NVIRONMENTN I C H O L A S S C H O O L O F T H E E N V I R O N M E N T F A L L 2 0 1 7

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DUKENVIRONMENT 2

ADMINISTRATION JEFFREY VINCENT, Stanback DeanEMILY KLEIN, Chair, Division of Earth and Ocean SciencesRICHARD T. DI GIULIO, Interim Chair, Division of Environmental Sciences and PolicyANDREW J. READ, Chair, Division of Marine Science and Conser vation, and Director,Duke University Marine Laborator yCHARLOTTE NUÑEZ-WOLFF, Senior Associate Dean, Finance and AdministrationDEAN L. URBAN, Senior Associate Dean, Academic InitiativesSCOTTEE CANTRELL, Associate Dean, Marketing, Communications and Strategic EngagementKEVIN MCCARTHY, Associate Dean, Development and Alumni RelationsSHERRI NEVIUS, Associate Dean, Student Ser vicesROBERT PITTS, Assistant Dean, Strategic Reporting and AnalyticsJOHN ROBINSON, Assistant Dean, Facilities and Information Technolog y

BOARD OF VISITORSVIRGINIA REYNOLDS PARKER T’80, Parker Global Strategies LLC, Stamford, CT (Chair)J. CURTIS MOFFATT T’73, Kinder Morgan Inc., Houston, TX (Vice Chair)BENJAMIN S. ABRAM E’07, Wylan Energ y, Durham, NCMARCIA ANGLE M’81, Durham, NCELIZABETH (FIELDING) ARNOLD T’01, B’10, Durham, NCH. ROSS ARNOLD III T’67, Quest Capital Corp., Atlanta, GAR. JEFFREY CHANDLER T’84, Rose Grove Capital, New York, NYFREDERICK H. A. BEAUJEU-DUFOUR , Faircloth Farms, Clinton, NCMITZI ELKES , Briarclif f Manor, NYSTEVEN ELKES , Makeover Solutions Inc., New York, NYANNIE FALK , Michael and Annie Falk Foundation, Palm Beach, FLMICHAEL FALK , Comvest Partners, West Palm Beach, FLPHILIP N. FROELICH JR. T’68, Froelich Education Ser vices, Tallahassee, FLKATHY FROELICH , Froelich Education Ser vices, Tallahassee, FLABIGAIL FIELD GERRY T’02, Pound Ridge, NYPATRICIA HATLER T’76, Hatler Arbitration and Mediation, Columbus, OHKATHRYN HOENIG T’83, Energize NY, Yorktown Heights, NYKENNETH W. HUBBARD T’65, Hines Interests LP, New York, NYSCOTT JONES MF’81, Forest Capital Partners LLC, Boston, MA

CONTENTS

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EDITOR SCOTTEE CANTRELL

ART DIRECTOR AMY CHAPMAN BRAUN

SENIOR WRITER TIM LUCAS

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS SANDRA ACKERMAN, LISA M. DELLWO, LAURA ERTEL AND SERGIO TOVAR

COVER IMAGE CONTAMINANTS SWIRL AROUND NICHOLAS SCHOOL FISH TRAPS AT REPUBLIC CRESOTING SITE IN CHESAPEAKE, VA.(Photo by Casey Lindberg PhD student) see pg.4

P12-17SCHOOL NEWS

PETER LAYTON , Blackthor ne Capital Management LLC, Whitewater, WIJOHN KIRBY NICHOLAS T’89, B’96, Chelsea Clock Co., Chelsea, MAMICHAEL R. PARKER , Parker Global Strategies LLC, Stamford, CTEDWARD M. PRINCE JR . L’93, G’93, Neustar Inc., Sterling, VADONALD SANTA JR . T’80, Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, Washington, DCBRADLEY SCHWARTZ E’79, Blue Canopy Group LLC, Reston, VATRUMAN SEMANS JR. T’90, B’01, Element Capital Advisors, RTP, NCBARBARA C. SMIT T’79, Gladwyne, PANEIL SMIT JR. T’80, Comcast Cable Communications, Philadelphia, PABRADFORD STANBACK T’81, Canton, NCSHELLI STANBACK , BodyMindEnergetics, Inc., Canton, NCALISON LEIGH TAYLOR T’84, Archer Daniels Midland, Chicago, ILPHILIP TURBIN T’92, Bank of America Mer rill Lynch, New York, NYCOURTNEY LORENZ MEM’06, XL Construction, Milpitas, CA (Ex-Officio)TIM PROFETA MEM’97, L’97, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Durham, NC (Ex-Officio)WILLIAM K. REILLY , Aqua Inter national Partners L.P., San Francisco, CA (Ex-Officio)

ALUMNI COUNCIL SHANNON LYONS MEM’04, SouthWings Inc., Annapolis, MD (President-Elect)NICK DILUZIO MF’10, NewFields, Atlanta, GA (Vice President)COURTNEY LORENZ MEM’06, XL Construction, Milpitas, CA (Past President)KRISTEN BREMER DEL-MEM’13, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Durham, NCKIMBERLY CESAFSKY MEM’14, MF’14, Enviva LP, Bethesda, MDELIZA DAVIS MEM’12, National Grid, Waltham, MABELTON COPP VI MEM’16, Greenwood Resources, Portland, ORDANA MOONEY DAVIS MEM’04, Hitachi Consulting, Rockville, MDELIZA DAVIS MEM’12, National Grid, Waltham, MAALEKSANDRA DOBKOWSKI-JOY MEM’98, Framework LLC, Stamford, CTJOHN GUST MEM’04, Fannie Mae, Washington, DCESI LANGSTON T’09, MEM’13, Norfolk, VAGA-YOUNG CHOI PARK MEM’05, Cyclone Energ y Group, Chicago, ILMAGGIE PELOSO T’05, MEM’06, PhD’10, Vinson & Elkins LLP, Washington, DCBEN PRATER MEM’04, Defenders of Wildlife, Asheville, NCPAUL QUINLAN MEM/MPP’06, ScottMadden Inc., Raleigh, NCERIC THU MEM’06, 4-D Properties, LLP, Tucson, AZMARY TURNIPSEED G’11, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Palo Alto, CALESLIE WORTHINGTON MEM16, MF’16, Bluesource, LLC, San Francisco, CADUKE AFFILIATIONS

B FUQUA SCHOOL OF BUSINESS // G GRADUATE SCHOOL // L LAW SCHOOL E PRATT SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING // T TRINITY COLLEGE // M MEDICAL SCHOOL P DUKE PARENT

P25REAL WORLD EXPERIENCEMASTER’S PROJECT PAIRS STUDENT TEAM WITH IRRIGATION DISTRICT

P34DUKE MARINE LAB TO GET ITS “DREAM” OCEAN RESEARCH AND TEACHING VESSEL

P20SUMMER INTERNSHIPS

P18DEAN’S UPDATE

ON THE WINGS U S T A I N A B I L I T YP28

ALUMNI STORY

WEB EDITORS STEPHANIE MARTINEK AND SEAN ROWE

CONTACT US ONLINE / NICHOLAS.DUKE.EDU/DUKENVIRONMENT SUBSCRIBE / (FREE) E-MAIL DUKENVIRONMENT@NICHOLAS.DUKE.EDU ADDRESS CHANGE / E-MAIL DUKENVIRONMENT@NICHOLAS.DUKE.EDU OR CALL 919.613.8111 COMMENTS / E-MAIL DUKENVIRONMENT@NICHOLAS.DUKE.EDU

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NICHOLAS SCHOOL AFFILIATIONS DEL DUKE ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP PROGRAM // MEM MASTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT // MF MASTER OF FORESTRY

DUKENVIRONMENT 4

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SALTVILLE, VA - JULY, 1968: The Olin Mathieson Alkali Works plant in the Appalachian town of Saltville, Va., for decades dumped its calcium chloride effluent into the North Fork of the Holston River which flowed past the plant. In 1970 the company announced it could not meet the new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) water pollution standards and would close the plant. In 1982 the property was delared a Superfund toxic cleanup site. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

WRITTEN BY SANDRA J. ACKERMAN

PHOTOS BY MEGAN MENDENHALL

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AT THE SUPERFUND RESEARCH CENTER, MANY LINES OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY CONVERGE ON QUESTIONS OF

HOW EARLY-LIFE EXPOSURES CAN LEAD TO ILLNESS LATER IN LIFE.

is not renowned for its size, cleverness, or appeal to the palate. Seafood restaurants don’t put it on the menu, and in sport fishing it’s considered bait, if anything. But in certain scientific circles, the killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) is a celebrity, because it offers new insights into evolution at work.

Large numbers of killifish live in the Elizabeth River, an estuary that runs through southeastern Virginia and empties into the James River. This has always been a busy waterway: the clearing of timber for shipbuilding, the transport of goods for trade, and naval battles from the Revolutionary and Civil wars have all left their marks on the area. But the biggest impact has come from the wood-treatment plants on the riverbanks that used creosote—an oily compound derived from coal tar—to protect valuable lumber from decay.

Over many decades, creosote passed into the water and settled in the riverbed, releasing large quantities of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs; these are compounds that have long raised concerns about public health because of their well-documented association with cancer. The Elizabeth River’s history of chronic contamination led the Environmental Protection Agency to designate it a Superfund cleanup site in 1990. To Richard Di Giulio, Sally Kleberg Professor of Environmental Toxicology, it also made the river a natural laboratory for his research.

When Di Giulio set out to find an animal model through which to focus his study of Elizabeth River contaminants, he didn’t have far to look. The Atlantic killifish was already a favorite of many researchers because of its hardiness and ability to adapt to a great variety of habitats. Best of all, individual killifish have relatively small home ranges and so are well-suited for studying the effects of contamination and other stressors at particular defined locations.

Di Giulio directs the Superfund Research Center (SRC) at Duke, so it might seem logical that he should do the fieldwork for his research at a Superfund cleanup site. However, this is only a coincidence; the two Superfund entities operate independently of each other.

Work done at different SRCs does not necessarily have to focus solely on contaminants at Superfund sites. Whereas the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) oversees the cleanup of hazardous waste and reclamation of land at more than a thousand Superfund sites throughout the 50 states, there are relatively few Superfund Research Centers, and these are managed by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

The Atlantic KILLIFISH

(COVER IMAGE) CONTAMINANTS SWIRL AROUND NICHOLAS SCHOOL FISH TRAPS AT REPUBLIC CRESOTING SITE IN CHESAPEAKE, VA.

(Photo by Casey Lindberg PhD student)

DUKENVIRONMENT 6

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ONE “CHOLINERGIC AND

MONOAMINERGIC MECHANISMS OF PERSISTENT

NEUROBEHAVORIAL TOXICITY” which is aimed at identifying how exposure

to diazinon, triphenyl phosphate and other neurotoxins affects an organism’s neurotransmitter system and can result in persisting cognitive and emotional

dysfunction.

The Duke University Superfund

Research Center was awarded

a five-year grant for nearly $10.2

million from the National Institute

of Environmental Health Sciences

(NIEHS).

The grant will support five Super-

fund Center research projects inves-

tigating the later-life consequences

of early-life exposures to hazard-

ous chemicals. It will also fund six

outreach and training programs

designed to augment and support

the center’s research.

NIEHS is part of the National

Institutes of Health.

“This renewed funding will sup-

port our center’s work to shed light

on the long-term effects exposure

to chemical pollutants can have on

human and ecological health, and

to develop approaches for reduc-

ing these exposures,” says center

director Richard T. Di Giulio, Sally

Kleberg Professor of Environmental

Toxicology at the Nicholas School.

“It will also support efforts to

share our research results with

governmental, industrial and public

stakeholders, engage communities

in Superfund Center activities, and

provide superior training for gradu-

ate students and postgraduate

researchers,” Di Giulio says.

Highly interdisciplinary in nature,

the Superfund Center brings to-

gether teams of biomedical, social

and environmental scientists as well

as engineers from across Duke’s

campus—and from other institutions

such as North Carolina State Univer-

sity—to investigate some of the most

pressing issues in environmental

health today.

NIEHS AWARDS $10.2 MILLION GRANT TO DUKE SUPERFUND RESEARCH CENTER

Five research projects will be supported by the new NIEHS grant.Each of these five projects will be augmented by the Superfund Center’s

research support cores, research translation core, community engagement

core and training core.

TWO“ALTERING THE BALANCE OF

ADIPOGENIC AND OSTEOGENIC REGULATORY PATHWAYS

FROM EARLY-LIFE EXPOSURE TO HPCs AND AOPEs”

which is aimed at understanding how the regulation of key receptor pathways in the body may help mediate later-life skeletal malformations, obesity and other harmful

effects of early exposure to halogenated phenolic compounds (HPCs), chemicals

which mimic hormones on the body.

rich DI GIULIO

PHOTO BY MEGAN MENDENHALL/ DUKE PHOTOGRAPHY

Five-year funding for the SRC at Duke was renewed earlier this year (see story, page 6). It is one of only 18 SRCs currently in operation; each one has its own focus, says Heather Henry, administrator of the Superfund Research Program at the NIEHS. “A Superfund Research Center might be organized around a contaminant, such as arsenic or PCBs or PAHs, or around a mode of exposure, such as mining in arid regions,” she explains. “The Duke Center focuses on developmental exposure—an area that’s very much in need of additional research, because while an organism is still forming it can be very vulnerable to hazardous substances. In humans, it can take a long time to see the effects of early-life exposures, and the Duke Center has developed several innovative methods to help understand this phenomenon.”

DEVELOPING A DNA-BASED INVESTIGATIVE TOOL In the late 1980s the Elizabeth River had the dubious honor of being named the most polluted estuary in Virginia. Of all the industrial sites responsible, the Atlantic Wood treatment plant in Portsmouth, Va., was found to have contributed the most to the problem. Yet despite epic levels of contamination in their home waters, killifish that spend their whole lives at the Atlantic Wood site seem to maintain their abudance and ability to reproduce, although they do show high rates of liver cancer. When fish embryos from a relatively clean site nearby are exposed to polluted sediment, they develop deformed hearts, reduced circulation, and pericardial swelling, whereas embryos from Atlantic Wood parents show a near-complete resistance to these effects.

Di Giulio hypothesized the pollution itself was putting pressure on the killifish to change at a genetic level to adapt to their polluted environment—in other words, to evolve. In collaboration with a lab at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, he developed a DNA-based probe for investigating the role of specific genes in responses to toxicants and demonstrated that when the expression of particular genes is blocked, PAHs exert a greater or lesser toxic effect, depending on the gene.

As in humans, cancer in fish is a disease of old age and generally does not have a large effect on population dynamics. Di Giulio and his colleagues now think that the evolved resistance of Atlantic Wood killifish to PAHs involves genetic adaptations that reduce PAH effects during embryonic development of the cardiovascular system. Meanwhile, though, estimates of human risk from PAHs keep focusing on cancer—so are we overlooking another, equally important threat here?

A surprising discovery from the Elizabeth River killifish studies was the potent synergy between two of the most prevalent PAH types at the Atlantic Wood site. This synergy, the evolutionary driver of cancer resistance in the killifish population, is a crucial factor to take into account when we try to estimate levels of risk at other PAH-Five research projects will be supported by the new NIEHS grant.

THREE“PERSISTENT MITOCHONDRIAL AND EPIGENETIC EFFECTS OF

EARLY-LIFE TOXICANT EXPOSURE” which is aimed at identifying whether the toxic effects of certain chemicals on mito-chondrial function are highly persistent or inheritable; and if these effects are greater

among certain genetic backgrounds.

FOUR“MECHANISMS AND

CONSEQUENCES OF EVOLVED ADAPTATION TO ENVIRONMENTAL

POLLUTION” which is aimed at exploring how low-level exposures to polycyclic aromatic hydrocar-bons (PAHs) affects physical, behavioral and metabolic development, and how

PAHs have driven evolution in free-living populations of fish.

FIVE“ENGINEERING THE PHYSICO-CHEMICAL ENVIRONMENT TO

ENHANCE THE BIOREMEDIATION OF DEVELOPMENTAL TOXICANTS IN SEDIMENT FUNGAL-BACTERIAL

BIOFILMS” which is aimed at devising new biological techniques – using an understudied group of micro-organism known as non-basidio-mycete fungi – to remediate high levels of PAHs and other developmental toxicants

that can accumulate in sediment.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

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DUKENVIRONMENT 8

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contaminated sites. From what we’ve seen with Atlantic Wood sediments, continuing to focus on the cancer-causing potential of PAHs could be dangerously misleading: we may end up with serious underestimates of other risks posed by some PAH mixtures.

Fortunately, federal, state, and town authorities, as well as local industries, have come together to begin limiting the release of pollutants into the Elizabeth River system and restoring the habitats to the extent possible. The Atlantic Wood site is now closed for remediation, while the nonprofit Elizabeth River Project (http://www.elizabethriver.org) is coordinating efforts to make the river swimmable and fishable by the year 2020 and to educate the public about the value of a healthy ecosystem.

Not far away in Chesapeake, research continues on the Republic Creosoting site, also “super contaminated,” according to PhD student Casey Lindberg. “One of the first things I did was assess the killifish at Republic Creosoting for their degree of resistance” to PAHs, she says. The fish here, like those at Atlantic Wood, showed few signs of heart deformities or elevated activity of the CYP1A enzyme; this population had developed a similar resistance to the health toll of creosote PAHs. But also like the Atlantic Wood killifish, the Republic Creosoting population seems to show that their evolved resistance comes at a cost: these fish could be extra-susceptible to other kinds of stress, such as a decreased amount of dissolved oxygen in the water.

These findings hold major implications—especially in the context of climate change, which brings drought to some areas and deluges to others. In estuaries like the Elizabeth River, abnormally high rainfall can rapidly lower the salinity of the water, which can be stressful for aquatic species. Rainfall also causes increased inputs of nutrients from land and agricultural runoff into the water, which, combined with increased temperatures, allows algae to bloom on the surface of the water. As the blooms start to die, the result is lower levels of dissolved oxygen for the fish that live underneath.

EXPLORING ‘FITNESS COSTS” OF ADAPTATIONIf some animals—say, those with short generation times—can sometimes evolve to thrive in the face of chronic pollution, does this mean the pollution is benign? Probably not. In several subpopulations of Elizabeth River killifish, the genetic structure has been permanently altered, and there’s evidence that the evolutionary adaptations that let them live with the pollution have come at a cost to their overall fitness. Di Giulio explains, “We are currently performing studies exploring fitness costs—i.e., showing that the adapted populations are more sensitive to elevated temperature and hypoxia. These studies involve detailed analyses on mitochondrial function, aerobic performance and behavior.”

Joel Meyer, who directs the SRC’s training core, carries out studies like this at the level of genes or molecules. “I’m looking at how environmental agents can cause damage to DNA and at the molecular processes that organisms employ to prevent and/or repair DNA damage,” says Meyer, Truman and Nellie Semans/Alex Brown & Sons Associate Professor of Molecular Environmental Toxicology. He also looks for the subtle genetic differences within a species—or human population—that may make certain individuals more susceptible, or else more resistant, to DNA damage.

In many cases he finds such differences among genes that affect an animal’s mitochondria, self-enclosed bodies within each cell that produce and store energy. Mitochondria are unique in having their own genome, which is far smaller than the animal’s overall genome and lacks some of its pathways for repairing DNA damage. For this reason, toxicity and diseases that arise from mitochondrial damage can be very serious.

Says Meyer, “Along with a lot of other labs, we have observed that if you have a stressor that affects mitochondrial function, the damage may become apparent only over the long term, and sometimes even across successive generations. We’re now setting out to test the possibility that certain toxins in the environment can cause these types of long-term damage, and to find out whether genetic differences may make some individuals more susceptible than others.”

Jamie Harris, a Duke undergraduate in the class of 2020, is enjoying her summer

WE HAVE OBSERVED

THAT IF YOU HAVE

A STRESSOR

THAT AFFECTS

MITOCHONDRIAL

FUNCTION, THE

DAMAGE MAY BECOME

APPARENT ONLY OVER

THE LONG TERM

PHOTO BY MEGAN MENDENHALL/ DUKE PHOTOGRAPHY

joel MEYER

job in Meyer’s toxicology lab. “This is really different from the work I did in an aging lab while I was in high school,” she says. One of her experiments calls for observing microscopic worms (C. elegans) under a plate reader after they have been exposed to extracts of sediment from the Elizabeth River, to look for possible mitochondrial damage. Harris enjoys the ingenious design of this assay: “We use a certain strain of C. elegans that contains a fluorescent protein in its genome, so the worms glow when you put them under the microscope and in the plate reader,” she explains. “It’s really cool: these worms are too small to see with the naked eye, but they can still tell us a lot about how toxins affect mitochondrial function.”

ANALYZING HOUSEHOLD ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTHThe deputy director of Duke’s SRC, Heather Stapleton, studies the environmental health profile of quite a different habitat—the typical American home, with its vast assortment of furnishings, appliances, clothing, tools, and devices, along with varying amounts of grime and dust. Earlier this year Stapleton and her coauthors briefly became world-famous for their chemical analysis of household dust, in which they found surprisingly high levels of endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs). Stapleton is Dan and Bunny Gabel Associate Professor of Environmental Ethics and Sustainable Environmental Management.

Many of the newspaper headlines oversimplified the research to the point of silliness (“Is household dust making you fat?”), but the health effects of EDCs should be taken seriously, Stapleton says. The compounds she and her colleagues identified are known

AARON BARCHOWSKY PHD’85 University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health

DANA DOLINOY PHD’07 University of Michigan, School of Public Health

EVAN GALLAGHER MEM’86, PHD’91 University of Washington, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences

CHRISTOPHER LAU BS’75, PHD’82 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Health and Environmental Effect Laboratory

MAXWELL LEUNG PHD’12 California Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Pesticide Regulation

JENNIFER LYNCH PHD’04 National Institute of Standards and Technology, Chemical Sciences Division

JOEL MEYER PHD’03 Duke University, Nicholas School of the Environment

ALICIA TIMME-LARAGY PHD’07 University of Massachusetts Amherst, School of Public Health and Health Sciences

DAVID VOLZ PHD’06 University of California, Riverside, Department of Environmental Science

The Duke Superfund Research Center is a highly productive training ground for young researchers from a wide variety of academic fields.

Twenty-four former students or post-doctoral associates who received early-career training at Duke are now principal investigators at research labs and govern-ment agencies across the United States. This distinguished cohort includes 15 who are Duke alumni, including nine who received their degrees through the highly touted University Program in Environ-mental Health (UPEH), which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year.

SUPERFUND CENTER SERVES AS TRAINING GROUND FOR YOUNG RESEARCHERS

PHOTO BY MEGAN MENDENHALL/ DUKE PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTO OF MITOCHONDRIAFROM JOEL MEYER’S LAB

DUKENVIRONMENT 10

to interfere with the human hormonal system that prompts the formation of both bone cells and fat cells; thus, as with many other substances being studied at the SRC, exposure to them early in life poses the greatest risk.

Stapleton’s main line of investigation focuses on the flame-retardant substances commonly used today to treat clothing, rugs, mattresses, and many other household objects. All too often these substances include polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs)—compounds that can interfere with the thyroid system, which normally regulates human metabolism, growth, temperature control, and a host of other important functions. Exposure to PBDEs also appears to raise women’s risk of developing papillary thyroid cancer.

Of course it’s a good idea to minimize the risk that a child’s pajamas will burst into flames if he gets too close to the toaster, but Stapleton thinks this goal can be met without the addition of other health hazards. Some new and improved flame-retardant substances are in the works, but she would like to see a more basic response to this public-health threat. “The first thing we ought to do is determine exactly where we need flame retardants and where we don’t,” she says.

UNDERSTANDING HOW TOXIC EXPOSURE AFFECTS THE BRAINProfessor Ed Levin holds appointments at Duke’s medical school and undergraduate college as well as at the Nicholas School. Within the Superfund Research Center, at his neurotoxicology lab, he’s trying to understand how exposure to harmful substances

heather STAPLETON

EXPOSURE TO

PBDEs ALSO

APPEARS TO RAISE

WOMEN’S RISK

OF DEVELOPING

PAPILLARY THYROID

CANCER.

PHOTO BY MEGAN MENDENHALL/ DUKE PHOTOGRAPHY

ISTOCK PHOTO

COVER

may affect the brain, not just in terms of one chemical signal but among several of them: dopamine, serotonin, and acetylcholine. Sorting out these interactions is a challenge, he admits, but says, “Even at that, it’s just three neurotransmitters among many others.”

Levin’s lab works with a range of model systems, from in-vitro cultures to invertebrates to aquatic organisms (zebrafish) to mammals (rodents). The different models complement one another, he says.” In zebrafish, for example, his research team is studying how exposure to certain toxins early in life can lead to adverse effects later on, whereas in rodents they are looking for possible new treatments to alleviate such effects.

Andrew Hawkey, a postdoctoral associate in Levin’s lab, studies the neurotoxic effects of the pesticide diazinon, which was once widely used in the United States but is now applied only in agriculture. “Our interest is in off-target effects, because the insects targeted by diazinon are just the first organisms exposed to it,” he explains. Farmers and agricultural workers, people who live near areas where diazinon is used, and consumers of the food that’s grown with it all run some risk of being affected by this compound.

Diazinon is designed to work in insect nervous systems, but Hawkey wants to find out how it affects it the brains of mammals at their most vulnerable stage: before birth, while they are still developing. He implants an osmotic mini-pump under the skin of pregnant female rats to administer a consistent, low level of exposure throughout pregnancy. (A “control” group of pregnant rats is fitted with pumps containing an inert substance.)

“In the offspring of these rats, we’ll be looking for evidence of anxiety, changes in behavior or cognition, and changes in activity,” Hawkey says. Meanwhile, two partner labs at the SRC are studying the neurochemistry, looking closely for changes in various signal receptors in the brain that may correlate with changes in behavior or cognition.

Hawkey’s previous research had focused on addiction: how alcoholism or substance abuse affects the user and, if she’s pregnant at the time, how it ultimately affects the child. Coming to Duke, he says, gave him a different perspective. “Now I’m looking at how chemicals that people are exposed to inadvertently can affect them and their offspring,” he says, adding, “It’s been really fascinating to me, looking at questions that wouldn’t have been posed in this fashion in my old field. It has definitely expanded my perspective on the brain.”

SRC OFFERS MULTIDISCIPLINARY TRAINING FOR FUTURE SCIENTISTSAnother major research project at the Duke SRC, led by Claudia Gunsch in the Pratt School of Engineering, focuses on developing innovative ways to clean up, or remediate, polluted environments. Each instance of pollution has its own ecology and industrial history, as well as current and future challenges, so each solution must likewise be customized for the problem at hand. This approach calls for scientific creative scientific thinking. One striking example combines tools from physical and chemical engineering, microbiology, and chemistry, using a little-known group of micro-organisms to lower the harmful levels of PAHs and other developmental toxicants that can accumulate in the sediment of polluted waterways.

The intensive training for future scientists and the multidisciplinary approach of most research projects are two of the elements that makes the Duke Superfund Research Center a hub of enriching experiences. A third element is the SRC’s strong program of community outreach, which includes public talks, meetings with residents in pollution-affected areas, and social media campaigns.

Lindsay Holsen, an undergraduate from Lawrence University, recently finished a summer internship at the Duke SRC, dividing her time between research in Joel Meyer’s lab and community-outreach projects. In the latter area, her Spanish-language skills were an asset. “I helped translate some of the Center’s material on contaminants in fish and in garden soils with the help of two native Spanish-speakers,” she says.

Holsen feels she learned a lot about the challenges of communicating complex research and about the need for balancing costs with solutions. “There are a lot of temporary solutions to environmental problems, but you have to think about solutions for the long term and ensure that the affected community is involved in the process,” she says.

Encouraging this kind of thoughtful approach to environmental-health challenges is an investment in the future that NIEHS administrator Henry particularly appreciates. As she sees it, “The fact that the Duke SRC is an integrated program, with health, technology, and community engagement, makes it a unique experience for trainees, allowing them to get a real depth of knowledge. While their program is grounded in specific [fields of] expertise, it also helps them understand how their work fits into the bigger picture.”

Sandra J. Ackerman is a science writer based in Durham, N.C., and is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.

WE’RE TRYING TO

UNDERSTAND HOW EXPOSURE

TO HARMFUL SUBSTANCES MAY

AFFECT THE BRAIN

ISTOCK PHOTO

DUKENVIRONMENT 12

SCHOOL NEWS

Large patches of tropical forest are

being lost worldwide as governments

and corporations clear more land to

make way for industrial-scale agriculture,

a Duke University study shows.

The analysis reveals that clearings

for large-scale agricultural expansion

were responsible for an increasing

proportion—in some places, more than

half—of all observed forest loss across

the tropics between 2000 and 2012.

The trend was most pronounced in

Southeast Asia and South America.

“In South America, more than 60

percent of the increase in deforestation

was due to a growing number of medium-

and large-sized forest clearings typical

of what you see with industrial-scale

commercial agricultural activities,”

says Jennifer J. Swenson, associate

professor of the practice of geospatial

analysis at the Nicholas School.

“Brazil, with its stricter policies

limiting agricultural expansion until

2012, was the only country showing a

reverse trend—its average forest clearing

size actually got smaller,” she says.

“This unique trend may be short-lived,

however, given Brazil’s relaxed forest

policies of the last few years.”

The new findings underscore the

growing need for policy interventions

that target industrial-scale agricultural

commodity producers in the tropics, the

researchers say.

Swenson conducted the research with

PhD students Kemen G. Austin, Amanda

Schwantes and Danica Schaffer-Smith,

and former postdoctoral researcher

Mariano González-Roglich, who is

now director of ecosystem analysis at

Conservation International’s Moore

Center for Science.

They published their peer-reviewed

analysis in the journal Environmental Research Letters (May 9).

LARGER SWATHS OF

TO COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE

TROPICAL FOREST BEING LOST

Read more about the work of faculty

member Swenson: nicholas.duke.edu/

people/faculty/swenson

«

>1/2more than half of all

observed forest loss across the tropics between

2000 and 2012.

60%increase in

deforestation

CL

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FOR LARGE-SCALE AGRIC

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At least 1.4 million gulls

feed at landfills across

North America, which

aside from the nuisance

it might pose, is also a

threat to the health of

nearby waters, a Duke

University study finds.

“We estimate these

gulls transport and

deposit an extra 240

tons of nitrogen and

39 tons of phosphorus

into nearby lakes or

reservoirs in North

America each year

through their feces,”

says lead author Scott

Winton, a 2016 doctoral

graduate at the Nicholas

School.

The added nutrients

contained in the

birds’ droppings can

contribute to extensive

algal blooms that rob

surface waters of much

of the oxygen needed

to sustain healthy

aquatic animal life—a

process known as

eutrophication.

Oxygen depletion

and algal toxins that

result from the blooms

can have far-reaching

ecological and economic

impacts, including fish

kills, increased costs for

local governments, and

reduced recreational

or fishing values in

affected waters.

“It costs local U.S.

governments an

estimated $100 million

a year in nutrient offset

credits to address or

prevent the problem

and maintain nutrient

levels at or below the

total maximum daily

load threshold for

water quality,” says

Mark River, a doctoral

student at the Nicholas

School, who conducted

the research with

Winton.

The scale of the

problem and the

cumulative cost of

dealing with it may be

even larger than the

new study suggests,

says Winton, who is now

a visiting postdoctoral

fellow at ETHZurich,

a science and

technology university in

Switzerland.

“We estimated and

mapped a landfill-gull

population of 1.4 million

based on documented

sightings reported in the

eBird Citizen Science

database. But the actual

population is probably

greater than 5 million,”

Winton says. “That

means the amount of

nutrients deposited

in the lakes, and the

costs of preventing

or remediating the

problem, could be

substantially higher.”

Winton and River

published their study,

which is the first to

look at the transport of

nutrients into surface

waters from gulls in the

journal Water Research

(June 15).

They conducted the

research at landfills

near two major drinking

water reservoirs—Jordan

Lake and Falls Lake—

that serve the Raleigh-

Durham region of North

Carolina. Nitrogen

and phosphorus data

from these two lakes

were then scaled up to

estimate total loading

at water bodies near

landfills across North

America using a well-

established model for

measuring the nutrient

transport of carnivorous

birds.

The findings are

applicable to lakes and

reservoirs in other parts

of the world as well.

«

TRASH-PICKING

POOP HUNDREDS OF TONS OF NUTRIENTS

GULLS«

“We estimate these gulls transport and deposit an extra 240 tons of nitrogen and 39 tons of phosphorus into nearby lakes or reservoirs in North America each year through their feces,”

«

«

Read more about the work of PhD graduate Winton: nicholas.duke.edu/

about/news/trash-picking-seagulls-poop-hundreds-

tons-nutrients

DUKENVIRONMENT 14

SCHOOL NEWS

Exposure to ozone, long associated with impaired lung

function, is also connected to health changes that can

cause cardiovascular disease such as heart attack, high

blood pressure and stroke, according to a new study of

Chinese adults.

These findings, by a team from Duke University, Tsinghua

University, Duke Kunshan University and Peking University,

were published in JAMA Internal Medicine (July 17).

Ozone is a pollutant formed through a chemical reaction

that occurs when sunlight interacts with nitrogen oxides and

other organic compounds that are generated by coal-burning,

vehicle exhaust and some natural sources.

“We know that ozone can damage the respiratory system,

reduce lung function and cause asthma attacks,” says study

author Junfeng (Jim) Zhang, from the Nicholas School and

Duke Kunshan University. “Here, we wanted to learn whether

ozone affects other aspects of human health, specifically the

cardiovascular system.”

Zhang and colleagues studied 89 healthy adults living in

Changsha City, China, for one year. They monitored indoor

and outdoor ozone levels along with other pollutants. At

four intervals, the study team took participant blood and

urine samples and used a breathing test called spirometry

to examine a set of factors that could contribute to

cardiovascular and respiratory disease.

The team examined inflammation and oxidative stress,

arterial stiffness, blood pressure, clotting factors and lung

function in participants. They noted blood platelet activation

(a risk factor for clotting) and an increase in blood pressure,

suggesting a possible mechanism by which ozone may affect

cardiovascular health. These effects were found with ozone

exposure lower than that which affects respiratory health,

and lower than current Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA) air quality standards.

“This study shows that standards for safe ozone exposure

should take into account its effect on cardiovascular disease

risk,” says Zhang.

“In 2015, 108 million Americans—one third of the

population—lived in counties with ozone levels that exceeded

standards set by the EPA,” Zhang says.

The production of ozone globally will be exacerbated by a

warmer climate, “so it will be an increasing trend with climate

change,” says Zhang.

OZONEPOLLUTION CONNECTED TO CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH

TECHNOLOGY-AIDED SURVEYS REVEAL EXTENT OF

GRAY SEAL RECOVERY

«

GRAY SEAL RECOVERY «

“THIS IS A CONSERVATION SUCCESS THAT

SHOULD BE CELEBRATED.”

Using research drones,

thermal cameras and

free images from

Google Earth, two Duke

University-led studies

confirm that gray seals

are making a comeback

off the New England

and eastern Canadian

coasts.

The findings help

confirm that seal

conservation efforts

are working, and that

these remote eye-in-

the sky technologies

make it easier and

safer for scientists to

study migratory wildlife

in remote locations and

estimate their numbers

accurately.

“Past surveys based

on traditional methods

of counting, using occu-

pied aircraft to survey

seals on beaches,

islands and seasonal ice

cover, counted about

15,000 seals off the

southeastern Massa-

chusetts coast,” says

David W. Johnston,

assistant professor of

the practice of marine

conservation ecology at

the Nicholas School.

“Our technology-aid-

ed aerial survey, which

used Google Earth

imagery in conjunction

with telemetry data

from tagged animals,

suggests the number is

much larger—between

30,000 and 50,000,”

Johnston says. “This is

a conservation success

that should be cel-

ebrated.”

The higher estimate

reflects the fact that

seals spend significant

time at sea, where they

are undetectable by

land-based observa-

tion and difficult and

dangerous to track by

boat or aircraft.

Johnston and his col-

leagues published their

peer-reviewed study in

the journal Bioscience (June 14). They calcu-

lated the abundance

of gray seals between

2012 and 2015 by

combining Google Earth

images with more than

8,000 hours of telem-

etry data from a small

number of tagged seals

that showed locations

and behaviors.

“Integrating high-

resolution imagery

and traditional telem-

etry data allowed us

to calculate species

abundance in loca-

tions where it would

have been much more

difficult, time-consum-

ing and costly to do

otherwise,” says Jerry

W. Moxley, a postdoc-

toral researcher at the

Monterey Bay Aquari-

um who led the study

while he was a doctoral

student at Duke.

The Massachusetts

study follows a paper

which appeared in

the journal Scientific Reports (March 24) in

which Duke researchers

used drones equipped

with thermal imaging

technology to conduct

aerial surveys of gray

seal populations at

breeding colonies on

Nova Scotia’s Hay Is-

land and Saddle Island.

“Seal pups are born

with a white coat,

which makes them hard

to see against ice or

snow using traditional

imagery,” says Alex

Seymour, a geographic

information systems

analyst at Duke’s

Marine Robotics and

Remote Sensing Center,

who led the study. “But

they can’t hide from

thermal imagery.”

The images col-

lected by the drones

were analyzed using

two methods. By the

traditional method,

scientists slowly and

painstakingly counted

all seals shown in each

image and classified

each by size and shape

to determine how many

adults and pups were

present.

In the other method,

a computer-vision al-

gorithm counted adults

and pups based on the

temperature, size and

shape of their heat

signatures.

The automated

counts were less than 5

percent different from

the human estimates,

and proved better at

counting seals that

are visually difficult to

distinguish from the

background landscape

or obscured by vegeta-

tion.

“Computer-based

assessments of seal

populations such as

this hold great promise

in terms of accuracy

and repeatability,” said

Johnston. “And when

coupled with new

population survey ap-

proaches using drones

or earth-observation

imagery, they help us

reduce surveying costs

and risks, while increas-

ing data quality.”

Read more about the work of faculty

member Johnston: nicholas.duke.edu/

marinelab/people/ faculty/johnston

DUKENVIRONMENT 16

SCHOOL NEWS

BIODIVERSITY LOSSFROM DEEP-SEA MINING

WILL BE UNAVOIDABLE

Biodiversity losses from deep-

sea mining are unavoidable and

possibly irrevocable, an interna-

tional team of 15 marine scien-

tists, resource economists and

legal scholars argue in a letter

published in the journal Nature Geoscience (June 26).

The experts say the Interna-

tional Seabed Authority (ISA),

which is responsible under the

UN Law of the Sea for regulating

undersea mining in areas outside

national jurisdictions, must rec-

ognize this risk. They say it must

also communicate the risk clearly

to its member states and the

public to inform discussions about

whether deep-seabed mining

should proceed, and if so, what

standards and safeguards need

to be put into place to minimize

biodiversity loss.

“There is tremendous uncer-

tainty about ecological responses

to deep-sea mining,” says Cindy

L. Van Dover, Harvey W. Smith

Professor of Biological Ocean-

ography at the Nicholas School.

“Responsible mining needs to rely

on environmental management

actions that will protect deep-sea

biodiversity and not on actions

that are unproven or unreason-

able.”

“The extraction of non-renew-

able resources always includes

tradeoffs,” says Linwood Pendle-

ton, International Chair in Marine

Ecosystem Services at the Euro-

pean Institute of Marine Studies

and an adjunct professor at the

Nicholas School. “A serious trade-

off for deep-sea mining will be an

unavoidable loss of biodiversity,

including many species that have

yet to be discovered.”

Faced with this inevitable

outcome, it’s more important than

ever that we understand deep-sea

ecosystems and have a good idea

of what we stand to lose before

mining alters the seafloor forever,

says Pendleton, who also serves

as a senior scholar in the Oceans

and Coastal Policy Program at

Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Envi-

ronmental Policy Solutions.

Time is of the essence, the

experts stress.

“Undersea deposits of metals

and rare earth elements are not

yet being mined, but there has

been an increase in the number

of applications for mining con-

tracts,” says Elva Escobar of the

National Autonomous University

of Mexico’s Institute of Marine

Sciences and Limnology. “In 2001,

there were just six deep-sea min-

eral exploration contracts; by the

end of 2017, there will be a total

of 27 projects.”

Some mining proponents have

argued that companies could

offset the inevitable damage their

activities will cause by restoring

coastal ecosystems or creating

new artificial offshore reefs. “But

this is like saving apple orchards

to protect orange groves,” Van

Dover said.

“The argument that you can

compensate for the loss of biolog-

ical diversity in the deep sea with

gains in diversity elsewhere is so

ambiguous as to be scientifically

meaningless,” says Craig Smith,

professor of oceanography at the

University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Deep-sea ecosystems and

species can take decades or

even centuries to recover from a

disturbance, if they recover at all,

Van Dover notes.

Deep-sea scientists and legal

experts from the United States,

Mexico, France, the United King-

dom, the Netherlands, Poland and

Australia co-wrote the peer-

reviewed correspondence with

Van Dover, Pendleton, Escobar

and Smith. «

Read more about the work of faculty member Van Dover: nicholas.duke.edu/

marinelab/people/ faculty/van-dover

A commitment to reducing global emissions of short-lived climate pollutants

(SLCPs) such as methane and black carbon could slow global warming while

boosting public health and agricultural yields, aligning the Paris Climate

Agreement with global sustainable development goals, a new analysis by an

international research panel shows.

Methane and black carbon—or soot—are the second and third most powerful

climate-warming agents after carbon dioxide. They also contribute to air

pollution that harms the health of billions of people worldwide and reduces

agricultural yields.

“Unlike long-lived greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide, SLCPs

respond very quickly to mitigation. It’s highly likely that we could cut methane

emissions by 25 percent and black carbon by 75 percent and eliminate high-

warming hydrofluorocarbons altogether in the next 25 years using existing

technologies, if we made a real commitment to doing this,” says Drew T.

Shindell, Nicholas Distinguished Professor of Climate Science at the

Nicholas School.

Acting now to reduce these

emissions would contribute to

long-term goals set under the

2015 Paris Climate Agreement

while concurrently offering

governments substantial

benefits in the short term

for investing in sustainable

development—a set of goals

through 2030 that countries

also agreed to in 2015.

“The urgency in dealing with

SLCPs now rather than later is

that if we wait to address them,

we continue to incur all these

damages—increased public

health burdens and reduced

agricultural yields—along the way,” Shindell says. “If we want to avoid those

costs, and keep millions of people from dying, we need to do this now.

“Adding a pathway goal would help reduce the risks faced by the current

generation and our children, complementing the Paris Agreement’s long-term

target that reduces risks for future generation,” he says.

Shindell and colleagues from 10 other international research institutions

published their peer-reviewed policy forum article in Science (May 5).

The article builds upon previous work by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition

(CCAC), an international consortium of more than 100 countries and non-

state partners working to reduce SLCPs. Shindell chairs the CCAC’s Science

Advisory Panel; his co-authors of the new policy forum are all members or

affiliates of that panel.

In the new article, they point out that in addition to saving human lives and

boosting global food security, curbing SLCPs will significantly slow the pace

of climate change over the next 25 years. This could help reduce biodiversity

losses and slow amplifying climate feedbacks such as snow-and-ice albedo

that are highly sensitive to black carbon.

POLICIES TO CURB SHORT-LIVED CLIMATE POLLUTANTS COULD YIELD

MAJOR HEALTH BENEFITS

WE COULD CUT

METHANE EMISSIONS

BY 25 PERCENT AND

BLACK CARBON BY 75

PERCENT AND ELIMINATE

HIGH-WARMING

HYDROFLUOROCARBONS

ALTOGETHER IN THE

NEXT 25 YEARS USING

EXISTING TECHNOLOGIES

«

THE ARGUMENT THAT YOU CAN COMPENSATE FOR THE LOSS OF BIOLOGICAL DI-VERSITY IN THE DEEP SEA WITH GAINS IN DIVERSITY ELSEWHERE IS SO AMBIGU-OUS AS TO BE SCIENTIFI-CALLY MEANINGLESS

THERE IS TREMENDOUS UNCERTAINTY ABOUT ECOLOGICAL RESPONSES TO DEEP-SEA MINING

IN 2001, THERE WERE JUST SIX DEEP-SEA MINERAL EXPLORATION CONTRACTS; BY THE END OF 2017, THERE WILL BE A TOTAL OF 27 PROJECTS

1

2

3

DUKENVIRONMENT 18

My research and professional service have focused mainly on Asia

since my PhD fieldwork in the mid-1980s. I first worked in Thailand

in 1990, as a member of a USAID-funded Thai-U.S. scientific team

that evaluated the country’s biodiversity conservation needs. We

started with meetings in Bangkok, at the time a gray city choked

by smog and traffic. A short cross-town taxi ride could take half

the morning and leave one’s throat scratchy and eyes stinging.

We then toured various locations around the country, including

coastal areas where intensive shrimp farming was just taking off

and felling large swaths of the country’s mangrove forests. Cheap

farmed shrimp was a boon for consumers, but it came at a high

environmental price.

I’ve been back to Thailand many times since, including this

summer, when I again split my time between Bangkok and the

field. Although some things haven’t changed—Bangkok traffic can

still be awful—much has, including some environmental trends.

At the window of my hotel room in Nonthaburi, I was struck that

I could easily see the Bangkok skyline, which would have been

obscured by haze 30 years ago. Bangkok’s air is clearer today,

thanks to cleaner fuels, more fuel-efficient vehicles and expanded

public transportation.

Environmental progress also is evident in rural Thailand. At

Ranong Biosphere Reserve on the Andaman Coast, I saw the

impressive rehabilitation of mangroves on sites that had been

cleared for alluvial tin mining, which entails completely removing

the trees and dredging the soil for ore. It’s hard to imagine a more

disruptive land use, but those sites are now green again.

I came back from the trip with renewed optimism that we

humans can successfully address the environmental messes

we’ve made. Thailand’s progress didn’t just happen. It resulted

from scientific and technical knowledge being applied in response

to public pressure, with government agencies introducing new

policies and programs and the private sector acting on the new,

more sustainable business opportunities they created.

dean’sUPDATE

BY JEFFREY VINCENT S T A N B A C K D E A N

DEAN’S UPDATE

Returning from Thailand with Renewed Optimism for the Environment

ISTOCK PHOTO OF BANGKOK SKYLINE

It happened because leaders in multiple

sectors, including local communities, took

action.

The role of leadership relates to

another reason I’m optimistic about

environmental prospects: an increasing

number of young people are interested in

environmental careers. Last year, we put

forth extra effort to learn more about the

market for our Master of Environmental

Management program. This is our largest

educational program, and the only one

that draws instructors from across all

three of our faculty divisions.

We learned many things. Nationwide

in the United States, the number

of undergraduates majoring in

environmental studies or natural resource

fields has increased by 10-15 percent

annually in recent years, and the number

of students pursuing master’s degrees in

these areas has grown at nearly double-

digit annual rates. And for good reason:

the U.S. Department of Labor projects

robust job growth for environmental and

natural resource professionals over the

next decade.

We also learned that we are competing

for professional master’s students

with many, many more universities and

colleges than when we were formed in the

1990s. I’m pleased to report that we are

competing very successfully. This fall, we

welcomed our largest-ever entering MEM

class, nearly 200 students.

We owe this recruitment success to

several factors. None was more important

than the long hours and dedication of

the large team of staff, faculty, alumni,

and students who participated directly or

indirectly in the recruitment effort.

In addition, we worked hard to make a

compelling case that a Nicholas School

education is worth it. We highlighted

alumni accomplishments, which offer

proof that our MEM and MF programs put

students on a path to careers that are

rewarding and make a difference.

Thanks to the generosity of

contributors to our Annual Fund and our

new $25 million Forging Future Leaders

aid initiative, we tripled the amount of

financial aid we offered across our merit-

based and need-based programs.

This put our program within reach of

more applicants, and it enabled to us

to recruit a class that is more talented

and diverse than usual: the average GRE

scores of the entering class exceed those

of last year’s entering class for all parts

of the test (verbal, quantitative, writing);

first-generation college students account

for more than a tenth of the class; and

the percentage of underrepresented

minorities in our student body will exceed

10 percent next year. The infusion of

resources into our financial aid program

had an immediate, positive impact, and it

demonstrates why financial aid is my top

fund-raising priority.

These students enter with a lot of

promise, and they have high expectations

for the educational experience we will

provide. Those with marine interests will

have their experience enriched in their

second year by courses and field trips

that take advantage of our new research

vessel (see p. 34).

Those intent on careers in the private

sector, which employs more than half of

our graduates, will benefit from our new

Business & Environment concentration,

whose first cohort begins this fall. They

will also benefit from activities stemming

from our recent invitation to be the

first environmental school to join the

United Nations program on Principles for

Responsible Management Education.

Those with international interests

will have opportunities to interact

with counterparts in Duke Kunshan

University’s International Master of

Environmental Policy program, which also

has its first cohort beginning this fall and

is a joint initiative involving us, DKU, and

the Sanford School of Public Policy.

This year is going to be unlike any

previous one at the Nicholas School.

Follow along as our faculty, staff,

students, and alumni investigate and

address environmental problems both

close to home and in distant places

like Thailand. You can stay in touch by

visiting our website, which now has a

“Research” tab and has my schoolwide

Weekly Updates on the news pages; or

by following us on Facebook, Twitter, or

Instagram. You’re an important member

of our community, and we want to stay

connected with you.

“I was struck that I could easily see the Bangkok skyline, which would have been obscured by haze 30 years ago.”

Returning from Thailand with Renewed Optimism for the Environment

DUKENVIRONMENT 20

STUDENT NEWS

P R O V I D E U N F O R G E T TA B L E E X P E R I E N C E S A N D L E A R N I N G T H AT B U I L D S C A R E E R S

SUMMER INTERNSHIPS

BY SERGIO TOVAR

Read on to hear from some of our MEM students about their summer internships:

DUKENVIRONMENT 20

Building experience and a professional network through an internship can make or break students’ ability to land the job they want after graduation.

That’s why helping Master of Environmental Management and Master of Forestry students find summer opportunities after their first year at the Nicholas School of the Environment is a top priority for the Career & Professional Development Center.

Although internships are not required as part of the MEM/MF program, seeking one of these opportunities is almost an expectation.

“Most, if not all, students will participate because we see extremely high value in being able to do one of a number of things, including exploring a field or sector they’re not as familiar with to really understand if this is a good fit for their interests,” says Deb Wojcik, director of Career and Professional Programming and Counseling.

During MEM students’ first year, the center helps them with job description analysis to figure out what kind of jobs they want and what skills they should seek in and outside the classroom.

“They need to be empowered to network, to showcase their skills, to be able to really target where they want to use those skills in their first job,” says

Karen Kirchof, who recently retired after 27 years as assistant dean for the Career & Professional Development Center. “That’s where we spend most of our time.”

The Career Center also sets up info sessions, provides one-on-one coaching to help students prepare for the application process and interviews while also maintaining an online listing of internships and jobs for students to apply.

The Career Center can help students be strategic, so they can find an opportunity that will not only be a top-notch experience but will help them reach their larger goals.

“An internship is an excellent way to fill those gaps and enhance the strengths you already have,” says Wojcik.

The center has a good track record of helping students secure internships. Wojcik says the percentage of second-year students who had an internship this summer was in the high 90s—a figure they see often.

Most environmental careers don’t have a formal recruiting cycle, so students have to take an initiative to land internships.

But the Nicholas School does have some established infrastructure to help students with internships.

The biggest is the Stanback Internship Program, a university-wide initiative

open to returning students looking to work for environmental organizations for a summer. In its 22nd year, the program brought 52 organizations to campus this past spring offering 174 internship opportunities.

The program provides a wide variety of positions with nonprofits large and small for an 11-week learning experience. Students receive a $5,000 payment to help with their expenses.

“It’s been a great program for the Nicholas School,” says Kirchof, adding that 55 of the 114 Stanback Interns this summer were MEM/MF students.

Among other competitive programs, the school has a partnership with EDF Climate Corps for energy efficiency internships, and a new donor-funded program that awards two students $7,000 for World Wildlife Fund internships.

Students also can apply for grants and endowments—both internal and external. This year, the Nicholas School awarded more than $161,000 to support summer internships. Most money for MEMs and MFs is for students going abroad, and a few are for community-based projects or for students seeking to work on Capitol Hill.

Sergio Tovar is the Nicholas School’s social media specialist.

Read on to hear from some of our MEM students about their summer internships:

THE BEST PART ABOUT INTERNING? YOU REALLY GET HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE AND SEE

HOW ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE COMES ABOUT.

“”

ISTOCK PHOTO

DUKENVIRONMENT 22

STUDENT NEWS

DUKENVIRONMENT 22

This summer, I interned with the U.S.

Senate Committee on Energy and Natural

Resources. At risk of sounding cliché,

I must admit it was a dream internship

for someone like me—an unabashed

energy and environmental policy wonk

with a passion for politics. When I began

considering summer internship options,

I set my sights on Capitol Hill, knowing

that a congressional internship would

offer a unique, firsthand look into the

policymaking process. Without any direct

connections to staffers on the relevant

committees, I turned to a tried-and-true

tactic: I sent cold emails. I tracked down

the appropriate contact on the Energy

Committee and, in a matter of weeks, I had

an interview on the books.

My internship in the Senate exceeded

my admittedly high expectations. When

I look back on how my first year at the

Nicholas School prepared me for the

position, I would say all my experiences

taken together helped me hit the ground

running. The Nicholas School provides

students with an interdisciplinary, flexible

set of skills to tackle complex challenges,

regardless of their size or shape.

Policymaking and policy analysis similarly

demand a broad mix of skills—from

creative problem-solving to synthesizing

data to communicating with diverse

audiences. The Nicholas School helps

students hone those exact capabilities.

My experiences this summer highlighted

the importance of taking on challenges

outside your comfort zone as well as the

value of being conversant in a range of

topics—not just your niche. Working with

the committee provided indispensable

insight into the dynamics that underlie

energy and environmental policymaking.

ADAM FISCHER MEM’18, ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTPolicy Intern, U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

The first time that I heard about Counter Culture Coffee (CCC) was in Elizabeth

Shapiro-Garza’s fall 2016 Community-Based Environmental Management

class. Meredith Taylor, the CCC sustainability manager, gave an impressive

presentation about the company’s commitment to achieving measurable

environmental, social and fiscal sustainability in the specialty coffee industry.

With a love for coffee and fascination of CCC’s business model, I was thrilled to

find out that Dr. Shapiro-Garza and Meredith had developed a summer internship.

I then worked with Meredith to develop and test a three-day climate change

adaptation workshop that will be implemented at CCC’s partner coffee

cooperatives. The project was the culmination of two years of work conducted by

previous Nicholas School master’s students.

Skills I gained at the Nicholas School—and practiced in class and in professional

settings—helped prepare me for the work. Two semesters’ worth of community-

based environmental management theory and application helped me develop

a participatory workshop that can be applied throughout all coffee cooperative

levels. A course in social science surveys gave me the necessary expertise

to design a comprehensive, but appropriate, evaluation tool for workshop

participants. Without the academic foundation I gained in areas like sustainable

agriculture and climate change, the workshop would be less effective.

Through this internship, I gained an immense wealth of knowledge about

participatory action research methodologies and learned that Predictive

Analytics Reporting (PAR) frameworks have a meaningful place in business. I

see myself applying what I’ve learned at CCC throughout my career to inspire

businesses to invest in sustainability to make a difference from the ground level.

KATHRYN GAASCH MEM’18,ECOSYSTEMS SCIENCE AND CONSERVATIONClimate Change Workshop Intern, Counter Culture Coffee

S K I L L S I G A I N E D AT T H E N I C H O L A S S C H O O L H E L P E D

P R E P A R E M E F O R W O R K .

“”

I worked on the Rachel Carson Reserve site. My work primarily focused on a

research project involving a long-term analysis of the effects of stabilizing

structures, such as bulkheads, on salt marsh. I also participated in other ongoing

projects, including ones dealing with marine debris and marsh monitoring. I was

able to interact with incredibly knowledgeable people who have helped guide me.

I really came to learn firsthand how science doesn’t go as planned most of the

time. You run into road bumps and you learn from them and move on.

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to do an internship in the Beaufort

area. So, in January I called the reserve site and talked with the research

coordinator. He told me about the bulkhead project that he had been

brainstorming, and I got really excited about it. We ended up creating an

internship out of it, and I was fortunate enough to receive the Edna Bailey

Sussman Grant to fund it.

I was hoping to get more applied GIS skills as well as some statistical skills. The

GIS coursework that I’ve taken gave me most of the skills I needed to get through

this project. I also was eager to learn more about the general management

of nature reserves and different topics like marine debris—which I’m really

passionate about—living shorelines, marsh restoration and things like that.

SAMANTHA GODWIN MEM’18, COASTAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENTIntern, N.C. Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve

I came to the Nicholas School knowing

I wanted to study protected areas in

Togo and the consequences on local

population. In September of my first year,

I already was talking to my advisor about

the feasibility of such a project and how

I could make it happen as a master’s

project. I contacted the Environmental

Management National Agency in Togo

and shared with them that I wanted

to do an internship on conservation in

Fazao-Malfakassa National Park. After I

submitted a proposal, they approved my

three-month internship at the agency,

where I conducted 150 household surveys

and interviewed the national park

managers.

I applied what I have learned at the

Nicholas School in so many ways in the

field. The social science survey class that

I took with professor Randall Kramer

was the backbone of my field work. I also

found to be true what my teachers said:

what you learn in class sometimes doesn’t

translate literally in the field. I had to

adapt.

Through the internship I not only

learned about the environment but also

the people. I learned you cannot do one

without the other. To be able to encourage

people to conserve, it is very important to

make them at ease, in other words provide

them with basic infrastructures such as

a hospital, clean water, electricity and

more. The issue of conservation in low-

income countries has an interdisciplinary

solution to it. My internship helped me

reinforce one thing, my commitment to

go back home to Togo and strive for the

sustainable development of my people and

the environment.

RAJAH SAPARAPA MEM’18, ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS AND POLICYIntern, Togo’s Agence Nationale de Gestion de l’Environnement

For the summer, I interned at the NCSEA, a nonprofit

focusing on driving the clean energy policy and market

to provide economic opportunities and affordable,

clean energy within North Carolina. I focused on

energy efficiency analysis of low-income

communities—something I didn’t have formal

experience with, so I felt it was a great opportunity

to do it locally.

My first two days were like getting thrown into

the pool: sink or swim. I came in and immediately

was preparing a grant for about $130,000, which

was a new experience for me. I also was able

to participate in a NCSEA working group about

electric vehicles. They had people from Duke

Energy, representatives from the Governor’s Office,

people from North Carolina environmental quality. They were all focusing on how to

change the market, infrastructure and policy to improve electric vehicles within

North Carolina.

The best part about interning? You really get hands-on experience and see how

environmental change comes about. I like the fact that you’re exposed to new things,

because how else are you going to grow?

And taking Dalia Patino-Echeverri’s modeling classes and using Excel to figure out

how to do data analysis in a way that’s efficient definitely helped me out.

LINA KAHN MEM’18, ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTEnergy Efficiency Intern, North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA) A Stanback program internship

Watch a video about Lina’s

internship: youtube.com/watch?v=WD4GtjE8tPQwatch?v=WD

4GtjE8tPQ

Watch a video about Samantha’s internship: nicholas.duke.edu/samgodwin

DUKENVIRONMENT 24

STUDENT NEWS

I found my position through the

Stanback Internship Program. I worked

on environmental justice policy in North

Carolina, spending time between the

NCCN office, the legislature and the

Department of Environmental Quality.

My core coursework as an environmental

economics and policy student included

Environmental Law and Environmental

Politics in my first year. So I was able to

apply a lot of what I’ve learned when doing

advocacy work at my internship.

In addition to what I was able to

bring to my internship, I learned a lot. I

became much more familiar with local

processes when it comes to environmental

permitting and regulatory actions. What I

appreciated most in my internship was the

ability to really own my summer projects

so I could have deliverables to present

to potential employers. I completed an

environmental justice fact sheet for

legislators and contributed to a fact sheet

for a bill to make it more understandable

for the public. My long-term project was

an environmental justice policy toolkit

for North Carolina advocates, which I

had to present in a webinar. I think being

confident in my knowledge of the ins and

outs of public policy will be a major benefit

of my internship and will help me in my

career.

GLORIA G. ALDANA MEM’18,ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS AND POLICYEnvironmental Justice Intern, North Carolina Conservation Network (NCCN)

A recent Nicholas School alum and friend within the forestry program had done

this internship last summer and convinced me that I would be a good candidate.

In my application, I pitched a project that looked at finding revenue sources from

stream and wetland restoration across properties the group owned. I got an

invite for lunch and before I knew it had a start date for early May.

On any given day, I was dealing with topics surrounding forestry, wetland/

stream ecology, geospatial analysis and finance. Some days I was up to my knees

in mud, while others I was up to my nose in papers in an office cubicle. There was

a wide range of diversity in my experience and I think that speaks more generally

to today’s expectations surrounding environmental management. It’s not enough

to be just a specialist. Looking back, I think this was one of the great strengths

of Duke’s program. I was able to showcase many different skills and tools such as

resource economics, forest measurements/silviculture and GIS that I learned as a

graduate student.

I had a professor tell me once that forestry is about 10 percent dealing with

trees and 90 percent dealing with people. This experience absolutely confirmed

that. Even in a field dominated by science, we can’t escape the judgments,

regulations and, ultimately, the values of people we work with. This was

especially true working with other foresters, contractors and stakeholders in

the field. The hardest part was not applying the knowledge and skills learned in

graduate school but building the rapport and good working relationships with

those around you to get the job done right.

JOHN BURROWS MEM’18,FORESTRY AND ECOSYSTEM SCIENCECharles Collins Intern in Conservation Forestry, The Forestland Group

I H A D A P R O F E S S O R T E L L M E O N C E T H AT F O R E S T R Y I S A B O U T 1 0 P E R C E N T D E A L I N G

W I T H T R E E S A N D 9 0 P E R C E N T D E A L I N G W I T H P E O P L E . T H I S

E X P E R I E N C E A B S O L U T E L Y C O N F I R M E D T H AT.

“

”

DUKENVIRONMENT 24

R E A L - W O R L D E X P E R I E N C E

M AS T E R’S P R OJ E C T PA I R S S T U D E N T T E A M

W I T H I R R I G AT I O N D I S T R I C T TO

I N V E S T I G AT E P U M P I N G S TAT I O N F I N A N C E

( BY SERGIO TOVAR )

Cle Elum Lake

Naches River

Middle Fork Ahtanum Creek Ahtanum Creek

Simcoe Creek

Toppenish Creek

Dry Creek Satu s CreekYakima Rive r

Cle Elum

Ellensburg

Naches

YakimaUnion Gap

Wapato

Toppenish

Sunnyside

Prosser

KionaRichland

0

0 10 20 30 40

10 20 30 40

50 KILOMETERS

50 MILES

WASHINGTON

Study area

Location of the Yakima River Basin

science for a changing worldscience for a changing world( M A P ) B Y U S G S O F T H E L O C AT I O N O F T H E YA K I M A R I V E R B A S I N & V I C I N I T Y( B A C K G R O U N D P H O T O ) S TO R M C L E A R I N G O V E R A G R I C U L T U R A L L A N D YA K I M A R I V E R , C E N T R A L WA S H I N G TO N

ISTOCK PHOTO

DUKENVIRONMENT 26

STUDENT NEWS

DUKENVIRONMENT 26

Master’s Projects are a fundamental component of professional students’ education at the Nicholas School. MPs give Master of Environmental Management and Master of Forestry candidates a practical way to showcase what they’ve learned through the program.

Some projects offer students the opportunity to work with real-life clients and stakeholders while getting professional experience and building a network before entering the workforce.

That was the case for 2017 MEM graduates Catherine Bowler, Jennifer Brennan and Samantha Kuzma, who worked with an irrigation district to investigate the best solutions for financing a water pumping plant to offer the area drought relief.

Brennan, now a research associate at the Southern Environmental Law Center in Charleston, says this kind of endeavor complemented the education she received at Duke.

“That’s a real strength of the Nicholas School,” she says. “You have the opportunity to receive an interdisciplinary education. It was also nice to have a project that brought together financial analysis as well

as ecologic, hydrologic and other components.”

Martin Doyle, professor of river systems science and policy connected the students to the Roza Irrigation District, located in an affluent agricultural hub in the Yakima Basin of central Washington.

Doyle, who is program chair for the school’s water resource management concentration, discovered the project during a year-long fellowship at the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Natural Resource Investment Center. Kuzma coincidentally spent a summer concurrently at the DOI as she completed a Sussman Fellowship, so she became familiar with the venture.

Doyle thought the project had all the pieces for a good MP and pitched the idea to the group, knowing they had the skills to handle the task.

“The Nicholas School has been building an underground program in environmental finance,” says Doyle, who teaches a water and infrastructure finance class that the trio had taken. “Really, it’s one of the only classes like it in water programs around the United States. They could actually contribute as much as any other consultant or regulatory agency.”

Loss of snowpack in the Cascade Range—where the Yakima Basin is located—has resulted in water shortages that threaten the basin’s $3 billion

agricultural economy. The project assessed the economic and enviromental impacts of the proposed pumping plant, which is intended to provide supplemental flows for the irrigation district during drought.

“There’s a lot at stake,” says Kuzma.It really forced us to consider

different stakeholders that use water. Really putting ourselves in the shoes of agriculture and thinking about their needs—how they use water, how they see water—and also expanding to other stakeholders in the basin like the ecological ones and tribal interests, federal interests.”

The students focused on the hydrology of the basin to understand water supply, looked at revenue of crops to understand water demand, and more. Their analyses also revealed potential benefits of the project to supply water for fish populations and habitat in the basin.

“Part of what makes this project so unique is the ecological benefits associated with the pumping plant,” Bowler says. “In addition to providing water to farmers in Roza during time of drought, that same water could serve ecological purposes in an upstream irrigation district by supplementing instream flows and important tributaries that contain priority species.”

The group developed four finance

S P E C I A L 2 0 1 7

STUDENT AWARDS

THE DEAN’S AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING RESEARCH PAPER FOR 2017

Given annually since 2008 to recognize outstanding research by a current PhD candidate who has a manuscript accepted

or published in a peer-reviewed journal. This year’s winner was acknowledged at the spring graduation ceremony and

received a check for $3,000.

COOPER ROSIN (advisor John Poulsen) PhD’17, “Hunting-induced Defaunation Drives Increased Seed Predation and

Decreased Seedling Establishment of Commercially Important Tree Species in an Afrotropical Forest,” Forest Ecology and

Management, (Rosin and Poulsen, Dec. 2016) doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2016.10.016.

strategies to pay for the pumping station ranging from traditional bonds to alternative finance options like environmental impact bonds.

They found that a layered capital approach where the irrigation district attempts to attract as much capital from environmental impact investors and other funding sources while financing the rest of the project through a municipal bond could save the district up to 40 percent in project costs.

“There’s a lot of opportunity these days, a lot more momentum behind impact investment and that sort of thing,” Brennan says. “So they’re trying to take advantage of that and leverage those benefits for the district as well as other basin stakeholders.”

Running through the actual numbers on financing a large infrastructure project was new for the group, which Doyle says made the project even more educational.

“Doing analysis with real data is great, but the biggest learning curve you get with a real client is you get to work with questions that occur in the real world, not questions that occur in academia,” he says. “And those are very different questions.”

Doyle adds that working with time scale and data limitations also teaches students an important lesson.

“Generating a perfect, academic answer

would take three to five years, but that’s an irrelevant answer in a project like this, so the answer that can be generated in three to five months actually has the chance to be put to use,” he says.

“In class, you have the perfect data to analyze, but in the real world clearly you don’t—you get whatever snippets of data that may actually exist.”

Doyle says there are also advantages in helping a client navigate through this sort of project.

“Clients don’t necessarily know what they want and part of being a consultant is helping them understand what questions they actually need answered,” he says.

Working on a project that integrated different disciplines also taught the group many other important lessons that they’ll be able to use for the rest of their careers.

“I’ve gained this invaluable project management experience,” says Bowler, who now serves as water policy coordinator for U.S. government relations at The Nature Conservancy. “I think going forward this type of infrastructure project is going to become increasingly necessary as our water resources are challenged, especially out west.”

Kuzma says the experience doing data analysis for the Master’s Project has come in handy at her job as an analyst

for the World Resources Institute in Washington D.C.

“It was a great foundation to build upon,” she adds. “I’m using that every day.”

Kuzma says that she also learned to dig into technical aspects and how to translate complicated ideas to a non-technical audience.

“It was pretty invaluable experience to learn how to talk about detailed hydrology to someone who doesn’t know anything about water,” she says. “That was a really big gain from working on this project.”

Doyle says Roza Irrigation District officials were happy with the results—which were compiled into a 79-page report and were presented at the Spring Master’s Project Symposium in April—and discovered some useful facts that will prove valuable as the project moves forward.

“How much of what we did will show up on the final project is almost irrelevant,” says Doyle. “We were part of keeping the momentum going and affecting the overall thinking of the project. That’s about as cool as it gets for them as students as well as for me as a professor.”

Sergio Tovar is the Nicholas School’s social media specialist.

VIRLIS L. FISCHER AWARD

Goes to the graduating professional degree student with the highest

academic achievement. Given by Bernice Fisher in memory of her husband.

MIKIA LYNN WEIDENBACH of Hawaii; MEM, Ecosystem Science

and Conservation

THOMAS V. LASKA MEMORIAL AWARD

Given by the Earth and Ocean Sciences faculty to the most

outstanding senior major.

JOHN (JACK) MCDERMOTT of Chicago, Ill.; BS, Earth and

Ocean Sciences.

SARA LABOSKEY AWARD

Given in recognition of personal integrity and academic excellence.

DONOVAN LOH of Singapore; BA, Environmental Sciences and Policy

and Biology, with Distinction.

DUKENVIRONMENT 28

ALUMNI PROFILE

DUKE ALUM SPEARHEADS ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AT LOS ANGELES AIRPORTS

BY LISA M. DELLWOPHOTOS BY CASEY BRODLEY

ON THE WINGSUSTAINABILITY

DUKENVIRONMENT 28

DUKE ALUM SPEARHEADS ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AT LOS ANGELES AIRPORTS

BY LISA M. DELLWOPHOTOS BY CASEY BRODLEY

MORE THAN 1,500 FLIGHTS TAKE OFF FROM LAX EVERY DAY

80.9 MILLION ANNUAL PASSENGERS

6,000 VEHICLES ENTER THE AIRPORT

IN AN HOUR

50 MILLION GALLONS OF WATER USED ANNUALLY IN THE NINE

LAX TERMINALS

SUSTAINABILITY

DUKENVIRONMENT 30

like Los Angeles International Airport might seem to be an environmentalist’s worst nightmare, what with jet fuel emissions, noise, traffic, acres of paved, impervious surfaces, and thousands of toilets that flush whether you want them to or not.

But where some people see problems, Erica Blyther T’98 sees opportunities. The environmental science and policy major (and chemistry minor) has built a career addressing the environmental challenges at LAX, working on a vast portfolio of issues from green building and alternative energy use to environmentally preferred purchasing and water use, a critical topic in drought-prone southern California. She also has helped in the comeback of a small, endangered butterfly. (See story below.)

“Airports do have a lot of impacts,” Blyther says. “But a lot of sustainability can be driven by airports as well.”

Blyther is an environmental supervisor in the sustainability section of Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), which encompasses LAX and Van Nuys, a smaller regional airport. Her current focus is at LAX, which is planning a major overhaul in anticipation of hosting the Summer Olympics in 2028. The airport’s last major modernization was done to prepare for the 1984 Olympic Games, but the number of passengers has been on a steady rise, with recent years setting new records.

“More flights will take off in the future. That’s our nature,” says Blyther’s colleague Robert Freeman, an airport environmental manager. “Every additional aircraft emits. Every new passenger uses water.”

In the face of this inevitable growth, how do you green an airport?

Let’s start with transit, as Blyther did in our recent

conversation. LAX is the busiest “origin and destination” airport in the United States, meaning that more passengers begin and/or end their flights there than anywhere else. Getting those passengers to and from the airport involves cars, buses, taxis—emissions and congestion. During peak periods, according to the airport’s sustainability website, 6,000 vehicles enter the airport in an hour. Space is needed for parking and rental car facilities.

Some buses serve LAX, including the affordable FlyAway bus service, but currently, access to LA’s Metro train service is awkward, requiring a shuttle from the nearest terminal, about two miles away. That is due to change with LAX’s Landside Access Modernization Program, a ground transportation update that will feature a relocated centralized car-rental facility, a Metro rail and bus station being built adjacent to the airport, and a people-mover train that will serve these two locations as well as all nine terminals.

On the working side of the airport, an alternative fuel policy is in place, and now 40 percent of the ground service equipment used at LAX is powered by electricity.

Blyther also is involved in the airport’s efforts to control energy and water usage. A recent Los Angeles city ordinance requires disclosure of energy and water use in all existing buildings, information that will be used to set benchmarks for future efficiency efforts.

The amount of water used at the airport is staggering; just think of the water used if each of the 80.9 million annual passengers flushed a toilet once. (Not to mention the number of extra flushes performed by the automatic toilets.) Add to that water used for landscaping and window washing, in food service, and in the airport’s cooling and heating system. According to Freeman, this all adds up to 50 million gallons of water used annually in the nine LAX terminals.

Blyther, who is involved in gathering water- and energy-use information to fulfill the city’s mandate, says that the

More than 1,500 flights take off from LAX every day. Except in the summer, when the number “rises” by about 140,000 because of some tiny fliers.

A big metropolitan airport

tinyfliers@

LAX

ALUMNI PROFILE

challenge is that many airport buildings are leased by contractors and tenants. “Some buildings have no meters and some have multiple meters.” Depending on the terms of the lease—and each of them is written differently—some tenants pay their own water and energy bills, and some do not. “We may not be entitled to the data, depending on the lease,” she says.

Freeman explains that greening an airport is different from greening a large corporate campus for this reason. LAWA is the host, and “the airlines bring in the planes and the companies that support them. We act as facilitators.”

That said, LAWA has taken steps to reduce water usage in its own operations, particularly in response to the mayor’s 2014 Emergency Drought Response directive. Turf has been removed and replaced with water-reducing landscaping or simply gravel. Reclaimed water is being used in irrigation, and a new advanced water treatment plant will add more reclaimed water to the system by 2020. During upcoming renovations and construction, ultra-low-flow toilets will be mandated, and those problematic auto-flushing toilets may be reconsidered.

On the energy front, Blyther says that her department has created a map showing where solar panels would work at the airport. “It’s complicated because of the light that reflects off of them.” The map shows where panels can be located without creating a problem for the pilots of incoming and outgoing flights.

But in the end, the decision to install solar has to come from the individual tenants—the airlines and concessionaires who operate at the airport. To some extent, the upcoming modernization effort may slow this effort down, because some buildings may be reconfigured. “For instance, the central terminal area will probably change a lot,” she says. The German airline Lufthansa is looking into a solar installation on one of its facilities that will be unchanged. Another possibility is putting solar panels on top of the people-mover train stations and on the large central rental car facility. But because concessionaires will operate these facilities, the decision is theirs and not LAWA’s. And it has to make business sense for them.

Blyther says that the leadership that is driving environmental efforts at the airport is coming from state and city leaders, not the federal government. The airport is a department of the city of Los Angeles, whose mayor, Eric Garcetti, has spearheaded a number of city initiatives and ordinances, including a green building standard that aims for new construction at city properties to achieve, at minimum, LEED Silver status.

The unique requirements of airport construction mean that LEED status can’t

Every summer, dune

lands owned by the airport

are host to tens of thou-

sands of the tiny, endan-

gered El Segundo Blue

butterfly, which flutters

around fresh plantings of

coastal buckwheat, a plant

critical for its survival.

In the first half of the

twentieth century, devel-

opment in coastal South-

ern California practically

drove the species extinct.

In 1976, the El Segundo

Blue was the first insect

listed as a Federal Endan-

gered Species. One of the

last known populations

was located in a small

dune area just beyond the

runways of LAX.

Ironically, the arrival of

the Jet Age was critical

to its survival. A tract of

homes built on the dunes

between the airport and

the Pacific Ocean became

uninhabitable, due to the

noise of the jets. Uninhab-

itable for humans, that is.

The butterflies don’t seem

to mind the noise and traf-

fic—they just need access

to that coastal buckwheat.

Its entire life cycle

involves this plant. The

adults nectar on it and lay

eggs on its flowerheads.

The larvae feed on the

flowerheads and seeds,

and pupate at the base of

the plant.

Erica Blyther is in-

volved in the preserve that

the airport has created,

now more than 300 acres

that hosts a resurgent

population of the butterfly

and other wildlife.

Parts of the preserve

that are distant from air-

port operations are open

to the public, and volun-

teers help maintain it by

removing invasive plants

and planting more coastal

buckwheat to keep the

butterflies happy.

— Lisa M. Dellwo

Read more about them in National

Geographic article that quotes Blyther: news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160421-

butterflies-endangered-species-animals/

DUKENVIRONMENT 32

always be achieved there. For instance, says Blyther, the Federal Aviation Administration has strict requirements about the load-bearing capacity of runways, meaning that certain kinds of concrete and/or recycled asphalt can’t be used there. But environmentally friendlier mixes can be used on auxiliary surfaces like taxiways.

Blyther recently brought the LAWA Sustainable Design and Construction Policy incorporating LEED Silver to the Board of Airport Commissioners.

Blyther often reaches out to colleagues at other airports for information on what has worked elsewhere. Robert Freeman says that a collaborative spirit is one of her key skills: “The airport is just different from other places in so many ways. Erica has a handle on this. She finds out what works at other places to see if there is a solution for the airport.”

An upcoming project for Blyther will be working to adopt the City of Los Angeles’s environmentally preferred purchasing policy at LAWA.

Blyther grew up in L.A. in a family that valued education and science. “I was raised with Jacques Cousteau, and my Christmas presents were chemistry sets and microscopes,” she says. She went to Westchester High School, in the shadow of LAX. She chose Duke for her undergraduate degree after also considering environmental studies programs at UCLA and UC-Berkeley. Her father graduated from North Carolina Central University in Durham, and she had family in the area.

“The coursework at Duke was great and prepared me in core science and the ways that environmental policy is made.”

She remembers in particular studying environmental policy with Marie Lynn Miranda and geology with Peter Malin, which helped in the HazMat phase of her career.

She returned to Los Angeles after graduating in 1998 and found work in the city’s Environmental Affairs Department, then started at LAWA in the Noise Management Bureau in 1999. Her early career at the airport focused primarily regulatory compliance, involving hazardous materials, waste, and stormwater management.

In 2005, she received a Master of Science from California State University Northridge in Environmental and Occupational Health, studying for her degree while working fulltime.

A sojourn at the LA Department of Water and Power from 2007 to 2013 proved challenging and rewarding, both personally and professionally. She spent four sweltering summers and five freezing winters in the Owens Valley, 220 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The aqueduct that supplies half of LA’s water originates there. Blyther handled difficult assignments, many of them involving the air and water quality issues that resulted from the 1913 aqueduct and the subsequent drying out of Owens Lake. It is where she first became a supervisor and where she experienced a horrific car accident while driving to work. She broke bones in her neck and had to have a spinal fusion and a titanium plate installed.

Blyther has practiced the Afro-Brazilian martial art of Capoeira since 2003, and her doctors said that Capoeira made her neck strong and helped

ALUMNI PROFILE

After 27 years building and

leading the career services

department at the Nicholas

School, I stepped down as

assistant dean for career and

professional development on

Sept. 1.

When considering a career

change and asking myself

what’s next, I have had to put

into practice what I have taught

and shared with many students,

alums, and friends as they sought

their own professional transitions.

I admit, I thought, “How hard

can this be? I am the career

professional here.” But it is

harder than you think to separate

your emotional connection

to your work and focus on

professional change.

As I grappled with my own

transition over the last 18

months, a five-step plan of

action helped me to focus, and

perhaps it will be useful to others

considering a career change.

My “what’s next?” plan has

begun unfolding. I have accepted

a 10-month part-time transition

position at the Nicholas school,

assisting with special recruiting

and admissions and career

services projects, as well as

cross-training new Student

Services staff.

Several years ago, an alum

was reentering the workforce,

and when I asked what she was

seeking, she said “I want to do

what makes my heart sing.”

Great advice for us all!

CAREER MATTERS

prevent a spinal cord injury. “I’m truly blessed to retain an incredible range of motion and enjoy all my athletic activities,” she says.

She is now a Capoeira professor, and she and her school have performed at LAX terminals for the past three years as part of the LAX Holiday Entertainment Program to help alleviate the stress of holiday travel for passengers.

As her work has shifted from the regulatory and technical to the sustainability end of things, Blyther foresees endless opportunities for projects at the airport. “There are so many things to deal with and so many opportunities here,” she says.

One subject that interests her is the value of sustainability as a way of doing business. Leaders come and go who value or don’t value environmental issues, but, she says, we need a culture change in which sustainability is seen as an intrinsic value, a way of doing business that makes business sense.

“That’s a work in progress,” she says.

Lisa M. Dellwo is a freelance writer specializing in environment and nature, based in Down East Maine.

TIMES OF CHANGEBY KAREN KIRCHOF

Karen Kirchof shares a framework for career transition planning that guided her as she planned her own transition.

ONE Self-reflection. Why change?

What outcomes are you seeking? What is your timeline?

TWO Write and refine your value proposition.

Separate your professional and emotional connection to work; focus on professional connection. A value proposition details your relevancy,

specific quantifiable benefits and unique differentiation you bring to your current

employer or a future employer.

THREE Define your non-negotiables and stick to

them! This a specific and small list.

FOUR Enlist support from trusted colleagues

and friends and use them for advice and motivation to stay the course.

FIVE Network. Informational interviews with

targeted employers or professionals in desired professional roles, or internally if your desire is to move within your current organization. The goal is to broaden your change possibilities.

Read more about Erica’s latest project:

lawa.org/news Contentbs.

aspx?ID=2406.

DUKENVIRONMENT 34

GIVING

DUKENVIRONMENT 34

Some lucky people get to design their “dream home.” Faculty at the Duke University Marine Laboratory are getting to design their “dream research vessel.”

Thanks to a $11 million gift from the Grainger Family Descendants Fund, the Marine Lab will have a state-of-the-art oceangoing research vessel, and when it hits the water in 2019, it will expand Duke’s marine science research and teaching capabilities significantly in fields such as marine ecology and conservation, biological oceanography and renewable ocean energy development.

The new, 65-foot catamaran will enable Marine Lab faculty and students to travel several hundred nautical miles offshore (from Beaufort, N.C., to the Bahamas, for instance) and to stay at sea for several days—something they have not been able to do since 2014, when the 50-foot R/V Susan Hudson was retired after decades of service.

The Marine Lab’s primary research vessel right now, the 30-foot R/V Richard Barber, is great for daylong research trips near the shore, but is not large enough to support overnight operations. As a result, Duke faculty members have been unable to regularly take students offshore or conduct deepwater oceanographic research on the lab’s own vessel for several years.

“This new vessel, which will be more than twice the size of our current boat, will give us the ability to conduct research further offshore and to stay out for days at a time. That will significantly expand our reach along the Atlantic seaboard where we can work safely and efficiently,” says Andy Read, the Marine Lab’s director and Stephen A. Toth Professor of Marine Biology.

“This is especially important for our teaching mission, because we’ll be able to expose our undergraduate and graduate students to a broader variety of marine environments than we currently can.”

NOT YOUR TYPICAL CLASSROOMStudents who set sail on the new vessel will have a living and learning experience unlike any other at Duke. They will bunk along with teachers and crew in small, shared cabins, with enough space to sleep and store a few clothes, but not much

TO GET ITS “DREAM” OCEAN RESEARCH AND TEACHING VESSEL

DUKE MARINE LAB

“This is especially important for our teaching mission, because we’ll be able to

expose our undergraduate and graduate students to a broader variety of marine

environments than we currently can.”

by Laura Ertel

*The new research vessel will look similar to the one pictured.

else. After rolling out of their bunks, students can grab a bite and some coffee in the full galley kitchen, and then head out on deck for the day’s activities.

On most research vessels, work is conducted 24/7, so someone always is up. Life at sea revolves around food—and good coffee—and mealtimes mark the passage of time, provide opportunities for informal learning and forge memories and bonds that will last a lifetime.

Nicholas School professional environmental master’s and PhD students and Duke undergrads will have a variety of opportunities to study or conduct research on the ship. A new “Semester at Sea,” based at the Marine Lab’s Beaufort campus, will include an open ocean research voyage where undergraduates will hone their oceanographic research skills and learn about marine policy and marine biology.

Students in Oceanography, Biology of Marine Mammals, Marine Ecology, Bioacoustics and a variety of other classes will spend time on the vessel to gain field experience.

DESIGNING TO MEET CURRENT AND FUTURE NEEDSA well-maintained ship’s lifespan is about 30 years, so the Duke Marine Lab faculty is thinking carefully about current needs as well as how marine science research capabilities may evolve in the future.

They favor a catamaran design, with a main deck and bridge above, because of its speed and stability. The vessel likely will have propulsive jets rather than propellers, which will allow it to navigate some of North Carolina’s shallow inlets. Read and his colleagues have toured similar research vessels in Texas and California, and are working with a naval

architect to custom-design Duke’s ship.“We’re going through details large and

small, thinking about living quarters, about scientific equipment we want to be able to deploy, what capabilities are we going to need. This is an oceangoing classroom, so we know we want sufficient living space to take a dozen students at a time out to sea for several days,” says Read, who can’t wait to take students in his Marine Mammals course out to observe the sperm whales that live 50 nautical miles off the North Carolina coast.

Zackary Johnson, the Arthur P. Kaupe Associate Professor of Molecular Biology in Marine Science, is planning a weeklong trip to the Bahamas with his Biological Oceanography class to study the dynamics of the Gulf Stream and the ecology of plankton in the North Atlantic.

“In addition to the sleeping quarters and galley, we’ll need wet and dry labs and oceanographic equipment. We know we want to fly Dave Johnston’s drones off the boat; launch remotely operated underwater vehicles for Cindy Van Dover’s deep-sea studies; and deploy Doug Nowacek’s oceanographic gliders, for example. So, this is all very exciting to plan and consider the possibilities,” Read says.

“The tricky part is to build in enough flexibility so that, in the future, we can take advantage of things that we can’t even imagine now. I mean, 20 years ago, if you told people you were going to fly drones off an oceanographic research vessel, they would’ve said you were crazy—and here we are!”

Once the ship’s specs are finalized, Duke will contract with a shipyard. The actual building process will take about a

year. When complete, it will be the only research vessel of its size and capabilities in North Carolina and one of a small number in the Mid-Atlantic.

The boat will be available for charter by researchers from other academic institutions and organizations for research and teaching, providing a valuable resource to UNC Systems and other regional partners.

The gift from the Grainger Family Descendants provides $5 million to build the new vessel and an additional $6 million to create an endowment to support operating costs, including a full-time captain and mate/technician proficient at both sailing and marine research. There also will be a part-time mate for longer trips.

The operating endowment also will support science outreach programs for local K-12 teachers, students and community members, enabling the Marine Lab to take local groups and students out on day trips.

“We are extraordinarily thankful for this visionary gift because it allows us to fulfill the Duke Marine Lab’s potential as one of the world’s best research and teaching centers for marine science and conservation,” says Jeff Vincent, Stanback Dean of the Nicholas School.

“Having a world-class oceangoing research vessel is essential our ability to address the many issues that affect our marine ecosystems and the people who rely on them. This gift gives us the flexibility to design and operate exactly what we need. As a result, it will truly be our ‘dream boat.’”

Laura Ertel is a freelance writer living in Durham, NC, and is a longtime contributor to Dukenvironment magazine.

“This new vessel, which will be more than twice the size of our current boat, will give us the ability to conduct research further offshore and to stay out for days at a time. That will significantly expand our reach along the Atlantic seaboard where we can work safely and efficiently."

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