Winter 2021 Newsletter
Throughout the Winter Quarter, E-IPER students and alumni were hard at work with courses and research in addressing environment and resource-related problems. In a continued virtual learning environment, we still found time to connect. We hope you enjoy learning about our community's exciting happenings and accomplishments

In this issue:

  • Welcome New Staff: Ai Tran
  • Dissertation Defense: Rachel Engstrand
  • Collaboration Grants
  • 20th Anniversary Events: Celebrating our Faculty, Celebrating our Alumni, and Joint and Dual MS Winter Capstone Symposium
  • E-IPER Connections: GSB Climate, Business & Innovation Summit, Post-Climate Summit Dinner, and Book Club
  • Student and Alumni News, including Awards & Honors, Publications & Presentations
News Features
New E-IPER Staff:
Ai Tran
Ai Tran has joined the E-IPER team as our Assistant Director of Student Services. Before E-IPER, Ai served as the Student Services Officer in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALC). As SSO, Ai managed EALC's undergraduate and graduate programs, helping ensure the smooth completion of each student's academic journey. During her time in EALC, Ai partnered with faculty leaders to reshape the undergraduate curriculum requirements, introduced changes to the graduate aid package that ultimately provided additional funding support for EALC's PhD students, and introduced new academic progress management processes that improved the graduate advising process. 

"I enjoy working with students and learning about everyone's research projects! While I may not know all the technical details, listening to everyone talk about their interests inspires me to think about how I can be better in my role to support the students I work with and advance E-IPER's initiatives."  

When not at work, Ai is (slowly) learning how to be a gracious loser at various board games, and indulges her childhood dream of running away to join the circus by practicing Aerial Yoga and Lyra.
PhD Dissertation Defense:
Rachel Engstrand
On March 9, Rachel Engstrand (PhD 5th) successfully defended her dissertation, "The Human & Environmental Dynamics of Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining in the Peruvian Amazon."

Rachel studies natural recovery following illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon. She is using methods drawn from ecology, microbiology, remote sensing, and the social sciences to understand the social drivers of gold mining and the potential for an area to recover after being abandoned by gold miners.
PhD and Joint MS Collaboration
Market Analysis of Sea Cucumber Farms and Fisheries in Palau: Designing a Model that Benefits Fishers, Empowers Women, and Conserves Resources

Caroline Ferguson and Maya Granit
In Palau, sea cucumbers are vital to food security, income, and cultural practices, particularly for rural women. Yet their populations have been severely depleted by overfishing. In response, Caroline E. Ferguson (PhD, 4th) and Maya Granit (MS-MBA '20) partnered with local non-profit Ebiil Society to explore the possibilities of ecological restoration and income generation through small-scale aquaculture. With additional support from Meg Downey (MS-MBA '20), they delivered their business-operating model and recommendations in Autumn 2020 to inform the construction and operation of a hatchery. In the months since, Ebiil Society has partnered with experts at the Palau
Bureau of Marine Resources to rear over 50,000 juvenile sea cucumbers in an existing facility. Local fisherwomen and students from Palau High School planted 30,000 of these juveniles in early March and, with guidance from Caroline, established an ecological monitoring protocol to measure success in the years ahead. Construction of the community-based hatchery is slated to begin later this year and is expected to produce millions of sea cucumbers to restore wild stocks and support local livelihoods for decades to come.
 
Caroline presented the findings of this research at the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC) Fisheries and Aquaculture Conference in March 2021.

Distributional Impacts of California Wildfires through the Lens of the Residential Housing Market

Kiran Chawla and Daniel Irvin
Kiran Chawla
Daniel Irvin
Kiran Chawla (PhD 2nd) and Daniel Irvin (MS-JD '21) have spent the year working on a collaboration grant. This project focuses on how increasing wildfire risk is straining the insurance and housing markets in California. The project has a particular focus on the distributional aspects of this issue: Have wildfires caused more harm in low-income communities due to rising insurance costs and depressed home values? The goal of the project is a report that will educate stakeholders on the current effects of wildfire risk on housing prices, which in turn should inform state insurance regulation, decisions about public finance, and mitigation efforts.

Kiran and Daniel first looked at the legal and policy landscape, learning how insurance prices are constrained by regulatory forces (potentially muting the effect of wildfire risk on insurance prices), and how Proposition 13 affects the rate at which a local government’s tax base increases. Additionally, they studied the relationship of low-income and disadvantaged communities and fire-risk: Is there significant overlap between either group and high wildfire risk? Disadvantaged communities in California are determined by pollution burdens in those communities, whereas lower income communities are defined based on the average income in the census tract. Kiran and Daniel learned that there are very few disadvantaged communities (i.e., communities that experience high pollution burdens and are important from an environmental justice lens) located in high-risk areas, but there are a significant number of low-income communities in high-risk areas. Low-income, high-risk communities are concentrated in the Sierras, while high-risk areas along the coast and in Southern California tend to be higher income.

Right now, Kiran and Daniel are in the causal stage of their analysis, examining whether wildfire risk has caused home sale prices to be lower in high-risk areas. Wildfires have increased in both public salience and value of lost buildings in the last five years. Therefore, their project attempts to estimate the change in total number of homes sold (within a census tract) and the average value of a sale, that can be causally attributed to wildfire risk since 2015. Initial results of this study suggest that being in a high wildfire risk area has caused a decrease of approximately $10,000 in housing value relative to what it would have been absent high wildfire risk. Higher wildfire risk areas also experience a larger number of sales (higher ‘churn’ in the housing market) relative to low wildfire risk areas. Due to Proposition 13 in California, which requires counties to assess taxes on properties based on housing prices that do not necessarily reflect their market value, both housing market churn and evolution of market value due to high wildfire risk have significant policy-relevant implications for the tax base of counties and public finance. The final output of the project will be the report mentioned above, where they hope by providing this data, state and local policymakers will be better informed about the interaction between wildfire risk and California housing markets.
Claims-Making and Climate Displacement: Lessons from the Case Study of Vanuatu

Erica Bower and Amanda Zerbe

Throughout the Autumn and Winter, Erica Bower (PhD 2nd) and Amanda Zerbe (MS-JD '21) combined their legal and social scientific research skills in a multi-pronged project focused on claims from communities facing climate displacement in Vanuatu, a small island nation in the South Pacific. In the first component, Erica and Amanda undertook a comparative content analysis to examine three climate “claims” being made in Vanuatu. Entities in Vanuatu are trying to obtain an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice, have threatened to sue extraterritorial polluters and governments for climate harms, and are advocating for "ecocide" to be added to international criminal crimes. They compared and contrasted the different techniques and frames that each claim used to communicate their messages. They also conducted supplementary interviews with key stakeholders in each claim.

This Spring, they are using an experimental design to assess what frames for one climate change claim -- efforts to obtain an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice -- are more effective at eliciting support from target audiences. This part of the project was developed in close collaboration with their community partner and a key messenger in this claim, the Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC). Finally, in a third component, they have begun contributing to global efforts to augment and expand legal analysis in support of PISFCC’s campaign. Through these three components, Erica and Amanda hope their collaboration will shed light on how community-driven claims and the movements behind them can most effectively advocate to decision makers.
Events
E-IPER 20th Anniversary: Celebrating our Faculty
“PhD Admissions: Walking Through the PhD,
How We Got to PhDone!”
As part of this year’s E-IPER admissions virtual site visit and in celebration of
E-IPER’s 20th anniversary, we began our series of alumni panel discussions to reflect on making the most of the E-IPER experience and what happens afterward. The first panel, moderated by Faculty Director Nicole Ardoin, featured Miyuki Hino (PhD '19), an Assistant Professor at UNC Chapel Hill, with her two co-advisors: Professors Chris Field and Marshall Burke. 

Miyuki’s dissertation work in E-IPER focused on flood risk from climate change and managed retreat as an adaptation response. It resulted in publication in Science and Nature Climate Change, as well as popular media coverage, including
The New Yorker. The panel discussed the E-IPER experience, from choosing advisors during admissions to the job market, and highlighted the strengths and challenges of working across disciplines, the two-advisor model, and fostering mentorship and collaboration.

View the "PhD Admissions: Walking Through the PhD, How We Got to PhDone" webinar HERE.
E-IPER 20th Anniversary: Celebrating our Alumni
"E-IPER Careers: Alumni in Academia"
On Thursday, March 4th, in celebration of E-IPER’s 20th Anniversary, the program hosted a panel discussion webinar entitled, “E-IPER Careers: Alumni in Academia.” The event was organized by program staff -- Ann Marie Pettigrew, Gabriela Magana, and Maile Kuida -- along with PhD students Erica Bower (2nd-year) and Garrett Albistegui Adler (5th-year). Moderated by Rob Dunbar, W.M. Keck Professor of Earth System Science and E-IPER’s first Faculty Director, the discussion focused on the experiences and insights of the four PhD Alumni panelists, each of whom now works in academia: Frances C. Moore (PhD ‘15), Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at UC Davis; Kimberly Nicholas (PhD ‘08), Associate Professor of Sustainability Science at Lund University; Narasimha Rao (PhD ‘11), Associate Professor of Energy Systems at Yale University; and Aaron Strong (PhD ‘15), Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Hamilton College. As it happened, each of the alumni panelists focused on climate change as a topic of study in their work. However, in true E-IPER fashion, each approaches the topic using a different disciplinary lens and methodological approach, reflecting their varied training, advising relationships, and research experiences during their time as E-IPER PhD students.

The event was divided into two portions. The first hour involved introductions from each of the panelists about their PhD experience, current work, and how their time at Stanford led to their current roles. This was followed by a few questions from Professor Dunbar and a series of questions from the audience. The second portion was a special session, particularly designed to allow current PhD students to ask more in-depth and personally relevant questions in a smaller setting. We look forward to more events like this in the future, and to continue to celebrate 20 years of E-IPER!

View the "E-IPER Careers: Alumni in Academia" webinar HERE.
Joint & Dual MS Winter Capstone Symposium

During the course of the 10-week quarter, the Winter 2021 Capstone cohort, comprised of 7 MS-MBA, 4 MS-JD students, and 1 Dual MS/PhD Genetics student, utilized their environment- and resources-backed knowledge to address a variety of significant environmental issues. In their culminating experience of the quarter (and Joint and Dual MS program), the Winter 2021 Capstone cohort delivered 11 presentations on projects that explored understanding and addressing reduction of energy emissions, profitability of environmental businesses, and regulation of climate change response. The projects presented offered innovative and refreshing perspectives that serve as timely reminders of the work that is currently done in these spaces, along with trajectories for moving forward.

The Winter 2021 Capstone Symposium was a remote/virtual experience held via Zoom webinar, as COVID-19 physical distancing guidelines continue through the 2020-21 academic year. With the support of the ENVRES 290 teaching team (Nik Sawe, John Weyant, and Sudatta Ray), E-IPER staff, and Cyperus Media staff, the Symposium was made available to the wider E-IPER and Stanford Earth community.

Videos of all presentations are available on the E-IPER website
Student Connections
E-IPER Connections
Below, we share a summary of the fun events led by our MS and PhD students throughout the Winter Quarter.
GSB Climate, Business & Innovation Summit
On February 10th, Victoria Wills (MS-MBA '21), Joanna Klitzke (MS-MBA '21) and Sophie Janaskie (MBA '21) co-hosted the third annual GSB Climate, Business & Innovation Summit. Taking place virtually, the event attracted over 700 attendees from 37 countries -- a testament to its wide-spanning and diverse agenda. The day kicked off with a keynote from Catherine Coleman Flowers, an internationally recognized environmental activist. In conversation with Stanford lecturer and CEO of Gemini, Dr. Anthony Kinslow II, Flowers spoke about the imperative for business leaders to recognize the disparate effects that both climate change and its solutions have had on communities of color. This theme of equity and environmental justice (EJ) permeated the day's conversations, from the dedicated EJ panel (moderated by Melissa Zhang, MS-MBA '22) to a panel dedicated to natural climate solutions (moderated by Morrison Mast, MS-MBA '21). Despite the virtual format, organizers saw a high level of engagement from the wider community, which included students, investors, and entrepreneurs from around the world. The event will continue next year, led by GSB '22 students Abigail Mathieson (MS-MBA '22), Anca Timofte (MBA ’22), and Eric Nevalsky (MS-MBA '22). See full event article and the Summit Keynote recording.

E-IPER Post-Climate Summit Dinner

Following the third annual GSB Climate, Business & Innovation Summit,
E-IPER students came together virtually to debrief. They discussed highlights from the climate summit and takeaways from sessions on climate investing, risk, green technologies, and careers. The students were joined by Stanford alumnus Tim Latimer (MS-MBA ‘17), co-founder and CEO of Fervo Energy. Tim had much to contribute and the students enjoyed getting his view on several of the summit themes!
Book Club
The E-IPER Book Club meets once per quarter and is a fun and informal way for E-IPERnauts to connect across cohorts and programs. In Winter Quarter, we read All We Can Save, edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson. It features, "Provocative and illuminating essays from women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward." 

All We Can Save received rave reviews by LitHub and Kirkus Reviews.
Left to right, top to bottom: Nic Buckley Biggs, Erica Bower, Anna Lee, Alison Ong,
Amanda Zerbe, David Gonzalez, Bianca Santos
Student News
Bianca Santos (PhD 2nd) wrote a blog post for Stanford’s Environmental Justice Working Group’s website on Dr. Ayana Johnson’s seminar at Stanford.

Shannon Switzer Swanson (PhD 6th) is a co-host on the documentary The Last Drop, which premiered on the National Geographic Channel on March 26th. The documentary explores water conservation in the West alongside actor Adrian Grenier. Shannon interviews experts tackling systemic water conservation issues through creative strategies, including farmer Brian Wong, who has transitioned his family's cotton farm to grow water-saving ancient grains native to the desert, and Kathryn Sorensen, Director of Phoenix Water Services, who helped develop a wetland system that recycles the city's sewage water. Meanwhile, Adrian learns what it takes to reduce his own personal water use at home. 
Shannon, while filming in Arizona and discovering water-friendly farming techniques to grow drought-resistant ancient grains.
Alumni News
Dr. Austin Becker (PhD '13) is spending his sabbatical year (remotely) at the US Naval War College, where he is collaborating with the Humanitarian Response Program on disaster response and resilience planning. During his appointment at the USNWC, Dr. Becker is co-leading a Military Installation Resilience Review of Naval Station Newport and its neighboring communities. He continues to serve as the Director of Graduate Programs and Associate Professor at the University of Rhode Island, Department of Marine Affairs.  

Elinor Benami (PhD '18) started a position this year at Virginia Tech as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.

Cassandra Brooks (PhD '16) was featured in a story on “Antarctic Champion,” part of Only One’s “Women Making Waves” series.

Nina Brooks (PhD '20) will be joining the University of Connecticut as an Assistant Professor of Public Policy in Autumn 2021.

Lisa Forssell (MS-MBA '15) has been serving on the Utilities Advisory Commission (UAC) for the City of Palo Alto since 2016 and currently serves as chair. The municipal utility provides electric power, natural gas, water, and wastewater collection to the City, and the UAC advises the council on policy matters related to sustainability, safety, reliability, and affordability. In her day job, Lisa works as a producer in the design studio at Apple.

Rachael Garrett (PhD '13) has joined the Evidensia Research Council. Evidensia works to provide access to credible research on the sustainability impacts and effectiveness of supply chain initiatives and tools. Evidensia.eco provides a portal to information and evidence, and supports shared learning through its insights and analysis. The Evidensia Research Council is a technical, independent governance body that has accountability for Evidensia’s overall research methodology, approach, and activities. It also supports with research collaborations and partnerships.
Ida Hempel (MS-MBA '20), Kate Wharton (MBA '19), and Julia Osterman (MS-MBA '20) are excited to announce "Solving Climate, Naturally," a new podcast about nature's role in tackling climate change. Join them as they interview entrepreneurs, scientists, business leaders, conservationists, and more at the cutting-edge of nature-based solutions.

Visit their website to learn more and sign up for email updates, including the link to their first episode released on April 6!

Andrea Lund (PhD '20) started a new position in February 2021 as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Colorado School of Public Health. 

In October 2020, Andrea was invited by the Biology Department at her alma mater, University of Minnesota, Morris, to deliver the 2021 virtual Joseph J. Latterell Alumni Lecture where she presented her research, reconnected with former professors, and met current students over Zoom. 

Michael Mastrandrea (PhD '04) has transitioned to a new position as Research Director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program and a Senior Research Scholar at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. From this position at Stanford, he is also serving as Chief Advisor for Energy and Climate Research at the California Energy Commission. Michael's work continues to involve a combination of research and policy engagement in California and beyond.

Lauren Oakes (PhD '15) was the guest on a podcast with comedian Paula Poundstone. The podcast focused on biodiversity and its importance.

Katrina ole-MoiYoi (PhD '17) continues her work in agriculture, albeit from a different vantage point: she is now in Paris working in the apparel industry as part of Kering’s corporate sustainability team. She recently led the development of Kering’s global biodiversity strategy – one of the first in the industry – and designed, and now oversees the Regenerative Fund for Nature, dedicated to transforming agricultural practices across 1 million hectares in the company's supply chain. Katrina hasn’t fallen too far from the tree, currently collaborating with Stanford’s Natural Capital Project on a Mongolian goat cashmere program, which models possible ecosystem impacts under various management/climate scenarios in the South Gobi.

Sendil Palami (MS-MBA '13) has been promoted to Vice President, Finance, at Tesla, where she focuses on corporate planning, new product/factory expansion, and product costs.

Amy Pickering (PhD '11) accepted a new position as the Blum Center Distinguished Chair in Global Poverty and Practice at the University of California, Berkeley, with a joint appointment in the Blum Center for Developing Economies and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. 

Tannis Thorlakson (PhD '18) was recently featured by TedX Santa Barbara, discussing the opportunity to drive sustainability in agriculture through data, highlighting her current work as the Senior Environmental Manager at Driscoll's.

Jen Wang (PhD '18) was profiled for "An interdisciplinary approach to sustainability" in an article for HPE's Enterprise.Nxt, Hewlett Packard's thought leadership site aimed at IT leaders. The article highlights four women using tech to pursue social and environmental issues. 

Awards & Honors
Elinor Benami (PhD '18) started a new multi-year NASA LCLUC early career scientist grant and is also a Co-PI on a new multi-year Stanford Impact Labs Grant with Dan Ho, Stanford Law School.

Nic Buckley Biggs (PhD 3rd) was selected to be a Schneider Policy Fellow with Audubon California for Summer 2021, made possible by the Haas Center for Public Service.

Caroline Ferguson (PhD 4th) was appointed a Graduate Dissertation Fellow at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford for 2021-22.

Gemma Smith (PhD 2nd) and Allison Sherris (PhD 5th) were accepted into the 2021 cohort of the Rising Environmental Leaders Program (RELP) of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Each year a group of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars learn to develop the leadership and communication skills they need to optimize the impact of their research.
Publications & Presentations
Ronan Arthur (PhD '18) published a paper, "Adaptive social contact rates induce complex dynamics during epidemics," in PLOS. Press release Stanford News.

Elinor Benami (PhD '18) would like to share the following publications:

"Uniting remote sensing, crop modelling and economics for agricultural risk management," in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. Press release EurekaAlert.

"Can digital technologies reshape rural microfinance? Implications for savings, credit, & insurance," in Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy. Press release AAEA.

"The distributive effects of risk prediction in environmental compliance: Algorithmic design, environmental justice, and public policy." In Proceedings of the Association of Computing Machinery Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, where she presented this work. Press release Stanford News.

Kate Brauman (PhD '10) was one of the section leads on "Making peace with nature," a new UNEP report that summarizes and synthesizes the findings of the wide range of UN environmental reports that have come out over the past 10 years. The report was officially launched at the UN Environmental Assembly on February 18th.

Cassandra Brooks (PhD '16) has a few journal publications to share:
 
"The Salas y Gómez and Nazca ridges: A review of the importance, opportunities and challenges for protecting a global diversity hotspot on the high seas," in Marine Policy.

"Marine ecosystem assessment for the Southern Ocean: Birds and marine mammals in a changing climate," in Frontiers in Ecology & Evolution.
"Coral reefs of the high seas: Hidden biodiversity hotspots in need of protection," in Frontiers in Marine Science.

"Protect the Antarctic Peninsula – before it’s too late," senior author, in Nature.

And a couple popular/blog articles:

Marine protection falls short of the 2020 target to safeguard 10% of the world's oceans. A UN treaty and lessons from Antarctica could help. The Conversation. 13 December 2020. (with N. Gardiner)

Humans threaten the Antarctic Peninsula’s fragile ecosystem. A marine protected area is long overdue. The Conversation. 18 October 2020. (with M. Parrott, C. Hogg, J. Shaw & M. Marquez)

Nic Buckley Biggs (PhD 3rd) published a new study with several colleagues on "Payments for ecosystem services within the hybrid governance model: Evaluating policy alignment and complementarity on California rangelands," in Ecology and Society. The study was made possible by the E-IPER Collaboration Grant, and the article was co-authored with E-IPER Joint Masters alum Jayce Hafner (MS-MBA '19), Dr. Fadzayi Mashiri with UC Cooperative Extension, Dr. Lynn Huntsinger of UC Berkeley, and Dr. Eric Lambin at Stanford Earth.

Nic also published a literature review on "Managed grazing on California annual rangelands in the context of state climate policy," in Rangeland Ecology & Management, co-authored with Dr. Lynn Huntsinger at UC Berkeley. 
Marilyn Cornelius (PhD '13) completed three books since Autumn 2020 as author, publisher, and co-author.

A concise guide for how to live ethically. Each chapter has sections on how to develop life skills, set strong boundaries, and live with authenticity and purpose.

An illustrated poetry volume created by two incarcerated individuals and their friends that focuses on the journey from trauma to self-love. Marilyn's company, Alchemus Prime, launched its publishing service (Prolific Publishing) via this book, for which she also wrote the Foreword, drawing on her experience learning nonviolent communication with inmates in San Francisco County Jail.

Launched on March 16 to honor Marilyn's mother, Dr. Margaret Cornelius' milestone birthday, this is the third book in Alchemus Prime's leadership series. Marilyn co-authored it with her immediate family -- Margaret, Nicholas, and Nathaniel -- pooling over 120 years of professional experience to produce this workbook about how leadership founded on authenticity can help us succeed in life and work.
Rachael Garrett (PhD '13) would like to share some recent publications:

“Have food supply chain policies improved forest conservation and rural livelihoods? A systematic review,” in Environmental Research Letters.

“Integrated crop-livestock systems: A sustainable land-use alternative for food production in the Brazilian Cerrado and Amazon,” in Journal of Cleaner Production.

Kristen Green (PhD 5th), Jose Urteaga (PhD 6th), Shannon Switzer Swanson (PhD 6th), Francisca Santana (PhD 5th), Josheena Naggea (PhD 3rd), Larry Crowder, and colleagues published a paper, "How adaptive capacity shapes the Adapt, React, Cope response to climate impacts: Insights from small-scale fisheries," in Climatic Change.

Dane Klinger (PhD '14), Roz Naylor, and colleagues published "A 20-year retrospective review of global aquaculture," in Nature.

Andrea Lund (PhD '20) published the following papers: 

"Agricultural innovations to reduce the health impacts of dams," in Sustainability.

"How to identify win-win interventions that benefit human health and conservation," in Nature Sustainability.

"Improving rural health care reduces illegal logging and conserves carbon in a tropical forest," in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Land use impacts on parasitic infection: A cross-sectional epidemiological study on the role of irrigated agriculture in schistosome infection in a dammed landscape,” in Infectious Diseases of Poverty.

In April 2021, Andrea gave a lightning talk at the Annual Meeting of the Planetary Health Alliance, where her abstract, "Exposure, hazard and vulnerability all contribute to Schistosoma haematobium re-infection in northern Senegal," was recognized as one of the Best Abstracts in Planetary Health among this year's submissions. It is featured in a special digital issue of The Lancet Planetary Health, released in conjunction with the meeting. 

Justin Mankin (PhD '15) and colleagues have a few recent publication:

"The value of initial condition large ensembles to robust adaptation decision-making," in Earth's Future.

"Thermal power generation is disadvantaged in a warming world," in Environmental Research Letters.

"Disentangling the regional climate impacts of competing vegetation responses to elevated atmospheric CO2," in Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

"CO2-plant effects do not account for the gap between dryness indices and projected dryness impacts in CMIP6 or CMIP5," in Environmental Research Letters.

Other writing:
"How global warming is making power plants produce less electricity," in Carbon Brief.

Rebecca Miller (PhD 4th) and colleagues wrote a piece, "Climate change is central to California's wildfires," for Scientific American, published in October 2020.

Frances Moore (PhD '15) has some recent papers to share:

“Eight priorities for calculating the social cost of carbon,” in Nature.

“Use and non-use value of nature and the social cost of carbon,” in Nature Sustainability.

“Heat stress on agricultural workers exacerbates crop impacts of climate change,” in Environmental Research Letters.
Kim Nicholas (ESys ’99, PhD ’09) wrote a narrative nonfiction book, Under the Sky We Make: How to Be Human in a Warming World (Putnam/Penguin Random House, out March 23). She combines scientific research with relatable stories in a memoir and manifesto for the concerned and alarmed to harness facts, feelings, and action on the radical scale that are needed for a stable climate and a planet where people and nature can thrive. Kim would love to hear what you think! Please also check out her new monthly climate newsletter, We Can Fix It.
Lauren Oakes (PhD '15) has published the following papers:

Co-authored a paper, "R-R-T (resistance-resilience-transformation) typology reveals differential conservation approaches across ecosystems and time," published in Communications Biology in January. This is the first of four articles Lauren has coming from a research project with colleagues at UBC. 

"The vast viral world: What we know and don't know," in Science Philanthropy Alliance. This is a piece about the origins of disease and how degradation can increase likelihood of novel disease emergence. Lauren quoted Laura Bloomfield (PhD '18) and shared a bit of her work, as well. It's for a series that is promoting basic science and research by sharing stories about how advances enabled the response to COVID-19 so far. Her piece ran alongside an interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci for the site launch.

Lauren also wrote a piece for Scientific American about the costs of reforestation and the need for monitoring to ensure efforts yield benefits for communities and biodiversity.

Katrina ole-MoiYoi (PhD '17) has a few publication and presentations to share:

Recent publications:
“Four steps for the Earth: Mainstreaming the post-2020 global biodiversity framework,” in One Earth.

“Mobiliser et transformer l’industrie de la mode pour préserver la biodiversité,” in Annales des Mines - Responsabilité et environnement.
 
Recent presentations:
September 2020: “Innovations in private finance for nature’s missing middle.” Presentation during the Nature for Life Side Event of the UN General Assembly.

August 2020: “Building biodiversity into your corporate strategy.” Presentation hosted by The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Francisca Santana (PhD 5th) has two publications to share:

"Responding to simultaneous crises: Communications and social norms of mask behavior during wildfires and COVID-19," in Environmental Research Letters.

"A path forward for qualitative research on sustainability in the COVID-19 pandemic," in Sustainability Science.

Bianca Santos (PhD 2nd) has a new published article with Larry Crowder (2021), "Online news media coverage of sea turtles and their conservation," in BioScience and featured on the front page of the March 2021 issue.

Bianca and Larry were also invited by the journal’s senior editor to write the first blog post for the American Institution of Biological Sciences’ new blog series, BioScience Bytes.
Lin Shi (PhD 4th) presented “Emerging trends of sustainability reporting in the ICT industry: Insights from discriminative topic mining,” during the NeurIPS 2020 Workshop on Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learningand “Sustainability paradoxes for product modularity: The case of smartphones,” during the Electronics Goes Green 2020+ Conference.

Ranjitha Shivaram (PhD 2nd) has two publications and a presentation to share:

Publications:
"Here's how Californians can solve our broadband crisis," in CalMatters.

Ranjitha also worked with Arun Majumdar (Precourt Institute) on a roundtable discussion in India in 2020 on innovations needed for India's energy future. Ranjitha is excited to share that she authored a report, "Innovation and India's Energy Future," with key findings from that discussion.

Presentation:
Ranjitha presented her work on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on US household resource consumption at AGU and the NCSE Drawdown 2021 Conference.

Tim Singer (MS-MD ’18) and Fran Moore (PhD '15) published a piece on the Biden Administration's social cost of greenhouse gas policy and the implications for the health of Americans in Scientific American. They got a shoutout in a Twitter post from the New Yorker (online)!

Briana Swette (PhD 5th) published a journal article with Eric Lambin. "Institutional changes drive land use transitions on rangelands: The case of grazing on public lands in the American West," in Global Environmental Change.

Nicola Ulibarri (PhD '15) published "Assessing the feasibility of managed aquifer recharge in California," in Water Resources Research, co-authored with Amanda Cravens (PhD '14).
Contributors to this issue include:
Gabriela Magana, Ann Marie Pettigrew, Maile Kuida, Garrett Adler,
Erica Bower, Will Butcher, Kiran Chawla, Caroline Ferguson, Maya Granit, Daniel Irvin,
Victoria Wills, and Amanda Zerbe

Edited by:
The E-IPER Staff
 
 
Thank you for continuing to support E-IPER!