faculty news
david polly
EAS Professor David Polly is Associate Director of a successful IU Grand
Challenge initiative.

The Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences will play a central role in
the multi-milliondollar IU Grand Challenges initiative called Prepared for En-
vironmental Change directed by Ellen Ketterson of the Biology Department.

The initiative aims to improve forecasts of climatic, hydrographic, and biot-
ic change (including disease vectors); assess public perception of risk and
improve methods for communicating the implications of environmental
change; reconfigure strategies for conserving natural resources and design-
ing resilient human communities; and develop strategies for governments
and businesses to invest productively in the face of large-scale environmen-
tal change. Sixteen new faculty positions will be created to support this work,
Watch a video from the IU Grand
Challenges initiative to get more
information about the Prepared
for Environmental Change grant,
as well as other efforts that
were funded by the IU Grand
Challenges Initiative.

https://grandchallenges.iu.edu/ including two in EAS in the area of climate modeling.

Several EAS faculty are involved, including David Polly who is the Associate
Director of the initiative, Chanh Kieu, Paul Staten, Doug Edmonds, Arndt
Schimmelmann, Peter Sauer, Edward Herrmann, Brian Yanites, Claudia
Johnson, and Chen Zhu. The initiative will bring several postdoctoral fellows
and graduate students to the department, upgrade our stable isotope facili-
ties, and add LiDAR technology.

MICHAEL HAMBURGER
Midcontinent EarthScope Workshop for Teachers
The Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences hosted 20 middle- and high-school Earth science teachers for
“Midcontinent EarthScope Workshop” connected with its NSF-funded research project on Structure and Dynamics
of the North American Craton. The three-day workshop included lectures, demonstrations, exercises, discussions,
and two field trips to learn about structures associated with earthquakes in the Midcontinent.

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