Making Headlines
The following articles reflect our commitment to share sustainability-related accomplishments across the university — representing its colleges, departments, institutes, centers and other units — in the areas of research, student engagement, campus stewardship and collaborations with the public and private sectors.
Nature, 30-Jan-18
Fifty years ago, many scientists were looking up. But in Antarctica, John Mercer was looking down — and he was concerned about what he saw. That year, the late Mercer, a glaciologist at Ohio State University in Columbus, first warned about the potential for rapid sea-level rise from melting ice caps. ...
The Columbus Dispatch, 29-Jan-18
Scientists filed a second lawsuit last week challenging federal Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s new policy for science advisers serving the agency. …Ohio State associate professor Robyn Wilson is one of a half-dozen scientists asked to step down as a result of the new rule. She refused to do that or give up her funding. In December, she joined a lawsuit filed to challenge the new rule. She is not involved in the new suit. ...
Diverse Issues in Higher Education, 29-Jan-18
From raging forest fires on the West Coast to heavy snowfall on the East Coast and bone-chilling cold between, extreme and unpredicted weather patterns this school year have disrupted college classes and tested campus infrastructures. …In Ohio, where The Ohio State University’s main campus in Columbus has an underground system built to deliver water, heat and cool air to its 140 buildings, university officials tout a nearly 100-percent successful performance rating of its system, which in an average winter week can generate 500,000 pounds of steam an hour from its natural gas-fired boilers. Last year, OSU contracted with a private Ohio vendor, ENGIE Services, to manage most of its underground power system and help its department of facilities, operations and development on a variety of projects aimed at energy reduction. ...
WCMH-TV, 28-Jan-18
A student project usually does not require 128 circuit boards and 512 processors. The Ohio State University earth sciences and physics students named the supercomputer Buckeye Pi: an off-the-rack materials project that cost about $7,500 to build, in a world where supercomputers usually carry a price tag in the millions of dollars. The work began in the garage of the OSU School of Earth Sciences professor Dr. Joachim Moortgat, who supervised the project. ...
The Conversation, 25-Jan-18
In a speech at the 2018 World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, French President Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to “make France a model in the fight against climate change” and promised to shut all coal-fired power plants by 2021 – two years earlier than the timetable put forward by his predecessor. ...
Featured expert(s): column author Jay Zagorsky, economist and research scientist
Toledo Blade (editorial), 24-Jan-18
Ohio State University’s algae researchers have launched yet another initiative to help the state track and study the dangerous algae threatening bodies of water around Ohio. The university’s scientists have long led efforts to study the algae that blankets portions of Lake Erie every summer. ...
New York Times, 24-Jan-18
A deadly 2016 glacier collapse in Tibet surpassed scientists’ expectations—until it happened again. They worry it’s only the beginning. ...
Featured expert(s): Lonnie G. Thompson, professor of geological sciences
Earth.com, 23-Jan-18
The balance of bacteria within coral mucus is very important because it serves as a type of artificial immune system, keeping corals healthy by preventing bad bacteria from entering their systems. Researchers at Ohio State University have identified two effects of climate change which can disrupt the vital balance in coral microbe populations and allow bad bacteria to take over their bodies. ...
Featured expert(s): Andrea Grottoli, professor of earth sciences
The Lantern, 18-Dec-18
Growing up in rural Ohio, Zac Graber was very active in his local 4-H, Farm Bureau and Future Farmers of America organizations. Little did he know back then in Liberty Center, Ohio, that these involvements would instill in Graber, a fourth-year in marketing, a passion that would result in him receiving the highest university recognition given by Ohio State, the President’s Prize. ...
Toledo Blade, 13-Jan-18
"What the FERC said was, no, this doesn't make any sense to them, and they kicked further discussion back to the RTOs,” Prof. Edward Hill, a teacher of economic development, public, and finance policy at Ohio State University, said. “It said they know best where the reliability issues are in their systems.” ...
Featured expert(s): Ned Hill, professor of public policy