News and Notes by Date
September 2018
09-11-2018
Professor Dueker, director of Bard’s Center for the Study of Land, Air, and Water, talks about his new report published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
09-04-2018
Bard College math professor Lauren Rose has been helping girls in the Hudson Valley develop their appreciation of math through the Bard Math Circle.
August 2018
08-30-2018
Results from coastal Maine and Namib Desert reveal common drivers of fog microbial composition, the study finds.
08-28-2018
Results from coastal Maine and the Namibian desert reveal that fog is full of diverse microbial communities that form a viable connection between marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
08-28-2018
The study indicates that traumatic experiences might contribute to the adaption of cognitive control skills, thereby improving survivors’ later resilience.
08-28-2018
Gettinger, codirector of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, observes that the project’s remote location has resulted in delays and cost overruns.
08-07-2018
Gettinger, codirector of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, weighs in on the challenges of deploying counter-drone measures “in the domestic space.”
July 2018
07-20-2018
George D. Rose ’63, distinguished visiting professor of biophysics, is known for his groundbreaking research on protein folding.
In 2011, Rose won a Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany and was named Honorary Hans Fischer Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Technical University of Munich. Two years later he was appointed Temporary Eminent Scholar in the Technical University’s Department of Chemistry. Rose, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins University, earned his MS in mathematics and computer science and PhD in biochemistry and biophysics from Oregon State University. In 1999, he received the John and Samuel Bard Award in Medicine and Science.07-03-2018
Bard alumnus Troy Simon spent a childhood in and out of trouble and school. Now he’s pursuing dual master’s degrees at Yale Divinity School and Yale School of Nursing.
June 2018
06-28-2018
When Tierney Weymueller first came to Bard for Language and Thinking, she was struck by how much was happening on campus. "I remember during L&T just being so amazed that we would go to hear the orchestra, then to the museum on campus, and then to go see a play. There were just so many different things going on all at once in this space. . . . I remember that being really exciting."
Tierney grew up all over, and has lived in New Mexico, Ireland, and Canada, among other places. Bard's programs in dance and environmental science attracted her from the start. She had always lived in cities, and was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the campus and her growing love for the Hudson Valley area.
At first, Tierney decided to pursue both dance and environmental and urban studies. But she had an eye-opening experience taking a class with Eli Dueker that focused on science accessibility. She decided to major in EUS with a focus on communications. Her academic work has centered around “how to make science accessible to people, or how to make it interesting, relatable, and transparent.” At Bard, Tierney made time to be involved with the Dance Program by taking dance classes and performing in other students' Senior Projects.
Taking the Water course with Professor Dueker cemented Tierney’s interest in science communication and environmental education. For Tierney, the class was “a perfect blend of scientific components and the various social issues around water. . . . We did group experiments, and my group worked at a farm in Red Hook. Our project was water colony testing, but then we also ended up organizing a tree planting and working with this farmer. I got to see how environmental science could be more holistic: it wasn’t just me in the lab by myself; it was a way of addressing social issues that I was interested in, kind of like this whole package."
Tierney has interned with the Saw Kill Watershed Community. There, she attended the monthly community meetings and assisted in organizing their water monitoring program. During her time at Bard, Tierney's involvement with the community helped her “understand that this whole outreach and communications side to science is ultimately what I’m really excited about.”
She also worked in the Eel Project. Every spring the glass eels migrate up into different tributaries of the Hudson. Using a net at the Bard Field Station, volunteers count the number of eels and then set them free.
Last summer, Tierney taught on the Hudson River sloop Clearwater. The Clearwater is an environmental education vessel, originally built by Pete Seeger, that sails up and down the Hudson. People go onboard to learn about the ecology and history of the river. The Clearwater focuses especially on educating young people so they’ll gain a new appreciation for the river and learn to protect it.
Tierney's Senior Project was an environmental oral history about people who work on, live near, and otherwise use the Saw Kill. She conducted interviews exploring people's relationships to the river and historical or ecological knowledge about it, and then wrote stories about the Saw Kill from these different perspectives.
In 2018, Tierney received three awards from the College: the Hudsonia Prize (shared with Elinor Stapylton), awarded by Hudsonia Ltd. to a student showing promise in the field of environmental studies; the Patricia Ross Weis '52 Scholarship, awarded to talented students in the social sciences who uphold Bard's values by ensuring a strong community; and the Rachel Carson Prize, honoring an outstanding Senior Project in environmental and urban studies that reflects Carson's determination to promote biocentric sensibility.
"The best part about Bard," Tierney observes, "is how your classes and activities connect to the community around the College. I have loved getting to know people in the Hudson Valley. Like the Saw Kill Watershed Community and the Clearwater staff—I’ve just gotten to know this group of people that’s really invested and active in this area. That has also become my community outside of Bard." She adds, "Without the professors here, I wouldn't have realized how this kind of work is really important to me. I wouldn't have known that this kind of community outreach around science exists; so it’s really exciting. . . . I love this area. The Hudson River—adore it. The fact that we can, as students, walk through the Tivoli Bays—I walked that walk every day last summer."
Tierney is now traveling through Europe with her two roommates from her first year at Bard. In the fall, she will begin work for the World Ocean School on board the historic schooner Roseway.
Tierney grew up all over, and has lived in New Mexico, Ireland, and Canada, among other places. Bard's programs in dance and environmental science attracted her from the start. She had always lived in cities, and was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the campus and her growing love for the Hudson Valley area.
At first, Tierney decided to pursue both dance and environmental and urban studies. But she had an eye-opening experience taking a class with Eli Dueker that focused on science accessibility. She decided to major in EUS with a focus on communications. Her academic work has centered around “how to make science accessible to people, or how to make it interesting, relatable, and transparent.” At Bard, Tierney made time to be involved with the Dance Program by taking dance classes and performing in other students' Senior Projects.
Taking the Water course with Professor Dueker cemented Tierney’s interest in science communication and environmental education. For Tierney, the class was “a perfect blend of scientific components and the various social issues around water. . . . We did group experiments, and my group worked at a farm in Red Hook. Our project was water colony testing, but then we also ended up organizing a tree planting and working with this farmer. I got to see how environmental science could be more holistic: it wasn’t just me in the lab by myself; it was a way of addressing social issues that I was interested in, kind of like this whole package."
Tierney has interned with the Saw Kill Watershed Community. There, she attended the monthly community meetings and assisted in organizing their water monitoring program. During her time at Bard, Tierney's involvement with the community helped her “understand that this whole outreach and communications side to science is ultimately what I’m really excited about.”
She also worked in the Eel Project. Every spring the glass eels migrate up into different tributaries of the Hudson. Using a net at the Bard Field Station, volunteers count the number of eels and then set them free.
Last summer, Tierney taught on the Hudson River sloop Clearwater. The Clearwater is an environmental education vessel, originally built by Pete Seeger, that sails up and down the Hudson. People go onboard to learn about the ecology and history of the river. The Clearwater focuses especially on educating young people so they’ll gain a new appreciation for the river and learn to protect it.
Tierney's Senior Project was an environmental oral history about people who work on, live near, and otherwise use the Saw Kill. She conducted interviews exploring people's relationships to the river and historical or ecological knowledge about it, and then wrote stories about the Saw Kill from these different perspectives.
In 2018, Tierney received three awards from the College: the Hudsonia Prize (shared with Elinor Stapylton), awarded by Hudsonia Ltd. to a student showing promise in the field of environmental studies; the Patricia Ross Weis '52 Scholarship, awarded to talented students in the social sciences who uphold Bard's values by ensuring a strong community; and the Rachel Carson Prize, honoring an outstanding Senior Project in environmental and urban studies that reflects Carson's determination to promote biocentric sensibility.
"The best part about Bard," Tierney observes, "is how your classes and activities connect to the community around the College. I have loved getting to know people in the Hudson Valley. Like the Saw Kill Watershed Community and the Clearwater staff—I’ve just gotten to know this group of people that’s really invested and active in this area. That has also become my community outside of Bard." She adds, "Without the professors here, I wouldn't have realized how this kind of work is really important to me. I wouldn't have known that this kind of community outreach around science exists; so it’s really exciting. . . . I love this area. The Hudson River—adore it. The fact that we can, as students, walk through the Tivoli Bays—I walked that walk every day last summer."
Tierney is now traveling through Europe with her two roommates from her first year at Bard. In the fall, she will begin work for the World Ocean School on board the historic schooner Roseway.
06-26-2018
Cameron Ogg ’11 is a graduate research assistant and Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Cameron graduated from Bard in 2011 with a degree in biology and a concentration in global public health. After Bard, she worked at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital before going to graduate school.
Describing her research at the University of Tennessee, Cameron says, "In the lab, I use neuroimaging as well as behavioral approaches to better understand how different brain states, such as attention, can modulate sensory processing and lead to changes in perception." Whether presenting her work at a conference or teaching kids at brain awareness events, she enjoys sharing science with others. "I hadn’t realized that this isn’t the case with all scientists (there are plenty who would love to stay behind the bench). I’m hoping to cultivate and utilize this enthusiasm and excitement as I move forward in my scientific career."
As a Bard senior, Cameron realized that she wanted to attend graduate school, but she decided to take some time off after graduation to make sure it was the right choice. She worked for a year in the Small Animal Imaging Core at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. "Working in a research environment solidified my desire to attend grad school." She began her program the following fall.
Several linguistics classes that she took at Bard stimulated her interest in neuroscience. "Without this exposure to the humanities, I wouldn’t have found the scientific field I love now!" she observes. Cameron's Senior Project examined tick-borne illnesses. "My mentor at Bard, Dr. Felicia Keesing, encouraged me to participate in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. This early research experience, along with the critical and creative thinking cultivated at Bard, has proven so valuable to me in the years since."
Cameron advises current Bard students to be flexible as they approach their careers and life after graduation. "You may have a very specific plan about 'what you want to be,' but unexpected opportunities can end up being better than you could have imagined! Consider and explore alternatives—at the very least, you’ll have grown from the experience."
What did she enjoy most about Bard? "Don Eastman, the president of Eckerd College, said that a liberal arts education 'provides… for the development of the skills necessary… to become effective and thoughtful citizens of the world.' I am so thankful that not only did I get to become an educated citizen of the world at Bard, but that my son, who was born while I was at Bard, did as well. It’s more important than ever these days!"
Describing her research at the University of Tennessee, Cameron says, "In the lab, I use neuroimaging as well as behavioral approaches to better understand how different brain states, such as attention, can modulate sensory processing and lead to changes in perception." Whether presenting her work at a conference or teaching kids at brain awareness events, she enjoys sharing science with others. "I hadn’t realized that this isn’t the case with all scientists (there are plenty who would love to stay behind the bench). I’m hoping to cultivate and utilize this enthusiasm and excitement as I move forward in my scientific career."
As a Bard senior, Cameron realized that she wanted to attend graduate school, but she decided to take some time off after graduation to make sure it was the right choice. She worked for a year in the Small Animal Imaging Core at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. "Working in a research environment solidified my desire to attend grad school." She began her program the following fall.
Several linguistics classes that she took at Bard stimulated her interest in neuroscience. "Without this exposure to the humanities, I wouldn’t have found the scientific field I love now!" she observes. Cameron's Senior Project examined tick-borne illnesses. "My mentor at Bard, Dr. Felicia Keesing, encouraged me to participate in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. This early research experience, along with the critical and creative thinking cultivated at Bard, has proven so valuable to me in the years since."
Cameron advises current Bard students to be flexible as they approach their careers and life after graduation. "You may have a very specific plan about 'what you want to be,' but unexpected opportunities can end up being better than you could have imagined! Consider and explore alternatives—at the very least, you’ll have grown from the experience."
What did she enjoy most about Bard? "Don Eastman, the president of Eckerd College, said that a liberal arts education 'provides… for the development of the skills necessary… to become effective and thoughtful citizens of the world.' I am so thankful that not only did I get to become an educated citizen of the world at Bard, but that my son, who was born while I was at Bard, did as well. It’s more important than ever these days!"
06-26-2018
Monica Elkinton is the assistant municipal attorney for Anchorage, Alaska, the largest municipality in the state. "Anchorage contains about half the population of Alaska, about half a million people," Monica notes. "It's the most racially diverse city in the United States." Her job is to defend the city from lawsuits like personal injury or employment discrimination. "I am a civil litigator and go to court all the time, including doing jury trials. I also advise the municipal departments on legal issues. I like that it's a stable job, but with some excitement and variety, and the opportunity to learn all about how our local government works."
Monica studied mathematics at Bard and went on to Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. She was also a TLS Scholar. "I loved participating in Math Table for lunch and Pi Day parties, but I knew math graduate school wasn't for me." When Monica was a first-year student, Professor Lauren Rose told her, "Math majors can do anything. They can even go to law school." That stuck in her mind.
"In the 2000 election, the Dutchess County Board of Elections wouldn't let Bard students register to vote," Monica remembers. "So I organized a bunch of protests and we talked to a lawyer from the New York Civil Liberties Union and got help from the Dutchess County Democratic Party." Monica befriended a party leader who worked for Senator Chuck Schumer. She offered Monica a part-time unpaid summer internship in her office. These were Monica's first steps into a career in law.
After graduating from Bard, Monica went to Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. The school "has paragraph evaluations instead of grades and focuses on public service and social justice instead of competition. It also has mandatory internships as part of the law school graduation requirements." Some students choose to do their internships in Boston, but Monica decided to do hers all over the country. She worked for the Wisconsin Supreme Court and then for public defenders in Alaska, Kentucky, and Miami. After graduation she became a criminal defense attorney in Anchorage, before taking her current position for the city.
Monica sought breadth in her Bard education. She took as many nonmajor classes at the College as she could, including courses in the music, religion, political studies, art, literature, and history programs. "All of it helped me to figure out what I wanted to do for a career, along with what I did not want to do," she recalls. "Bard taught me to be creative and to not be too scared about thinking outside the box. A math background helps me line up my ideas in a linear way, and use logic to draw conclusions. Writing proofs in math is pretty similar to writing legal briefs. I wrote so many papers at Bard that writing is also completely second nature to me. I am always surprised how many people there are in the world that don't know how to write."
Her advice for current Bard students? "When I started at Bard, I didn't really know what to major in. When I started law school, I didn't really know what kind of law I wanted to practice. It's OK not to know, and to be exposed to lots of different things. You'll figure it out." She adds, "Try out as many things as you want. You'll never know until you try. ... There's a whole big world out there of possible jobs. Find as many people as possible who actually work in the field you want and talk to them about what it takes to get there."
Monica's favorite aspect of her time at Bard was the faculty in the Mathematics Program. "I loved my department faculty, and how close the Math and Computer Science Programs were. I also don't think I've ever had a chance since Bard to go to so many film screenings and art and photo shows. The student art and music were amazing!"
Monica studied mathematics at Bard and went on to Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. She was also a TLS Scholar. "I loved participating in Math Table for lunch and Pi Day parties, but I knew math graduate school wasn't for me." When Monica was a first-year student, Professor Lauren Rose told her, "Math majors can do anything. They can even go to law school." That stuck in her mind.
"In the 2000 election, the Dutchess County Board of Elections wouldn't let Bard students register to vote," Monica remembers. "So I organized a bunch of protests and we talked to a lawyer from the New York Civil Liberties Union and got help from the Dutchess County Democratic Party." Monica befriended a party leader who worked for Senator Chuck Schumer. She offered Monica a part-time unpaid summer internship in her office. These were Monica's first steps into a career in law.
After graduating from Bard, Monica went to Northeastern University School of Law in Boston. The school "has paragraph evaluations instead of grades and focuses on public service and social justice instead of competition. It also has mandatory internships as part of the law school graduation requirements." Some students choose to do their internships in Boston, but Monica decided to do hers all over the country. She worked for the Wisconsin Supreme Court and then for public defenders in Alaska, Kentucky, and Miami. After graduation she became a criminal defense attorney in Anchorage, before taking her current position for the city.
Monica sought breadth in her Bard education. She took as many nonmajor classes at the College as she could, including courses in the music, religion, political studies, art, literature, and history programs. "All of it helped me to figure out what I wanted to do for a career, along with what I did not want to do," she recalls. "Bard taught me to be creative and to not be too scared about thinking outside the box. A math background helps me line up my ideas in a linear way, and use logic to draw conclusions. Writing proofs in math is pretty similar to writing legal briefs. I wrote so many papers at Bard that writing is also completely second nature to me. I am always surprised how many people there are in the world that don't know how to write."
Her advice for current Bard students? "When I started at Bard, I didn't really know what to major in. When I started law school, I didn't really know what kind of law I wanted to practice. It's OK not to know, and to be exposed to lots of different things. You'll figure it out." She adds, "Try out as many things as you want. You'll never know until you try. ... There's a whole big world out there of possible jobs. Find as many people as possible who actually work in the field you want and talk to them about what it takes to get there."
Monica's favorite aspect of her time at Bard was the faculty in the Mathematics Program. "I loved my department faculty, and how close the Math and Computer Science Programs were. I also don't think I've ever had a chance since Bard to go to so many film screenings and art and photo shows. The student art and music were amazing!"
06-18-2018
Professor Swapan Jain publishes his research with Bard undergraduates in the journal Chemical Communications, in an article titled "A ruthenium–platinum metal complex that binds to sarcin ricin loop RNA and lowers mRNA expression."
06-05-2018
The new deployment is “most probably in support of U.S. objectives in Libya, where the U.S. has for several years used drones to mitigate the threats posed by Islamic militant groups.”
06-03-2018
The global environmental impacts of meat and dairy farming are far more damaging than previously thought, a new study shows. Professor Eshel weighs in on the results.
May 2018
05-15-2018
Gettinger, codirector of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, sees regulatory value in the data the new program will generate.
05-10-2018
Smith, an award-winning entrepreneur and tech evangelist, will deliver the address at the College’s 158th commencement on Saturday, May 26.
April 2018
04-24-2018
The risk of such a policy, says Gettinger, “is that countries may be more willing to use military force when they can do so without risking their own people.”
04-19-2018
Seniors Elena LeFevre, Nicola Koepnick, Adelina Colaku, Page Benoit, and Madeleine Breshears, and Bethany Zulick ’16 are among the Fulbright winners for 2018–19.
04-17-2018
Professor Keesing is codirector of “The Tick Project,” a first-of-its-kind study to see if tick reduction can be effectively accomplished on a large scale in entire neighborhoods.
04-10-2018
The $9.4 billion budget request represents a significant expansion in drone spending over 2018.
04-10-2018
The Purple Comet Math Meet is a free, online, international team mathematics competition designed for middle and high school students.
March 2018
03-27-2018
Extending the definition of food loss to include inefficient dietary choices, a new study quantifies the benefits of plant-based diets versus animal-based diets for food security. The study, published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), is coauthored by Bard College Research Professor Gidon Eshel. Animal based foods require more resources per unit product (gram, calorie, or gram protein) than plant-based foods. Since resources allocated to feed production for livestock yield less human food compared with what they could have yielded if they were instead used for plant-based food production, allocating resources to animal-based food production constitutes an effective food loss. Alon Shepon and colleagues quantify this “opportunity cost” by estimating the amount of food that could be produced if animal-based items were replaced by nutritionally at least comparable plant-based items in the U.S. diet.
The authors found that plant-based replacements could produce 2- to 20-fold more protein per acre than beef, pork, poultry, dairy, or eggs. The authors further estimate that replacing all animal-based products in the mean American diet with plant-based alternatives would allow increased food production sufficient to feed approximately 350 million additional people, or 110 percent of the current U.S. population. This putative added food availability handily exceeds potential food availability gains by elimination of conventional food losses, mostly spoilage, leaky supply chains, or post-retail waste.
Gidon Eshel is research professor in environmental science and physics at Bard College. He earned a BA from Haifa University and MA, MPhil, and PhD degrees from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.
More coverage at Phys.org: “Food waste: The biggest loss could be what you choose to put in your mouth”
The authors found that plant-based replacements could produce 2- to 20-fold more protein per acre than beef, pork, poultry, dairy, or eggs. The authors further estimate that replacing all animal-based products in the mean American diet with plant-based alternatives would allow increased food production sufficient to feed approximately 350 million additional people, or 110 percent of the current U.S. population. This putative added food availability handily exceeds potential food availability gains by elimination of conventional food losses, mostly spoilage, leaky supply chains, or post-retail waste.
Gidon Eshel is research professor in environmental science and physics at Bard College. He earned a BA from Haifa University and MA, MPhil, and PhD degrees from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.
More coverage at Phys.org: “Food waste: The biggest loss could be what you choose to put in your mouth”
03-27-2018
Extending the definition of food loss to include inefficient dietary choices, a new study quantifies the benefits of plant-based diets versus animal-based diets for food security.
03-27-2018
See how New Annandale House was built in this short video. Four repurposed shipping containers make a new media lab, home of Bard's Center for Experimental Humanities.
03-06-2018
Bard College’s Center for the Study of the Drone released a 23-page report that breaks down available counterdrone products and identifies the ways each solution approaches drone mitigation.
03-06-2018
With its double-height space and glass end walls, Bard College’s new media lab is not your standard prefab container building.
February 2018
02-27-2018
Arthur Holland Michel '13 is a finalist for the Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, given to support the completion of significant works of nonfiction on topics of political and social concern.
02-26-2018
Bard College student Lily Zacharias ’19, who is majoring in Political Studies with a concentration in Gender and Sexuality Studies, has won the prestigious Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs’ 2017 International Student/Teacher Essay Contest on the World’s Greatest Ethical Challenge. Zacharias received first prize in the undergraduate category for her essay “Artificial Intelligence’s Ethical Challenges.”
02-06-2018
Professor Eshel’s latest study shows that a single change in food habit could dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
January 2018
01-30-2018
Corals associate the smell of plastic with food, a new study finds—an example of what Bard biologist Bruce Robertson calls an evolutionary trap, which he defines as occurring “when the cues animals use to make decisions are no longer reliable.”
01-09-2018
Professor Christopher LaFratta publishes his research with Bard undergraduates in Optics Express journal, in an article titled "Augmenting mask-based lithography with direct laser writing to increase resolution and speed."
01-06-2018
Professor Keesing, who is codirecting a study aimed at reducing Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, says that ticks are remarkably well adapted to surviving extreme temperatures.
01-02-2018
The Citizen Science Program at Bard College will hold a conference titled 'Why Science Matters" on Monday, January 15. The event is a new addition to the annual science literacy intensive for first-year students that takes place this month. The conference includes a number of talks and panels engaging novel perspectives on the connections between science and other areas of human thought. Bard College faculty and staff as well as outside speakers will present, including Francesca Gamber, principal and history faculty member at Bard High School Early College Baltimore. Professor Gamber will give a talk titled "Bending toward Justice: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Localism of the Moral Universe" and moderate the subsequent panel discussion. Visit the Citizen Science website to view all of the conference abstracts.
01-02-2018
The study, which established a relationship between onshore wind speed and total microbial aerosols at an urban waterfront, has implications for public health management and urban microbial ecology.
December 2017
12-14-2017
Professor Felicia Keesing's research on tick-borne illnesses with fellow ecologist Rick Ostfeld appeared in two of the 10 most popular global health and development stories of the year.
12-10-2017
Dan Gettinger, Bard alumnus and codirector of Bard's Drone Center, talks about how Isis uses recreational drones for propaganda purposes.
12-07-2017
Bard Professor Gideon Eshel is the lead author on a new study published in Nature that provides a model for sustainable U.S. beef production.
November 2017
11-28-2017
The Hudson River Watershed Alliance (HRWA) has honored Bard College with its 2017 Watershed WaveMaker award for an organization working to protect, conserve, and restore Hudson River water resources. The alliance cited Bard for its commitment to launching and organizing the Saw Kill Watershed Community to draw attention and awareness to protection of the Saw Kill, use of the Bard Water Lab to improve the understanding of regional water quality issues, leadership in implementing the Hudson River Subwatershed and Tributary Research Network (THuRST), and academic excellence demonstrated in the College’s Environmental and Urban Studies Program and Center for Environmental Policy. Bard will be presented with the award at HRWA’s Toast to the Tribs Awards Benefit on Tuesday, December 5, at The Falcon in Marlboro, New York, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. For tickets and more information, visit hudsonwatershed.org.
Working to study, protect, and teach others about the Saw Kill Creek and its watershed, the Saw Kill Watershed Community (SKWC)is made up of Bard faculty, staff, and students; members of the conservation advisory councils of the towns of Red Hook, Rhinebeck, and Milan; local, county, and state officials; representatives of the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Hudson River Estuary Program, and Cornell Cooperative Extension (Dutchess County); and several nonprofits, including Riverkeeper, Scenic Hudson, and the Hudson River Watershed Alliance. For more information, visit sawkillwatershed.wordpress.com. Another water quality initiative at Bard is the Bard Regional Green Infrastructure Demonstration Project, which transformed a compacted gravel parking lot using a low impact development approach to manage more than 10 acres of storm-water runoff. The project, which received funding support from the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation and design inspiration from a graduate student in the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, serves as a living lab for Bard students. In addition, Bard is currently working with the private sector and environmental organizations as part of a NYSERDA grant to evaluate the feasibility of very small hydropower systems on dams located on campus. Over the next year, this work will be available on a public website that starts to answer the intractable question of how various stakeholders can sustainably approach the more than 7,000 dams across the state. Bard students are contributing to this work. For more information on sustainability initiatives at Bard, please visit bard.edu/sustainability.
Working to study, protect, and teach others about the Saw Kill Creek and its watershed, the Saw Kill Watershed Community (SKWC)is made up of Bard faculty, staff, and students; members of the conservation advisory councils of the towns of Red Hook, Rhinebeck, and Milan; local, county, and state officials; representatives of the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Hudson River Estuary Program, and Cornell Cooperative Extension (Dutchess County); and several nonprofits, including Riverkeeper, Scenic Hudson, and the Hudson River Watershed Alliance. For more information, visit sawkillwatershed.wordpress.com. Another water quality initiative at Bard is the Bard Regional Green Infrastructure Demonstration Project, which transformed a compacted gravel parking lot using a low impact development approach to manage more than 10 acres of storm-water runoff. The project, which received funding support from the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation and design inspiration from a graduate student in the Bard Center for Environmental Policy, serves as a living lab for Bard students. In addition, Bard is currently working with the private sector and environmental organizations as part of a NYSERDA grant to evaluate the feasibility of very small hydropower systems on dams located on campus. Over the next year, this work will be available on a public website that starts to answer the intractable question of how various stakeholders can sustainably approach the more than 7,000 dams across the state. Bard students are contributing to this work. For more information on sustainability initiatives at Bard, please visit bard.edu/sustainability.
11-20-2017
The Saw Kill Watershed Community brings together Bard College students and area residents to protect the watershed through science, education, and advocacy.
11-14-2017
Eli Pariser, Upworthy president and cofounder, author, and Bard College at Simon’s Rock alumnus, visited an Internet and Society class at Bard High School Early College Queens.
11-14-2017
Drone Center codirector and cofounder Dan Gettinger '13 discusses how U.S. military spending on drones in 2018 is set to outpace 2017 spending.
11-06-2017
The study, "Trojan Females and Judas Goats: Evolutionary Traps as Tools in Wildlife Management," brings together the science from the pest-control, eco-evolutionary, and conservation communities to create a conceptual framework by which evolutionary traps can be repurposed as tools of deception to eliminate or control target pest species.
October 2017
10-24-2017
A new study from the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College finds that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) plans to spend $6.97 billion on drone technology in 2018, a 21 percent jump over this year’s budget and far more than the military previously predicted it would spend. The study finds that the 2018 budget boosts spending on research and modernization efforts, including significant increases to key unmanned sea and ground vehicles.
10-23-2017
Bard College has created a new digital media studio made possible by a $40,000 gift from the Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation. The gift allowed Bard to renovate and equip a classroom in the Henderson Computer Resources Center, converting it into a new media studio. The driving design questions for this innovative space asked: How do we create responsive spaces that can be quickly and easily reconfigured to accommodate different uses, learning tasks, and audiences; easily accommodate changes in technology and pedagogy; anticipate greatly expanded use of video conferencing technologies for creating a truly connected classroom; and anticipate the expanded use of tablets and other mobile devices?
“Our goal has been to create an environment in which trial and error is encouraged, but that doesn’t require mastery of any sort, rather experiment and instructional problem solving,” says Dean of Information Services and Director of Libraries Jeff Katz. “Rather than undertaking the complicated installation of permanent smart classrooms, we have identified equipment that can be easily deployed to create a particular instructional space in any available classroom.”
In this new digital media studio, instructors and students can see and use reconfigurable furniture. They can experiment with new products like roomdarkening shades or handheld projectors, cameras and other technology that can be made available and adopted in their classrooms. The studio has already been used for video conferencing meetings, connecting to Bard College Berlin, Al-Quds Bard College for Arts and Science, Bard-Smolny Program in St. Petersburg, and Cairo. Other courses have conducted interviews with remote subjects, had three-way debates with Berlin and St. Petersburg, set up pop-up workshops with a dozen laptops in a portable cart, held demonstrations of new software such as presentation software Omeka, or GIS, or podcast, or field recording production, and had guest speakers joining classes in Annandale from Vilnius, Lithuania.
“Our goal has been to create an environment in which trial and error is encouraged, but that doesn’t require mastery of any sort, rather experiment and instructional problem solving,” says Dean of Information Services and Director of Libraries Jeff Katz. “Rather than undertaking the complicated installation of permanent smart classrooms, we have identified equipment that can be easily deployed to create a particular instructional space in any available classroom.”
In this new digital media studio, instructors and students can see and use reconfigurable furniture. They can experiment with new products like roomdarkening shades or handheld projectors, cameras and other technology that can be made available and adopted in their classrooms. The studio has already been used for video conferencing meetings, connecting to Bard College Berlin, Al-Quds Bard College for Arts and Science, Bard-Smolny Program in St. Petersburg, and Cairo. Other courses have conducted interviews with remote subjects, had three-way debates with Berlin and St. Petersburg, set up pop-up workshops with a dozen laptops in a portable cart, held demonstrations of new software such as presentation software Omeka, or GIS, or podcast, or field recording production, and had guest speakers joining classes in Annandale from Vilnius, Lithuania.
10-23-2017
Bard College has created a new digital media studio made possible by a $40,000 gift from the Cornelia and Michael Bessie Foundation. The gift allowed Bard to renovate and equip a classroom in the Henderson Computer Resources Center, converting it into a new media studio.
August 2017
08-31-2017
As seniors, Arthur Holland Michel ’13 and Dan Gettinger ’13 created the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard. Now they're industry experts.
08-31-2017
Bard College students Telo Hoy and Meagan Kenney have been awarded Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships to study abroad for the fall 2017 semester. Hoy, a music composition major from Santa Fe, New Mexico, was awarded $3,000 to study at the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavik. Kenney, a mathematics major from Richmond, Virginia, was awarded $4,500 to pursue studies in Hungary at the Budapest Semester in Mathematics. Hoy and Kenney are among nearly 1,000 American undergraduates from 386 colleges and universities across the United States selected to receive the prestigious award.
July 2017
07-06-2017
In this study, Hulbert examines how people suppress the retrieval of intrusive images, focusing on whether and how this process contributes to regulating affect.
June 2017
06-28-2017
Arthur Holland Michel discusses the work of the Center for the Study of the Drone, an inquiry-driven research and education initiative founded in 2012 at Bard College, and the future of drone technology.