Lara Atkins, director of International Programs, recently participated in the “Succeeding as Women in Higher Education” conference at SUNY Cortland. She was on panel titled “International Women’s Perspective on Leadership.” Experts and scholars discussed academic practices, values and institutional change through presentations, workshops and performances. Among the topics addressed were the dearth of women in leadership positions in higher education; best practices that support, enhance and cultivate gender equity in the academy; the advancement of women in STEM fields; and the attributes or credentials required for women in leadership positions.
Erin Delman ’12, who is majoring in environmental science and geology, helped organize a rally in Albany to address climate change. Last Saturday’s 350.org event, held outside the Capitol, was one of more than 5,000 rallies across the world designed to send a message about limiting carbon emissions to those who will gather for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. The 350 advocates are asking for any treaty reached at the conference to include a cap they say scientists have identified as the "safe upper limit" for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere – 350 parts per million. The 350.org group was founded by noted author and environmentalist Bill McKibben.
Chad Orzel, associate professor of physics, recently served on a panel on “Communicating Science in the 21st Century” as part of the Quantum to Cosmos Festival at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. The 10-day international celebration of science brought together scientists, journalists, authors, and artists to discuss the importance of science communication and science journalism for the science field and society-at-large, and the effects of new technologies on the status and future of science communication. Joining Orzel on the panel were Kathryn O’Hara, CTV Chair in Science Broadcast Journalism at Carleton University, Ottawa, and Canadian Science Writers Association president; Ivan Semeniuk, journalist-in-residence, Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto; Nadia El-Awady, lecturer, online journalism at Al-Ahram Canadian University, Cairo, and president, World Federation of Science Journalists; and freelance science journalist Véronique Morin.
A paper delivered by Rudy Nydegger and his daughter, Liesl Nydegger, at the International Business and Economic Research Conference in Las Vegas, recently won the Best Paper Award in the Management Section. As a result, the paper, titled “The Challenges in Managing Virtual Teams,” will be published in the conference journal. Nydegger is professor of psychology and of management and psychology at Union Graduate College, and his daughter is a graduate student at Claremont Graduate University in California.