News and Notes by Date
September 2015
09-02-2015
Bard senior Andrea Szegedy-Maszak came to Bard intending to be a psychology major. It was in Citizen Science, the three-week science intensive for first-years during winter intersession, that she realized she wanted to study biology. Now Andrea is taking the next step to being a biology teacher: she's enrolled in Bard's Master of Arts in Teaching program.
August 2015
08-28-2015
Bard ecologist Erik Kiviat and Simon's Rock colleague Robert Schmidt were the first scientists to discover clam shrimp in New Jersey. Now Kiviat is on the hunt again for the rare crustacean.
08-27-2015
Bard College associate professor of psychology Kristin Lane, as well as Jin Goh '12 and Douglas Gazarian '13, were among 270 researchers who participated in the most comprehensive investigation ever conducted about the rate and predictors of reproducibility in a field of science. The four-year study, published in Science, found that among replications of 100 published findings in three prominent psychology journals, fewer than half produced the same findings as the original study.
08-19-2015
The Center for the Study of the Drone analyzed data from the Federal Aviation Administration and found 295 near misses between drones and manned aircraft in the U.S. since November 2014.
08-07-2015
After Bard, Wayne joined the master's program in computer science at Stanford University. Later he decided to pursue his passion in the intersection between the humanities and sciences, a passion kindled a few years ago during his time at Bard. Currently Wayne is PhD student in the Human-Computer Interaction group of the Computer Science Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. His main research interests include crowdsourcing, creativity support tools, and social computing.
July 2015
07-07-2015
The Summer Program for Mathematical Problem Solving (SPMPS, pronounced "spumps") is back for a fifth summer at Bard. The 40 participants of this three-week residential math enrichment program, all rising 8th graders from underserved New York City middle schools, arrived on campus yesterday to start their first week of mathematical study. Their classes this summer include: Methods of Proof, Number Theory with Proof, Formal Systems, Logic, Integer Sequences, Cryptanalysis, Graph Theory, Math and Justice, Geometry of Numbers, Strategies and Games, Programming, and Infinity.
07-04-2015
The Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College has partnered with The Verge to create a database of the first 500 exemptions to the FAA's commercial drone restrictions.
07-03-2015
Professor Haggard explores the overlap of quantum mechanics and gravity, searching for new understandings of space and time.
June 2015
06-25-2015
Morrison takes a fresh approach to the study of microscopic killers: she combines new computational tools with traditional scientific methods.
06-16-2015
A study led by Lydia Meyer ’14 and Bard biology professor Bruce Robertson finds that nesting in non-native shrubs does not negatively impact the nesting success of veery thrushes. When birds or other animals make choices that are harmful for themselves—by reducing their lifespan or reproductive success, for example—this is known as an “evolutionary trap.” While there is concern that birds that prefer to build their nests in non-native plant species will have less successful nests and risk falling into such a trap, the new study—published in The Condor: Ornithological Advances—found that not to be the case for veery thrushes (Catharus fuscescens) who preferred to nest in invasive shrubs in the forests of New York. Their nesting success was not adversely affected at all.
April 2015
04-29-2015
In partnership with Bard College’s Center for Civic Engagement, the Red Hook Public Library will host several hands-on science camps for children and teens this July. For students entering grades 9-12, the library will host a three-week research program.
March 2015
03-30-2015
Organisms living close to each other compete for a limited set of resources: this extends from plant communities to human communities. Densely packed cities, like New York, can house many more people, but the space available for each person is limited. Competition for space is intense. Past research has shown that the same is true of plants—densely packed communities of plants usually compete with each other for resources such as space, water, and nutrients. However, a new study led by Bard College biology professor Alexandra Wright and published today in the Journal of Ecology suggests that these competitive disadvantages may be outweighed by benefits gained during severe weather conditions such as droughts and heat waves.
03-09-2015
The weekly collection of civilian and military drone news featured on the website of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard is now a collaboration with Forbes.
03-06-2015
Vaccines are a powerful public health tool, so why do some doctors allow their patients to delay or forgo vaccination?
February 2015
02-21-2015
Using a tadpole model to investigate, a new study suggests in-utero exposure to the epilepsy drug VPA appears to elevate the risk to babies of developing an autism spectrum disorder.
02-12-2015
Robyn Smyth has been named the first recipient of the Robert Estabrook Moeller Memorial Fund Research Fellow Award for limnology (lake science).
January 2015
01-22-2015
Alexandra Wright was surprised to find that an area in Germany with high biodiversity recovered rapidly and with great success after a recent major flood.
01-19-2015
The impact of catastrophic flooding can be mitigated by protecting biodiversity, suggests a new study led by Bard College biology professor Alexandra Wright and published this week in Nature Communications.
01-14-2015
Stuart Levine, Bard professor of psychology and emeritus dean of the college, delivered a lecture last month to the Obedience to Authority Conference in Kolomna, Russia. Professor Levine presented a paper on the continuing development of his Bard College seminar, Milgram—Obedience to Authority, and insights that have emerged in the course over the years. The Bard seminar focuses on Milgram's famous and controversial Yale University experiment on obedience to authority and the subsequent 50 years of further study and critical response it generated. Professor Levine presented at the invitation of Professor Alexander Voronov, of the State Academic University for the Humanities in Moscow, who has visited the Bard seminar in the past. This year Bard celebrates professor Levine's 50th anniversary as a member of the college's faculty. Read More
01-12-2015
As part of Bard College's Citizen Science Program, all first-year students return to campus in January to take part in a rigorous three-week course that introduces them to natural science and the ideas underlying the scientific method. This year’s theme, “Reducing the Global Burden of Infectious Disease,” explores the biology of infectious disease and the myriad of impacts that outbreaks and subsequent management can have on our global society. As a health emergency with global implications, one topic that will be central in this January’s course is the Ebola epidemic and crisis in West Africa.
01-07-2015
Santa Fe painter Jivan Lee "is a talented, emerging artist with a blossoming career and bright future ahead of him," writes Bonnie Gangelhoff.
01-07-2015
The Bard College Citizen Science Program presents two lectures this month. Both lectures take place at 6:30 p.m. in the Richard B. Fisher Center’s Sosnoff Theater. They are free and open to the public; no reservations are necessary. On Wednesday, January 14, Gautam Dantas, assistant professor at the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, will present “Networks of Exchanging Antibiotic Resistomes in Human and Environmental Microbiota.” On Thursday, January 15, Michael Specter, staff writer at the New Yorker and visiting professor in the Environmental and Urban Studies Program at Bard, presents “Relying on Reality: Separating Fact from Fiction in Daily Life.”
01-02-2015
Hudsonia executive director and Bard alumnus Erik Kiviat is part of a team of scientists that has established the existence of a new species of frog in New Jersey.
01-01-2015
Patty Dooley writes about the power of the "wow factor" in teaching science, and how to move students from those first reactions to asking "Why?" and then "What if?"
December 2014
12-09-2014
Arthur Holland Michel cautions that the state of consumer drone regulation is “like the early days of the automobile, with people speeding and not knowing what they were doing."
12-02-2014
Bard alumnus Joseph Silovsky '91 mixes theater and robotics in his new play, Send for the Million Men.
November 2014
11-24-2014
After being trapped in the 2010 earthquake, Brelsford has gone on to raise money for the people of Haiti, continue her research, and compete as a paraclimber.
11-24-2014
If the NCAA kept statistics that bridged different sports, Joanna Regan '15 might be in a category all by herself. Heading into the basketball season, this three-sport star had competed in 193 NCAA games, between soccer, basketball, and lacrosse. If she plays every game of the one basketball season and one lacrosse season she has left in her college career, she'll leave Bard with 232 games played.
11-20-2014
Arthur Holland Michel, Bard alumnus and codirector of Bard's Center for the Study of the Drone, weighs in on this Google Hangout.
11-20-2014
Research Professor Gidon Eshel recently presented his findings at Bard, showing that existing power lines can meet the Hudson Valley's electricity demand well into the future.
October 2014
10-28-2014
Jennifer Cordi, associate professor of biology at Bard High School Early College Manhattan, has been selected to receive a 2014 Sloan Award for Excellence in Teaching Science and Mathematics from the Fund for the City of New York. Professor Cordi joins six other extraordinary New York City public high school science and mathematics teachers in receiving this prestigious award. The prize carries a $5,000 award for Professor Cordi and a $2,500 award for the BHSEC Biology Program, to be presented in a ceremony at the Great Hall at New York City's Cooper Union on Wednesday, December 3. Professor Cordi teaches evolutionary biology, botany, and general biology. Her research focuses on Middle Devonian fossil plants and the evolutionary patterns of vascular plant groups. She is a fellow of the New York Academy for Teachers.
10-28-2014
On Tuesday, November 18, the Bard Math Circle will host the middle-school-level American Mathematics Competition (AMC 8) exam. In its third year at Bard, this 25-question, 40-minute exam contains engaging math problems that are challenging at the middle-school level, and is intended to inspire, promote enthusiasm, and foster a healthy attitude toward mathematics. Students will be exposed to the richness of middle-school-level mathematics at a deeper level than is ordinarily encountered in the schools.
10-27-2014
What's behind the increased popularity of gluten-free diets? Environmental and urban studies professor Michael Specter investigates.
10-23-2014
Every summer, young people who might not otherwise have access to math enrichment come to Bard for the Summer Program for Mathematical Problem Solving.
10-22-2014
Gidon Eshel has shown that the existing infrastructure can meet the region's power needs well into the future. He will discuss his findings again at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday in the Campus Center.
10-13-2014
What makes herpes viruses so difficult to kill? Biophysicist Z. Hong Zhou may have found the answer in a layer of microscopic chain mail, writes Bard biology alumna Diana Crow '13.
10-10-2014
Neuroscientist Stephanie Kadison, a biology professor at Bard High School Early College Queens, received a STEM Hero Award from the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) during the United Nations 69th Annual General Assembly on September 22. Professor Kadison was recognized as an exceptional educator who inspires young people to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. She was a member of the first cohort of the NYAS's Afterschool STEM Mentoring Fellowship Program, in which she taught genetics to underserved middle school students, an experience that inspired her to become a teacher. The inaugural STEM Hero Awards were given to 10 individuals. Other honorees included Datin Seri Hajah Rosmah binti Mansor, the first lady of Malaysia; Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda; and Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, chairperson of the African Union. The NYAS award ceremony accompanied the launch of their Global STEM Alliance, a public-private partnership that brings together governments, companies, schools and NGOs to increase access to STEM education around the world.
September 2014
09-26-2014
Dan Gettinger, Bard alumnus and codirector of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College, talks about The Drone Primer: A Compendium of the Key Issues.
09-17-2014
Biologist Felicia Keesing's research focuses on the cascading effects of ecosystem disruption, particularly how decreased species diversity can lead to an increase in infectious disease.
09-08-2014
Felicia Keesing and colleagues simulated a large mammal extinction by fencing off areas of African savanna. Now that research is fuel for speculation about the future of humanity.
09-08-2014
The Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College announces the release of The Drone Primer: A Compendium of the Key Issues, an online and print publication about the basic facts, issues, questions, and patterns related to unmanned systems in military, civilian, and commercial contexts. The Drone Primer is a comprehensive and concise handbook covering fundamental themes, questions, and facts about drones in technology, history, law, strategy, and culture. The report includes a portfolio of drone art, a first for a publication of this kind. The primer is free and available to the public.
09-04-2014
09-04-2014
Wallace Benjamin Flint and L. May Hawver Professor of Chemistry Craig Anderson has been teaching at Bard since 2001. He holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Western Ontario and a Ph.D. from the Université de Montréal.
In 2011 he was awarded two major prizes for his work: a $198,000 award from the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms Program of the Chemistry Division of the National Science Foundation, and the prestigious and selective Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, recognizing both his scholarly research with undergraduates as well as his compelling commitment to teaching, and providing a research grant of $60,000. Mark Halsey, associate dean of the College, notes that “Professor Anderson has a long track record in engaging undergraduate students with exciting and fruitful research,” stressing that many of Anderson’s students go on to graduate study at leading research universities. Professor Anderson’s research is centered on the study of transition metal complexes with general applications toward bioinorganic and catalytic systems, and his work has been published in numerous scholarly publications devoted to chemical sciences, including Organometallics, Inorganic Chemistry, Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, Journal of the American Chemical Society, and the Canadian Journal of Chemistry. His other awards include the Chemical Institute of Canada’s Award of Excellence, Andrew E. Scott Medal and Prize, and the Society of Chemical Industry Award.09-04-2014
Felicia Keesing, David and Rosalie Rose Distinguished Professor of Science, Mathematics, and Computing, has been on the Bard faculty since 2000. She has a B.S. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Keesing is a community ecologist who studies the consequences of interactions among species.
Since 1995, she has studied how African savannas function when the large, charismatic animals like elephants, buffaloes, zebras, and giraffes disappear. She also studies how interactions among species influence the probability that humans will be exposed to infectious diseases. Keesing and her biology department colleague, Mike Tibbetts, currently have two grants from the National Science Foundation to study emerging tick-borne diseases of humans called anaplasmosis and babesiosis. Keesing also studies Lyme disease, another tick-borne disease. She is particularly interested in how species diversity affects disease transmission. Keesing has also received research grants from the National Geographic Society, National Institutes of Health, and Environmental Protection Agency, among others. She has been awarded the United States Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2000). She is the coeditor of Infectious Disease Ecology: Effects of Ecosystems on Disease and of Disease on Ecosystems (2008) and has contributed to such publications as Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Ecology Letters, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Ecology, BioScience, Conservation Biology, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, and Canadian Journal of Zoology, among others.August 2014
08-18-2014
"The Gulf between the truth about G.M.O.s and what people say about them keeps growing wider," writes Michael Specter.
08-12-2014
In "Science Literacy: A Key to Unlocking a Fully Engaged Citizenry," Biology professor and Citizen Science Program director Amy Savage discusses the program's success at Bard.
08-07-2014
As hobbyists and companies take to the sky with drones, Arthur Holland Michel writes that we need a more intelligent debate about how to regulate unmanned aircraft.
08-06-2014
Research Professor Gidon Eshel's new study shows that the environmental impact of raising beef is 10 times that of raising other livestock.
08-06-2014
One of the experiments done by middle schoolers at Bard MAT's math and science camp in July involved bungee jumping Barbie and Ken dolls from the Reem-Kayden Center balcony.
08-01-2014
As the world's worst Ebola epidemic yet spreads through western Africa, Professor Specter calls for an improved global system to address future health disasters.