Ellen Williams is an optimist. And she believes in the power of science and technology to help society solve grand challenges, like transitioning to clean energy and combating climate change. Williams, a Distinguished University Professor in the University of Maryland’s Department of Physics and Institute for Physical Science and Technology, approaches these challenges with a broader scope of experience than most.
From revoking the permit on the Keystone XL natural gas pipeline to starting the process of reversing Trump-era polices on national monuments, endangered lands and species, and energy exploration, the environment stands near the top of President Joe Biden’s immediate agenda. The centerpiece was an Inauguration Day executive order to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, negotiated by the nations of the world (with key oversight from a Terp) to head off the devastating effects of climate change, from famines to coastal flooding.
Sujay Kaushal, ESSIC and Department of Geology Associate Professor, recently published a paper in Water Research alongside co-authors from the University at Buffalo’s Department of Chemistry, UMD’s Department of Geology, and private firm Hazen and Sawyer.
A new NASA Goddard feature highlights how the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2), originally intended to precisely measure the height of the ice sheets at Earth’s poles, of sea ice floes above the ocean waters, and of forest canopies, has gone beyond its original purposes to map the Earth’s surface. In the article, ESSIC/CISESS scientists Sinéad Farrell and Nathan Thomas are quoted discussing these unintended benefits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljE6iZr_kjY For the last few years, life on the West Coast of the United States has been marked by wildfires. Most recently, August lightning storms
In July, ESSIC and CISESS Director Ellen Williams participated in the National Academies Workshop on Enhancing Federal Clean Energy Innovation, a series supported by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to identify strategies for accelerating clean energy innovation across the federal government.
Last week, The National Geographic Society announced the 2020 recipients of the Young Explorers Grant, a prestigious grant awarded to young people, between the ages of 16 and 26, engaged in complex, impact-driven efforts to address global issues. Liza Goldberg, 18-year-old ESSIC scientist and NASA student research assistant, is one of the 22 recipients.
There might be a link between climate and the spread of COVID-19, finds a study co-authored by ESSIC Director Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm, Assistant Research Scientist Augustin Vintzileos, and collaborators from The Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran.
A group of volunteers including ESSIC scientist Fernando Dos Santos are putting together an interactive map that tracks the spread of COVID-19 across Brazilian states and cities.
On March 2, 2020, ESSIC will be welcoming Dr. John Mather, 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics laureate, as a speaker in the Spring 2020
