Category: Education

A research team, including University of Vermont scientist Nate Sanders, found that when water temperatures heat up for corals, fish “tempers” cool down, providing the first clear evidence of coral bleaching serving as a trigger for rapid change in the behavior of reef fish.

Publishing in Nature Climate Change on October 22, the researchers show how the iconic butterflyfish, considered to be sensitive indicators of reef health, can offer an early warning sign that reef fish populations are in trouble.

The international team of scientists spent more than 600 hours underwater observing butterflyfish over a two-year period encompassing the unprecedented mass coral bleaching event of 2016. Led by marine ecologist Sally Keith of Lancaster University, the team examined 17 reefs across the central Indo-Pacific in Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.

During the initial data collection, the researchers were unaware that the catastrophic bleaching event was on the horizon. Once underway, the researchers realized that this serendipitous “natural experiment” placed them in a unique position to see how fish changed their behavior in response to large-scale bleaching disturbance. 

The team sprang into action to repeat their field observations, collecting a total of 5,259 encounters between individuals of 38 different butterflyfish species. Within a year after the bleaching event, it was clear that, although the same number of butterflyfish continued to reside on the reefs, they were behaving very differently.

“We observed that aggressive behavior had decreased in butterflyfish by an average of two thirds, with the biggest drops observed on reefs where bleaching had killed off the most coral,” said Keith. “We think this is because the most nutritious coral was also the most susceptible to bleaching, so the fish moved from a well-rounded diet to the equivalent of eating only lettuce leaves—it was only enough to survive rather than to thrive.”

Early warning

“This matters because butterflyfishes are often seen as the ‘canaries of the reef,'” said Nate Sanders, director of UVM’s Environmental Program and professor in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. “Due to their strong reliance on coral, they are often the first to suffer after a disturbance event.”

Such changes in behavior may well be the driver behind more obvious changes such as declining numbers of fish individuals and species. The finding has the potential to help explain the mechanism behind population declines in similarly disrupted ecosystems around the world.

By monitoring the fishes’ behavior, “we might get an early warning sign of bigger things to come,” said co-author Erika Woolsey of Stanford University. And the new work shows that  animals can adjust to catastrophic events in the short term through flexible behavior, “but these changes may not be sustainable in the longer-term,” said co-author Andrew Baird of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University.

UVM and the oceans

“UVM is known for its work on how climate change is affecting forests, mountains, and of course Lake Champlain. This work goes beyond that and highlights the impacts of ongoing climate change on biodiversity in the ocean,” says Nate Sanders. 

Sanders’ role in the new reef fish research started—surprisingly—with ants. “I wanted to know how the behavior of individuals scales up to influence entire collections of species,” he explained. “Do interactions between individuals matter for entire communities and ecosystems? A few years ago, Sally Keith and I began talking about whether what I know about ants applied to what she knows about coral reef fish. And thus began an amazing collaboration.”

“It’s not just that we’ve documented a climate change effect on these reefs,” said Sanders, a community ecologist and fellow in UVM’s Gund Institute for Environment. “It’s important that we’re beginning to understand why these changes happen, and are building the knowledge to try to predict when, and where, these kinds of changes may happen in other ecosystems in the future.”

Source: UVM News

Hailing from 43 states and 15 countries, the Class of 2022 is the most academically talented in UVM’s history.

So who are the students that make up our newest class? We talked to three first years (Nicole from South Carolina, Hunter from Colorado, and Alex from Vermont), each just starting out in their journey, to learn a little bit more about their paths to UVM, their hopes for the future, and their advice for high school students in the midst of the college search.

Read more about the Class of 2022.

Source: UVM News

The University of Vermont has again been named a Top 50 Green School by the Princeton Review, climbing to the #3 spot this year, up from #4 last year.

This annual ranking of the 399 most environmentally responsible colleges takes stock of the efforts schools are making to adopt sustainable policies, prepare students for citizenship and careers in a world defined by climate concerns, and provide a healthy and sustainable environment on campus.

In addition to student survey responses of how sustainability influences education and life on campus, the ranking considers a number of data points provided by the university. Some of the stats that propelled UVM to its top-three green school ranking include:

• 100 percent of undergraduates are required to take courses in sustainability.
• 28 percent of researchers are engaged in sustainability research.
• 1,099 students living in UVM’s Sustainability Learning Community.
• 20 Eco-Reps teach their fellow students about sustainability in daily life.
• 100 percent certified renewable electricity is purchased for campus.
• 49 percent of waste is recycled or composted.
• 25 percent of food is Real Food (local, organic, fair trade, or humanely raised).
• 13 campus buildings have attained LEED certification.
• 100 percent of residence halls collect organics for composting.
• 100 percent of used cooking oil is converted into biodiesel.
• 0 containers of bottled water are sold on campus. 

See the Top 50 Green School ranking on the Princeton Review website.

Source: UVM News

Mechanical engineering doctoral student Dan Orfeo is the winner of UVM’s first Pitch It, Fab It competition aimed at students. The pitch contest has focused on entrepreneurs in the Vermont community in the past.

Pitch It, Fab It invites participants to pitch their product ideas to a judging panel. The winner earns the opportunity to work with the staff and equipment at UVM’s Instrumentation Modeling Facility to take their rough concept to the working prototype stage. The IMF is a custom design and fabrication facility that helps UVM faculty create equipment for their research.

Orfeo won the contest, held October 9 in Waterman Manor, for a device that will allow a ground penetrating radar system developed by faculty in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences to better identify abandoned land mines, distinguishing them from rocks and other underground objects that are similar in size.

Winners are chosen based on how original and practical their product idea is. An additional criterion for the pitch contest is how challenging and interesting it would be for IMF, which contributes the equivalent of $5,000 in time and materials to the winning project, to build and help design the product.

There were 11 presentations in all at the October 9 event, some by individual students, some by teams. Products ranged from a prototype for a much improved hospital gown to a microbial fuel cell that could power a greenhouse during the Martian winter to a plan for upgrading cell phone cameras to create high end video that could be used in film-making to a device that could retrieve orbiting space junk.

UVM has run the community-oriented Pitch It, Fab It competition for four years.

“It’s been a great success,” said Richard Galbraith, UVM’s vice president for research.

But over that time period, there’s been a “groundswell of interest among students at UVM in entrepreneurial activity,” Galbraith said.  “It didn’t make sense to do it for the general public and not for UVM.”

The university will hold the first Pitch It, Fab It competition for faculty in 2019, while continuing to sponsor annual contests for the community and students.

Galbraith was pleased with the turnout at the first student event

“It’s fabulous to see this much enthusiasm and this many people turning out,” he said.

The device Orfeo is designing is a custom magnetron for orbital angular momentum radar. It uses an emerging technology to scatter radar waves around the area it is scanning. Objects that are the shape of landmines will register as a stronger signal.

IMF will help Orfeo design and build a resonance chamber for the device.

The Pitch It, Fab It program has had a number of successes. One of the most notable winners was Alice and the Magician, which makes products that infuse cocktails with flavors. The prototype IMF helped develop enabled the company to secure $1 million in venture funding. 

Judges for the pitch contest included Galbraith; Chris Thompson, director of Generator, a Burlington makerspace; and Mike Lane, director of UVM’s Instrumentation and Technical Services group, of which IMF is a part.

Pitch It, Fab It is sponsored by the Office for the Vice President for Research.

Source: UVM News

Dr. Harry Chen has been named executive director of the Center for Health and Wellbeing and public health officer at the University of Vermont. He begins work on October 15.

Dr. Chen served as commissioner of the Vermont Department of Health for six years. He was also a three-term Vermont State Representative and served as acting secretary of the Vermont Agency of Human Services. While serving as acting secretary, Dr. Chen was a co-chair for of the President’s Commission for Alcohol, Cannabis and other Drug Use at UVM.

“Through a national search and thorough interview process, it became clear that Dr. Chen possesses the unique experience, talents, skills, and qualities to lead the Center of Health and Wellbeing and promote an effective public health model for the campus,” said Tom Sullivan, UVM president.

“His strong leadership skills coupled with his collaborative approach will be critical assets to the future success of our Center for Health and Wellbeing and our campus community,” said Annie Steven, vice provost for students affairs.

“I am delighted to join UVM and excited to share my passion for improving health and well-being for all who live, work, learn and play within the UVM community,” Chen said.

Dr. Chen’s public health experience is extensive. He led the statewide response to the catastrophic flooding of tropical storm Irene. He has played a regional and national leadership role in the public health response to the opioid crisis. He also provided national leadership in guiding the Center for Disease Control’s Office of Infectious Disease and its role in implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act. In the past year, Dr. Chen co-led the first Emergency Medicine residency program for the Global Health Service Partnership of the Peace Corps in Uganda. 

Dr. Chen served as attending physician for the emergency departments at the Rutland Regional Medical Center and the Fletcher Allen Medical Center for over 22 years and has been a member of the UVM’s Larner College of Medicine faculty since 2001. He attended the University of Michigan for his undergraduate degree and the University of Oregon for his medical degree.

Source: UVM News

Leaders at the University of Vermont and Larner College of Medicine today announced $12.3 million in funding for a new Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) called the “Translational Global Infectious Disease Research Center” (TGIR) that will join together two traditionally distinct groups of scientists to develop innovative approaches to prevent and control infectious disease.

The new research initiative will leverage UVM expertise in the College of Medicine, the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, and also the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to develop strategies for decreasing the burden of infectious diseases, particularly in low-income countries. This is the fifth COBRE grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that the College of Medicine has secured over the past 17 years.

The TGIR-COBRE aims to bridge the gap between the biologic and quantitative data fields of biomedical research by developing institutional strengths in global infectious disease research and supporting the research careers of outstanding junior faculty in this field.

“Effective responses to infectious disease burdens and threats must capitalize on new technologies and analytical tools,” says Beth Kirkpatrick, M.D., principal investigator of the TIGR-COBRE, director of the Vaccine Testing Center and chair of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. “Together our TGIR-COBRE team can harness the opportunities of our combined areas of expertise and that of “big data” to improve health of global populations.”

Co-principal investigators on the TGIR-COBRE are Jason Bates, Ph.D., Sc.D., professor of medicine, and Christopher Huston, M.D., professor of medicine.

Specifically, the TGIR-COBRE will incorporate existing research strengths in human Infectious Diseases including the research of Dr. Christopher Huston and the platforms of the UVM Vaccine Testing Center, which include human immunology laboratories, clinical trials capabilities, and collaborations with international investigators and field sites.

The TGIR center will also incorporate the substantial expertise in complex systems and mathematical/computational modeling of the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. Four junior scientists – with mentorship from senior scientific advisors – will be supported by the grant, including: Benjamin Lee, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics, who will research “Development of a B cell responses and serological immunity following rotavirus vaccination in infants:” Laurent Hebert-Dufresne, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science, who will study “Network epidemiology and the quantification of behavioral interventions;” Sean Diehl, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, whose research project is titled “Next generation correlates of protection for dengue;” and C. Matthew Kinsey, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of medicine, who will research “Discriminating latent tuberculosis from lung cancer in high-risk populations.”

Research conducted as part of this grant is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the NIH under Award Number 1P20 GM125498-01.  The content is solely the responsibility of the grantee institutions and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.                                                              

Source: UVM News

“There’s probably no object in American sports that has as much ritual associated with it” as the baseball glove, says UVM’s Dave Jenemann.

The professor and lifelong fan of the game explores the cultural life of the mitt, and shares findings from his new book, The Baseball Glove: History, Material, Meaning, and Value.

Professor Jenemann teaches courses in film and television theory, critical theory, genre, and global cinema. He serves as co-director of the Vermont Humanities Center, and, in his free time, plays second baseman for the Burlington Cardinals.

 

About Faculty Feature:

What makes our faculty members tick? In this video series, get up close and personal with our professors. Hear them talk about their passions, their paths to UVM and why they love what they study, from the mysteries of Lake Champlain’s sculpin to the stories of homeless children in Pakistan. 

Source: UVM News

Cloudy skies and periodic drizzle couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of four speakers and a crowd of about 50 who gathered on Sunday morning to dedicate the Andrew Harris Crossroads on the University of Vermont campus, as the green surrounded by the Davis Center, Terrell Hall, Marsh Life Sciences and the Bailey-Howe Library will now be called, commemorating UVM’s first African-American graduate.

The commons, where the ceremony took place, is marked by a large plaque and five black marble monuments, one at each pathway that enters the green. Harris, one of the first African-Americans to attend college in the United States, graduated from UVM in 1838.

“Today we are here to recognize and honor the legacy of Andrew Harris by dedicating this new, special space, this commons, at the heart and center of our campus,” UVM president Tom Sullivan said in his remarks.

“The Andrew Harris Commons will be a welcoming space for all in our community and for guests to the university, in memory of a very courageous, determined and persuasive leader who started here at the University of Vermont,” he said.

After graduating from UVM, Harris was ordained as a Presbyterian minister and became a powerful voice of the abolitionist movement, Sullivan said. In May of 1839 he delivered a provocative speech to a crowd 5,000 at the annual meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society at the Broadway Tabernacle in New York City calling for an end to slavery. His influence continued to grow after he joined the ministry. He served as a pastor at the largest free African-American community in upstate New York and later at the black Presbyterian church on St. Mary Street in Philadelphia.

Harris died young at age 27, as his influence and fame were on the ascent.

Wanda Heading-Grant, UVM’s vice president for human resources, diversity and multicultural affairs, presided over the ceremony. In her remarks, she spoke to the commitment that went into creating the commons and to its unifying potential.

“This is been a journey of two years and, behind the scenes, people have worked very hard and thought very hard about what the commons would be,” she said. It is “a canvas, one that will grow in what you see and in what blossoms, one that will speak to diversity, equity, inclusion, reconciliation, to coming together and unity,” she said.

Beverly Colson, director of UVM’s Mosaic Center for Students of Color, spoke of the challenges Harris faced in attending UVM in the mid-1830s and of his inspiring success in persevering and graduating.  

“For Andrew, matriculating at UVM was no easy feat,” she said. “What must it have been like for a young African-American man to attend this institution in the mid-1830s? Can you imagine Burlington, Vermont at that time? A small bustling waterfront town surrounded by farms, deep woods, mill towns and a population that did not include many who looked like him. In the South, slavery held its savage sway, and men like Harris were killed for learning to read. Against this alienating and horrifying backdrop, bravery, desire and determination drove one visionary young free black man to take hold of what must have been a miraculous opportunity, the chance to have a college education here at the University of Vermont.

“His decision to be present and develop himself at this institution charted a path to accessibility and rendered our public university a benefit to a more whole community, a broader community than was previously imagined,” she said.

Khalil Munir (’74), a member of the board of directors of the UVM Alumni Association, spoke of the commons as part of a tradition of expanding social justice and of the inspiration it can serve moving forward. 

“I want to acknowledge our ancestors, mine and yours, who were freedom fighters for social justice and goodwill for all of humanity,” he said. “It is also appropriate and essential to appreciate that our first African-American alumnus, Mr. Andrew Harris, was guided by faith, perseverance and resolve and established a legacy of inspiration for all future demographics across this campus to emulate. To the students here today – especially to you – it is important to appreciate that your efforts can make a difference. It is also vital to appreciate that this commons represents an opportunity, a mechanism to pursue consensus building, reconciliation and collaboration. It is also a place where you scholars, you future professionals, will make this a better world.”

As one of the marble monuments was being unveiled, UVM junior Mansa Campaz, president of UVM’s Black Student Union, read a poem titled “Praise Song for the Day” by Elizabeth Alexander.

The poem concludes,

 In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,

any thing can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.

The Andres Harris Crossroads is one of several ways in which the university has honored its first African-American graduate. A plaque dedicated to Harris is mounted on the wall in the hallway outside the president’s office in the Waterman Building. An academic chair in Memorial Lounge has been dedicated to him. The university has also established the Andrew Harris Scholarship to recruit talented students and the Andrew Harris Fellowship to help recruit faculty of color to the university.

To close the ceremony, Heading-Grant thanked historian Kevin Thornton, a former lecturer in the Department of History, for his research that brought to light many details of Harris’s life, both when he was at UVM and after he graduated.

Source: UVM News

Expanding its relationship with the University of Vermont’s (UVM) Complex Systems Center, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) announced today that it is providing $5 million in funding to further advance study and research in the field of data science and analytics.

The funding, to be provided over five years beginning in 2019, will include the establishment of the MassMutual Center of Excellence for Complex Systems and Data Science, which will initiate research projects and programs aimed at better understanding human wellness through data analytics, as well as programming to cultivate a strong pipeline of data science talent.

“This new center will provide students with the opportunity to gain deeper insights into data assets, publish their findings, and ultimately identify trends in health and wellness to help people live healthier lives,” said Roger Crandall, MassMutual’s Chairman, President and CEO. “We look forward to continuing our partnership with UVM to foster greater talent in the data science field and working together to find new ways to harness the power of data to make a positive impact on our world.”

In addition to the establishment of the center, the expanded partnership between MassMutual and UVM includes the creation of a paid MassMutual fellowship for Ph.D. students, a visualization data artist-in-residence program for early career data scientists, and funding for research and mentorship programs for undergraduate, postgraduate and Ph.D. students.

The initial research projects that will be conducted at the MassMutual Center of Excellence include study in the following areas:   

• Longevity and wellness, including the link between physical and financial health and environmental impacts on wellness.
• Algorithmic fairness, accountability and transparency, which will encompass alternative underwriting data, methods for controlling bias and data ethics.
• Measurement methodologies for large scale social systems, covering such topics as macroeconomic events, mortality risk and social cohesion, among others.

“We are extremely excited to be entering into this next phase of our partnership with the Vermont Complex Systems Center. This is a world class lab at the forefront of improving our understanding of fundamental socio-economic issues through modern, data-driven research,” said Sears Merritt, MassMutual’s Chief Data Scientist, Head of Data Science and Advanced Analytics.

“Our collective efforts here will improve understanding of the physical and financial determinants of wellness in the United States, and create actionable results that advance our industry and society at large. At the same time, we aim to drive talent development through research and publication.” 

The Vermont Complex Systems Center supports data science and complex systems education through interdisciplinary learning, and the Center’s master’s and doctorate level graduates have gone on to work for leading data science teams in the private sector at major U.S. and international companies. Negotiated with assistance from the UVM Foundation’s Corporate & Foundation Relations office, the data science initiative with MassMutual represents the largest single corporate collaboration with the Center since its inception in 2009. 

“This significant investment in UVM represents a milestone for us,” said UVM President Tom Sullivan. “Our distinguished faculty and programs are capable of dynamic, large scale partnerships that permit the University to create this Center of Excellence with MassMutual, a company named one of the top fifty most ethical companies in the world. We couldn’t have a better partner to share UVM’s passion for wellness in this exciting endeavor.” 

“We are incredibly excited to partner with MassMutual for our new Center of Excellence in Complex Systems and Data Science,” said Peter Dodds, Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at UVM and director of the university’s Complex Systems Center. “The MassMutual Center will be a wellspring of research into people-centric systems, guided by our core ethos to make the world a better place: healthier, happier, fairer, and more productive and creative. The Center will also boost our established educational programs to help students at all levels become the ethical, powerful data scientists that the world needs.”

This latest initiative with the Vermont Complex Systems Center underscores MassMutual’s ongoing commitment to data science and cyber initiatives. This includes a $2 million, four-year program with Mount Holyoke College and Smith College to provide funding to hire five visiting faculty positions, support the development of a data science-focused curriculum and promote greater diversity in the field. MassMutual also opened a state-of-the-art 5,000-square-foot data science lab in Amherst, Mass. and the MassMutual Foundation has donated $15 million to UMass Amherst over 10 years to further strengthen the university’s data science and cybersecurity programs in Western Massachusetts.

Source: UVM News