Dr. Krithi K. Karanth has been selected by The World Economic Forum as a 2015 Young Global Leader

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Dr. Krithi K. Karanth, a former post-doctoral research scientist in the DeFries Lab, has been selected by The World Economic Forum (WEF) as a 2015 Young Global Leader (YGL). This prestigious honor recognizes her as one of the 187 distinguished leaders below the age of 40 from around the world. Krithi has been working to understand and find solutions to human-wildlife conflicts. Her blog featured by the WEF summarises the difficulties we face and need for innovation to address these challenges: blog link Krithi was also featured by the BBC World Service Outlook podcast. You can hear the program here (March 17th, 2015, starting 9:26 into program)

Ruth DeFries wrote a piece for the New York Times column Dot Earth

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Ruth DeFries wrote a piece for the New York Times column Dot Earth recently. Please click to read the article HERE

Ruth DeFries awarded the AAG Distinguished Scholarship Honors Award for 2015

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Ruth DeFries has been awarded one of the American Association of Geographers highest honors, the AAG Distinguished Scholarship Honors Award for 2015. She is being recognized for the contributions that she has made to our understanding of the patterns and impacts of anthropogenic landscape change, and for her ability to link that research to larger international policy discussions aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from tropical deforestation. Read more HERE

Megan Cattau’s research was covered recently on the Mongabay.com environmental news site

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DeFries’ Lab Ph.D. student Megan Cattau‘s research was covered recently on the Mongabay.com environmental news site. A study was led by Megan and was carried out in collaboration with The Orangutan Tropical Peatland Project (OuTrop) and Center for International Cooperation in Sustainable Management of Tropical Peatlands (CIMTROP). According to its results, the latest estimate for Kalimantan’s current orangutan population is between 1,500 and 1,700 as of 2009, a decline from as many as 4,100 individuals in 1995. In other words, the population dropped by more than half in just 14 years. Read more HERE

Ruth DeFries is the 2014 Paradigm Award Winner

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The Breakthrough Institute has announced that Ruth DeFries is the 2014 Paradigm Award Winner. The Paradigm Award is bestowed annually to individuals whose work has made major contributions to realizing a future where all the world’s inhabitants can enjoy secure, free, and prosperous lives on an ecologically vibrant planet. The Breakthrough Institute also cited Ruth DeFries’ influential works about “planetary opportunities,” and her recent book,The Big Ratchet: How Humans Thrive in Face of Natural Disasters. You can read more HERE.

Ruth DeFries published a book in September – The Big Ratchet.

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Ruth DeFries published a book in September – The Big Ratchet. The book charts the story of how technologies and innovations have combined to feed more people than ever before in the history of humanity. Please follow this LINK for the book website

E3B and DeFries Lab Postdoc Pinki Mondal has just published a paper with Ruth DeFries

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E3B and DeFries Lab Postdoc Pinki Mondal has just published a paper with Ruth DeFries, recent E3B/DeFries Lab Ph.D. alum Meha Jain, DeFries lab alum Gillian Galford, Andrew Robertson of IRI, Earth Institute, and Chris Small of LDEO. Winter crop sensitivity to inter-annual climate variability in central India. Pinki Mondal, Meha Jain, Andrew W. Robertson, Gillian L. Galford, Christopher Small & Ruth S. DeFries. Climatic Change. Volume 126 , Issue 1, pages 61-76. Link, HERE

Ruth DeFries has been selected as one of the “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds 2014”

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Ruth DeFries has been selected as one of the “The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds 2014” based on the number of highly cited papers she has contributed during the period 2001 to 2012 and citations to them as per ISI Thomson Reuters. For more information, please follow this LINK

DeFries Lab has just had a project funded through the Google Earth Engines Research Award Program

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The DeFries Lab has just had a project funded through the Google Earth Engines Research Award Program on “The Sensitivity of Agricultural Output to Climate Variability Across Smallholder Farms in South Asia” (investigators and collaborators include DeFries Lab alumGillian Galford (Univ. of Vermont), Post-doc Pinki Mondal, recent Ph.D. Graduate Meha Jain and Ruth DeFries.

Megan Cattau has just been awarded an Exploration Fund grant

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Megan Cattau, DeFries Lab member and E3B Ph.D. student, has just been awarded (March 20th, 2014) an Exploration Fund grant for her project “Feedbacks between fire and land cover: Changing disturbance dynamics in the peat swamp landscape.” The Explorers Club grants are highly competitive and only a small percentage of the proposals are funded. Congratulations!