Wednesday, April 3rd| noon | ITE 229 | Webex
Click here to view the recording.
Wednesday, April 17th| noon | Webex
Domestic water demands of socially vulnerable communities in response to drought
Dr. Alisha Chan, Interdisciplinary Data Scientist, MD-DE-DC Water Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey
Extensive water usage in socially vulnerable communities that face drought may worsen resource depletion, perpetuating a cycle of persistent water scarcity in already vulnerable areas. This work studies how public and self-supplied domestic water use by socially vulnerable communities varies spatially and with differences in drought severity. Domestic water use per capita data is combined with social vulnerability and drought severity indices through multivariate log-transformed regression models at the county level. Results were stratified by regions with varying water availability conditions (i.e., severe drought, moderate drought, normal, unusually moist, and very moist). Results reveal the paradoxical relationship between the water demands of socially vulnerable communities and the environmental justice challenges in areas with water scarcity.
Dr. Alisha Yee Chan is a scientist in the Water Resources Mission Area at the U.S. Geological Survey. She obtained her Ph.D. from Yale University in 2022, specializing in health and socioeconomic effects of urban flooding. Alisha's current research at the U.S. Geological Survey aims to better understand the interacting relationship between human dimensions and water availability.
Wednesday, April 24th| noon | ITE 229 | Webex
Applications of isotope geochemistry for understanding living and non-living systems
Dr. Gabriella Weiss, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science & Technology II, UMBC/ NASA Goddard SPC
Reaction pathways for biological organisms are enzyme-driven. Biological organisms often compete for energy sources and constantly perform reactions that maintain homeostasis. Thus, enzymes help provide a competitive, life-sustaining advantage for organisms. On the other hand, abiotic reactions are not random but rather reflect the physiochemical conditions under which they occur. These reactions depend on available reactants and environmental conditions that facilitate chemical reactions, such as the temperature or pH in a solution. The pace of these reactions is driven by energy and substrate availability; thus, it is likely that abiotic reaction networks impart distinctly different molecular signals relative to enzyme-catalyzed biological reaction networks. Isotope values, the ratio of heavy (13C) to light (12C) versions of an element, represent such a molecular signal. Conveniently, isotope ratios vary because of chemical reactions and environmental factors, making them important tools for understanding the origins and characteristics of a system. My research focuses on measuring the isotopic variation within molecules to understand signals that may be unique to living and non-living systems, respectively.
Wednesday, May 10th| noon | Physics 401 | Webex link coming soon
Dr. Yaya Richter, Special Projects Lead, National Center for Atmospheric Research – joint seminar with Physics and GESTAR II, will speak about Earth System Predictability Across Timescales