wednesday, Sept. 25, Humphreys County officials said 20 people died and all those missing had been accounted...
Research Snapshot: How will the global community react if vulnerable nations pioneer solar radiation geoengineering
Aug. 24, 2021—By Marissa Shapiro THE IDEA Jonathan Gilligan (John Russell) Jonathan Gilligan, associate professor of Earth and environmental sciences and civil and environmental engineering, and a group of international researchers have illustrated potential international conflicts over climate change. One of a larger group of studies, this work engaged in a role-playing scenario set in 2040 in...
Royal Society award gives international exposure to work in polar sciences, computational mechanics
Aug. 20, 2021—The School of Engineering’s work in polar and climate science, plus computational mechanics, will get international exposure with a two-year travel grant from the Royal Society, the independent academic society of the U.K., for a collaboration between a Vanderbilt professor and a professor in England. The project will establish new approaches for simulating fracture propagation...
CEE professors named to Transportation Research Board committees
Nov. 10, 2020—Two civil engineering faculty members have been named to key positions on committees of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Mark Abkowitz, professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies, has been appointed chair of the committee on Extreme Weather and Climate Change...
Climate adaptation is a necessity and no longer an option
Oct. 19, 2020—This opinion piece by Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Mark Abkowitz originally appeared in The Hill, an American news website based in Washington, D.C. focused on politics, policy, business and international relations. Professor Abkowitz chairs a National Academy of Sciences Committee on Extreme Weather and Climate Change Adaptation. Wildfires, inland and coastal flooding, heat waves,...