Farming and climate change is the topic for SU’s annual Chauncey D. Holmes Lecture and Award Ceremony

Farming and climate change is the topic for SU’s annual Chauncey D. Holmes Lecture and Award Ceremony March 11, 2009Judy Holmesjlholmes@syr.edu

Thirteen Syracuse University undergraduate students and a student from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry will be recognized for excellence in introductory earth science during the annual Chauncey D. Holmes Lecture and Award Ceremony Thursday, March 19, at 7 p.m. in Heroy Auditorium, located in the Heroy Geology Laboratory.

A reception will be held immediately prior to the lecture outside Heroy Auditorium. The event is presented by the Department of Earth Sciences in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences and is free and open to the public. Paid parking is available in the Irving Garage.

The event will feature renowned palaeoclimatologist William F. Ruddiman, author of the provocative book “Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate” (Princeton University Press, paperback 2007), winner of the 2006 Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, Phi Beta Kappa Book Award. Ruddiman will present “Early Farming Prevented the Onset of a New Glaciation (A Small One).”

Alumnus Chauncey Holmes G’27, who received a master’s degree in geology from SU in 1927, established the Chauncey D. Holmes Award. An esteemed geologist, Holmes considered raising geologic awareness among undergraduate students a prime objective of his academic career.

Recipients of the 2009 Chauncey D. Holmes Awards are:

• Kristen Kelleher, junior, College of Arts and Sciences;
• Timothy Ultee, junior, College of Arts and Sciences;
• Kristen Rachfal, senior, College of Arts and Sciences;
• Erica Brenner, sophomore, College of Arts and Sciences;
• Daniel Gualtieri, senior, Whitman School of Management;
• Zachary Barker Chittick, junior, College of Arts and Sciences;
• Andrew M. Glavin, senior, College of Arts and Sciences;
• Patrick Joseph Geoghegan, sophomore, College of Arts and Sciences;
• Nicholas Alexander Resavy, freshman, College for Human Ecology;
• Robert Walsh, senior, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry;
• Michelle Austin, junior, College of Arts and Sciences;
• Andrew Johnstone, senior, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications;
• Lindsay R. Rapke, senior, College of Arts and Sciences; and
• Christopher P. Albergo, senior, College of Arts and Sciences.

Ruddiman, professor emeritus at the University of Virginia, has published numerous articles in such prestigious scientific journals as Nature and Science, and is author of several books, including “Earth’s Climate: Past and Future” (W.H. Freeman 2nd edition, 2007). He recently retired from the University of Virginia, following many years as a Doherty Senior Research Scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. His research interests are focused on ocean sediments that contain diverse indicators of Earth’s climate change over time scales ranging from thousands to tens of millions of years.