Forestry Research Indicates Diseased Trees Produce Global-warming Methane

Kristofer Covey (Forestry & Environmental Studies) is lead author of a prize-winning study that found that diseased trees may be a significant and previously unsuspected source of methane, a gas implicated in causing climate change. The research, done at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies’s Meyer Forest, was published in Geophysical Research Letters, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Geophysical Union. Sixty trees sampled at Yale Myers Forest contained concentrations of methane that were as high as 80,000 times ambient levels. “We believe we have found a globally significant new source of this potent greenhouse gas,” Kris says.    

Seeing the Invisible: Rethinking Stereotypes of Race and Gender

Erin Thomas (Psychology) is studying “intersectional invisibility,” which she defines as “the overlooking or ignoring of individuals with multiple disadvantaged social identities. My research focuses specifically on Black women, who possess both race and gender group memberships that deviate from the American prototype of a White man.” One of her experiments, measuring test subjects’ reaction time when sorting images, showed that Black women are perceived as non-prototypical members of both their race and gender. She plans to conduct at least one focus group for minority women at Yale. Interested women should contact her by email.   

Journeying into a War Zone to Study the History of Sufism

Waleed Ziad (History) visited more than forty cities and towns in war-torn Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past two summers to study the historical influence and current practice of Sufism, the mystical dimension of Islam. His research focuses on the nineteenth century, when Sufi revivalist networks helped define the Muslim response to the decline of political power that followed the advent of colonialism. He is also working on a study of coins found near a pilgrimage site in the Hindu Kush that served as a center of commerce as well as worship from the fourth to thirteenth centuries.    

Kudos

Baran Sarac (Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science) won the 2012 Materials Research Society Best Poster Award for his presentation titled “Designing Tensile Ductility in BMGs through Artificial Microstructures.” He works on alloys that have the properties of both metals and glasses.   

Rachel Rothschild (History of Science and Medicine) won the Joan Robinson Prize for her paper on the history of acid rain in Europe, “Détente from the Air: Monitoring Pollution and European Integration in the Cold War.” The prize was awarded by the Society for the History of Technology in Copenhagen.   

Marlyse Duguid (Forestry & Environmental Studies) won first prize for Best Student Presentation at the Society of American Foresters’ national conference. Her paper, “The influence of ground disturbance and gap position on understory plant diversity in upland forests of southern New England,” analyzes how plants in the forest understory respond to harvesting.    

Industrial Ecology Society Elects Marian Chertow President

Associate Professor Marian Chertow (PhD 2000, FES; MPPM 1981) has been elected president of the International Society for Industrial Ecology. Founded in 2001, the society has over 500 members from 41 countries. Chertow is on the faculty of the Yale School of Management as well as the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where she is director of the Industrial Environmental Management Program. She is also a member of the faculty of Yale’s program at the National University of Singapore. Her research and teaching focus on industrial ecology, business and environment, waste management, environmental technology innovation, and urban industrial studies.    

Chemistry Alumnus
to Chair Scientific Advisory Committee

Daniel Harvey (PhD 1985, Chemistry), chief operating officer of Dart NeuroScience, was named to the Angelman Syndrome Foundation (ASF) board of directors and appointed chair of its Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC). Dart NeuroScience develops treatments for a wide range of disorders associated with learning and memory. As head of the SAC, Harvey will lead a committee of experts that will evaluate proposals submitted to the foundation for funding. Angelman syndrome is a severe neurogenetic disorder on the autism spectrum that occurs about once in 15,000 live births. Harvey has been involved with the ASF since his son was diagnosed with the syndrome in 1996.    

Geology & Geophysics Alumnus Honored by NASA for Distinguished Service

E. Julius Dasch (PhD 1969, Geology & Geophysics), recipient of the 2013 NASA National Space Grant Distinguished Service Award for his outstanding work directing education programs for the agency, calls Yale “the single, most transforming event of my academic life. It was not just the fantastic quality of the University or my department, or my education, but the interaction with my student colleagues. I stay in close communication with many of them to this day.” Dasch worked at NASA from 1988 to 2002, serving as director of two of the largest higher education programs within the agency.    

Graduate Student Assembly Update

The Graduate Student Assembly hit the ground running this semester. Committees are working on expanding dental and healthcare coverage, lab safety, and online education, as well as creating a teaching forum for graduate students across the university. The GSA has brought together representatives from the GPSS and Yale College Council to begin discussing interests all three groups share, including the possibility of a student center on campus.   

Graduate School Alumni Association News

The Graduate School Alumni Association’s Executive Committee will host a mentoring workshop on May 14 to mentor students as they prepare to look for jobs in academia, government, industry, and the non-profit sector. The GSAA Executive Committee is currently seeking alumni volunteers who would like to serve on the board of the GSAA for a three-year term beginning July 1. The deadline for consideration in 2013 is February 28. Interested alumni should send an email to Julia Downs.   

Please contact Gila Reinstein with news items.