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What can drunk monkeys tell us about evolutionary traps? Bard biologist Bruce Robertson weighs in on how the human impact on the environment is confusing other species.

Kate Hartman ’03—founder and director of The Social Body Lab in Toronto—is creating wearable technology that increases the visibility of cyclists, runners, and walkers.

How do you get a room full of young environmentalists, budding entrepreneurs, and aspiring policymakers ready for an intensive weekend workshop at Bard College? Ask them a lot of soul-searching questions to break the ice. At this year’s Northeast Regional C2C Fellows Workshop at Bard, 61 young leaders had gathered in the Olin Language Center on a chilly Valentine’s Day evening. Workshop Director Jess Scott fired questions at the audience: “What would you change about the way you were raised? What are your passions and goals?” The participants—most of whom were strangers to each other—paired up to share stories. They laughed, cringed, and searched for the right words. When Scott finished, she explained the exercise: expressing empathy and building relationships are crucial to effective leadership and advocacy. She was laying the groundwork for a weekend that would be heavy on communication strategies and helping the participants build the network of young professionals that make up the core of C2C.

C2C stands for Campus to Congress, to Corporation, to City Hall, and to Capitol Hill, emphasizing the importance of sustainable leadership in all of these areas. For C2C, environmental, social, and economic work are intertwined in a larger vision of sustainability. A program of Bard’s Center for Environmental Policy (CEP), it trains and connects undergraduates and recent graduates aspiring to leadership positions in sustainable politics and business. C2C holds several workshops a year at colleges around the country. The one at Bard—this year’s was the third in Annandale—being on home field, tends to draw the biggest crowd, and opening night was no exception. There were 17 students from Bard, one student each from Bard College at Simon's Rock and Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) Manhattan, as well as students from 26 other colleges and recent graduates from six organizations. The farthest traveled student came from the College of Idaho.

Amy Canavan, The New School

Participants spent the weekend doing the kind of intensive skill building that is the hallmark of a C2C workshop. “With C2C Fellows we ask the students, ‘What do they need to make a difference in their 20s? How can they change the world in their 20s?’” says Eban Goodstein, director of Bard CEP and the Bard MBA in Sustainability Program. “They tell us, ‘We have a vision; we need to know how to network; and we need to know how to raise money and ask for things.’ What we do on the C2C weekend is really give them those opportunities and start to build that skill set.”

New School student Amy Canavan made the trip from New York City for her second C2C workshop, serving as a public speaking mentor for new Fellows. Canavan is in her fourth year of a five-year, dual-degree B.A./B.F.A. program in environmental studies and fashion design. She attended a workshop last October at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts. “It’s really easy to get bogged down by the issues. This weekend is all about solutions, and that’s my favorite part of the program. I came back from the program last year so inspired and renewed.” At Bentley, as with every C2C workshop, industry professionals spoke on a panel. “It was inspiring to hear people in real jobs, making real money, in real time doing things that are going to change and benefit the planet.” She’s remained in touch with people she met at the Bentley event and she’s now writing her thesis on a project she presented to that group.

Bard College first-year Carl Amritt

Fellows practice in several areas over the course of the weekend. They hone their elevator pitches, discuss effective fundraising, and meet leaders in their fields. The weekend begins and ends with the Ideas Marketplace. On Friday night, everyone has one intense minute to propose a project to the group. Participants then vote on the best proposals, and a few winners each give a five-minute presentation as part of Sunday’s closing events. Proposals on Friday night ranged from building a compost bioreactor at Bard to teaching environmental literacy to elementary and middle school students. In the end, among the six chosen for final presentations were BHSEC Manhattan’s Ginger Simms and three Bard students: Logan Hollarsmith ‘14, Mildred Kissai ‘15, and Dana Miranda ‘14.

Bard first-year Carl Amritt made a pitch for green bonds, a financial instrument similar to war bonds that the Department of Treasury and Energy would issue to promote green capital. Like the other participants, he spent a lot of time over the weekend addressing an audience. Amritt appreciated the emphasis on storytelling and networking. “One of the most important things that I took away from the workshop was the phrase that “your net worth is your network”. What Dr. Goodstein had meant by this was that our value as professionals out in the world is dependent on the network of individuals that you know. It is through this network that you make those connections to fuel your career. It was this very network that I entered by attending this weekend conference and becoming a C2C Fellow.”

Sixty-one young environmentalists, budding entrepreneurs, and aspiring policymakers gathered at Bard for the annual C2C Fellows workshop on Valentine's Day weekend. C2C stands for Campus to Congress, to Corporation, to City Hall, and to Capitol Hill, emphasizing the importance of sustainable leadership in all of these areas. A program of Bard’s Center for Environmental Policy, C2C trains and connects undergraduates and recent graduates aspiring to leadership positions in sustainable politics and business.

Bard College presents renowned psychologist Laurie R. Santos, who will deliver the 10th Andrew J. Bernstein ’68 Memorial Lecture. Santos, associate professor at Yale University and director of Yale Comparative Cognition Laboratory (CapLab), will give a talk, “The Evolution of Irrationality: Insights from Primates,” on Thursday, March 6, at 6:30 p.m. in the multipurpose room of the Bertelsmann Campus Center at Bard College. This event is free and open to the public. A Q&A session will follow the lecture.

This semester, the Bard Math Circle will be hosting the Purple Comet Math Meet for middle school students. Unlike other mathematics competitions at the middle school level, the Purple Comet gives students the opportunity to work collaboratively in teams of up to six. The contest covers topics seldom included in the normal curriculum, including set theory and elementary number theory, and poses exceptionally challenging problems. A series of practice sessions in the spring will culminate in the final contest, which will take place during the first week of April.

On Wednesday, February 19, 23 local high school and middle school students participated in the 15th annual American Mathematics Contest 10 at Bard College. The students competed for local, regional, and national awards as individuals and for their schools. The nationwide contest aims to spur interest in mathematics and develop talent through problem solving competitions. In 2013, more than 220,000 students from 4,200 schools participated in the AMC 10 and AMC 12 contests. This is the first year that the AMC 10 has been offered at Bard College, as a Bard Math Circle program. The Bard Math Circle is a collaborative effort between Bard math faculty and students to bring math enrichment activities to Hudson Valley youth.

Bard's Master of Arts in Teaching program, in collaboration with the Hyde Park School District, will hold a STEM camp for seventh grade students in Annandale from January through July.

On Sunday, January 19, Bard's Office of Student Activities held it’s inaugural first-year lecture series, Bard Talks, inspired by the widely known TED Talks conferences. Six students presented on a range of topics that showcased social and political issues of global concern, as well as ways to engage with those issues on campus. Topics addressed included malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, food initiatives at Bard, climate change, organ trafficking, and information security. Bard Talks took place in conjunction with the Martin Luther King Day of Service and the Citizen Science program. The event was well attended by students and faculty at the Bito Auditorium in the Reem-Kayden Center.

Jaime DiPuppo, M.S. '12 is now pursuing a master's in teaching through the American Museum of Natural History as part of a national effort to add 100,000 STEM teachers in the U.S. by 2021.

Biology faculty member Bruce Robertson has coauthored a paper showing that perennial grasses can effectively be used as biomass crops while preserving species and ecosystem services. While corn leads biomass crops by yield, that high production comes at a high price for the environment. This research is part of Professor Robertson's ongoing collaboration with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at Michigan State University.

Read the article in PNAS.

Learn more about the story from the National Science Foundation.

Twenty-three honors math students from Saugerties Junior High School competed in the American Math Contest 8 at Bard in November. The event, conducted annually by the Mathematical Association of America, was sponsored by the Bard Math Circle.

California Academy of Sciences exhibit engineer and Bard alumnus Tosh Chiang '04 has designed a series of exhibits for the museum in his dream job.

Bard class of 2013 alumni Arthur Holland Michel and Dan Gettinger, founders of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard, argue for an interdisciplinary and nonpartisan approach to drone study.

President Botstein talks about Bard's fresh look at college admissions, the evolving job market, and the future of higher education in this Huffington Post interview. "Learning, like love, death and eating, are fundamental human activities," says President Botstein. "It's at the core of human existence and its character has a resilience of continuity that is part of what makes up human nature."

Bard High School Early College's Steven Mazie on the new tech meritocracy.

The Bard Math Circle will host the AMC 8 Math Contest on Tuesday, November 19, from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at Bard College. The AMC 8, first offered in 1985, is an annual contest in middle school mathematics sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America. In 2012, more than 150,000 students from 2,300 schools participated in the AMC 8 contest, including 49 students at Bard College from around the Mid-Hudson Valley. The AMC 8 program at Bard will include an inspirational talk by Bard mathematics professor Sam Hsiao, and a panel discussion for parents entitled "Supporting Your Child as a High Achiever in Math and Science." Click Here to Register

Deer are often blamed for the spread of Lyme disease, but researchers now point to the increase in white-footed mice and the decline of their natural predator, the red fox. “It is an animal weed,” says Dr. Keesing of the white-footed mice. “Anything that causes a surge in the population of these mice is something to watch.” (Scientific American)

Bard alumnus Dan Gettinger '13, of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, considers questions of collectivism and individuality raised at the recent Maker Faire in New York City.

Keith O'Hara's new course, (De-)Coding the Drone, looks at the public perception of drones and the gap between science and science fiction.

Arthur Holland Michel '13, of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard, met with all manner of drones at a recent convention in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has increased its estimate of U.S. Lyme disease diagnoses from 30,000 to 300,000. Michael Specter looks at the new numbers.

Starting this summer, students in the Bard Prison Initiative—which provides incarcerated men and women in five New York State prisons the opportunity to earn Bard College degrees while serving their sentences—are taking part in Citizen Science, the same rigorous three-week introduction to scientific thinking that all Bard first-year undergraduates are required to take.

Hannah Bronfman '11 is a woman of many talents—among them DJ, restaurateur, and brand creator. In this interview, she talks about her new mobile app and gives advice to enterprising college students.

"[W]hen I look up from my e-reading, I realize that the physical books are serving a new purpose—as constant reminders of what I’ve read," writes Verlyn Klinkenborg.

Middle school students from underserved New York City schools come to Bard for three weeks every year to participate in the Summer Program for Mathematical Problem Solving (SPMPS). Collaborating with Bard's undergraduate program, the Master of Arts in Teaching program, and the Bard High School Early Colleges, SPMPS gives students an academic boost toward admission to competitive high schools.

Arthur Holland Michel '13, of Bard's Center for the Study of the Drone, examines the many possible uses of drone technology, and the ethical implications of drone development.

Can evidence-based teaching transform undergraduate education in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math? Biology professor Felicia Keesing spoke at a recent conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Alex Kalman cofounded Red Bucket Films while studying at Bard. Later this month he plans to release a new, free app called Camra, which enables users to edit a one-minute video on the go.

The Bard College Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) announces a new summer science program for students in the local Red Hook and Germantown school districts. Working closely with Bard and middle school faculty, the Bard College Farm and the Bard Science Summer Research Institute, student program directors, and CCE VISTA volunteers developed the Build, Learn, Play! Summer Science program. The four-day program utilizes the farm and Bard’s state-of-the-art Reem and Kayden Center for Science and Computation.

Bard alumnus Ben Rubenstein '04 MAT '06, a member of the mathematics faculty at BHSEC Manhattan, has received a 2013 Blackboard Teaching Award. Presented by Manhattan Media, the United Federation of Teachers, Columbia Teachers College, and the New School, the Blackboard Awards honor outstanding educators from all grade levels and education communities.

Environmental and Urban Studies faculty member Michael Specter discusses Lyme disease in the United States and the controversy over how to treat it.

Environmental and Urban Studies professor Michael Specter examines the battle over how to treat Lyme disease.

Biology faculty member Bruce Robertson's research on evolutionary traps contributed to a recent NPR feature by science journalist Robert Krulwich.

From July 1–3, Bard College and Ulster County BOCES will host the Mid-Hudson Math Teachers Circle Summer Intensive, a three-day session linking problem solving and enrichment activities to the new Middle School Mathematics Common Core Standards. The program takes place at Bard College and is free and open to all mid-level math teachers, mathematics professors, and mathematicians in the Mid-Hudson region.

Shweta Katti grew up in Mumbai's largest red light district and overcame all odds to get an education. Now she has received a full scholarship to come to Bard this fall.

The success of DARPA's defense research reveals how Congress can support sustainable technology development, writes Bard CEP and MBA student Brady McCartney.

Biology faculty member Bruce Robertson recently coauthored a paper on evolutionary traits that lead animals into danger when they encounter environments altered by human activity.

Depending on one’s viewpoint, it would seem either incongruous or quite likely that twins would study the same subjects at the same college. But for Alina and Janeta Marinova ’06, a double major in economics and mathematics at Bard was simply something both of them wanted to pursue. Here, they talk about their time at Bard and where their careers have taken them since then.

Macalester College professor and Bard alumna Karen Saxe '82 has been named a Congressional fellow of the American Mathematical Society and elected as second vice president of the Mathematics Association of America.

Biochemist Raed Al-Abbasee ’13 took an unlikely path to Bard. Fleeing the escalating violence in Iraq in the midst of his medical school training, Raed connected with Bard and received a scholarship to continue his studies. Bard chemistry professor Swapan Jain writes about Raed's time at the College as the senior prepares to graduate.

Eric Kramer looks at the difficulty of updating science textbooks with outdated information about osmosis.

More than 3,000 people from 115 institutions participated in the National Conversation on Democracy and Climate, which was organized by C2C Fellows at Bard and available virtually to organizations across the country. The event featured a coordinated nationwide screening of the film The Island President, followed by an interactive expert panel.

Arendt Center director Roger Berkowitz looks at Massive Open Online Courses and the transformative power of teaching.

A study coauthored by Bard CEP's Rebecca Barnes looks at decreased snow and increased drought risk in the Rocky Mountains.

Millennials like Bard sophomore Anna Daniszewski are changing the way we communicate, says Wired magazine.

Bard alumnus Nsikan Akpan '06 made the jump from biomedical research to science journalism, and gives advice to his fellow science writers on how to do the same.

Perry Scheetz is a multisport athlete at Bard, competing in soccer, track, and cross-country. She's also a star student who has completed research internships in Brazil and Canada, and will pursue a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at Dartmouth College after graduation. Her goal is to take part in the creation of a green alternative fuel for the airline industry.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Kristin Lane gave the keynote presentation on unconscious biases at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Diversity Summit.