Past Event Recordings

Click the links below to access recordings of previous events.
  • Forecasting Ecology in a Changing World | Dr. Michael Dietze | 03-31-23

    The Geography Graduate Group (Triple-G) at the Michigan State University Department of Geography, Environment and Spatial Sciences welcomed Dr. Michael Dietze from the Department of Earth & Environment at Boston University on Friday, March 31, 2023, for a colloquium session entitled "Forecasting Ecology in a Changing World" with Dr. Michael Dietze from the Department of Earth & Environment at Boston University.

    What is ecological forecasting and why do it? This talk introduced the idea of near-term iterative ecological forecasting, which is the process of making probabilistic, out-of-sample predictions of ecological processes and then updating those predictions as new information becomes available.

    Professor Dietze then explained how this approach is a potential win-win for accelerating science, addressing discipline-spanning questions about ecological predictability, and making ecology both more robust and more directly relevant to societal needs. He discussed the challenges and opportunities in iterative ecological forecasting and highlighted ongoing efforts to build an ecological forecasting community of practice. He drew on examples from a wide range of ecological processes, including carbon sequestration, tick-borne disease, harmful algal blooms, soil microbiome, and vegetation phenology.

    Finally, Professor Dietze touched on the efforts of the Ecological Forecasting Initiative (EFI) to build a community of practice and its ongoing NEON forecasting challenge.

    A recording of this past event can be accessed here. 

  • A Critical Journey into the Critical Zone and the Water Balance | Dr. Allen G. Hunt | 10-14-22

    The MSU Geography Graduate Group welcomed Dr. Allen G. Hunt from Wright State University. Dr. Hunt will present "A Critical Journey into the Critical Zone and the Water Balance." for a Triple G Colloquium event on October 14, 2022. 

    Abstract:

    The critical zone, with the soil at its center, is a foundation of life, carbon and nutrient cycling, and the water cycle. In order to understand the mathematical foundations of soil formation, vegetation growth and productivity, it turns out to be necessary to understand and/or formulate simultaneously: 1) the physics of solute transport in porous media, 2) the chemical basis of weathering, 3) a general principle of ecology, and 4) the principal fluxes of hydrology. 

    Let us try to understand why the traditional understanding in all of these disciplines needs revision. For example, the result that chemical weathering rates decay in time as a power-law with time dependence similar to diffusion, but at a rate proportional to the water flux through the medium, invalidates the use of any variant of the traditional advection-dispersion equation for solute transport, from which you can derive the proportionality to flow (if advection dominates), or the time dependence, (if diffusion dominates), but not both simultaneously. The dominance of advection (flow) in weathering is then matched by the dominance of flow (transpiration) in vegetation growth, allowing a comprehensive understanding of the basic critical zone processes and the water balance.

    Our journey, however, started with a new theoretical basis for solute transport, but we found that a nice shortcut of Muhammad Sahimi’s could do nearly as well and help generate a suite of scaling relationships that form a firm foundation for understanding the above fusion of disciplines in the crucible of the critical zone – a voyage of discovery followed by an opportunity to organize knowledge as not previously supposed possible. 

    Bio:

    Dr. Allen Hunt is Professor of Physics at Wright State University 

    Ph.D. Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics (of disordered systems), 1983, UC Riverside  

    Fulbright scholar 1985-1987, Philipps University, Marburg, FRG, physics. Fulbright finalist 2018-2019 Sheffield, England, agricultural engineering)

    Subsequent (re)education in f eld geomorphology (M.S., Duke University, 1996), employment in Climate Dynamics (PNNL, 1999-2002), Hydrology (NSF, 2002-2003).  

    Edited Volumes. Philosophica Magazine, 2001, Michael Pollak Festschrift, Fractals: Concepts and Applications (co-editor, after Behzad Ghanbarian), Hydrogeology, Chemical Weathering and Soil Formation (with co-editors, Markus Egli and Boris Faybishenko), AGU Bestseller 2021, and Complex Media and Percolation Theory (co-editor, after Muhammad Sahimi). 

    Published Books, Percolation Theory for Flow in Porous Media, Lecture Notes in Physics (three editions) and, together with Stefano Manzoni, Networks on Networks: The Physics of Geobiology and Geochemistry, Morgan and Claypool for Institute of Physics. 

    A recording of this past event can be accessed here.

  • Understanding Intersectionality: Overlapping Burdens | Dr. Jieun Lee | 03-25-22

    The MSU Geography Graduate Group (Triple G) welcomed Dr. Jieun Lee, MSU Geography Alumna and Assistant Professor at the University of Northern Colorado, for the final Colloquium event for the 2022 Spring Semester. Dr. Lee presented "Understanding Intersectionality: Overlapping Burdens--Gender, Race and Ethnicity, Class, and Health Disparities."

    Socially disadvantaged populations in U.S. cities face a multitude of inequities associated with gender, race and ethnicity, and income. These disparities, often overlapping, contribute to persistent geographic patterns of unequal access to urban amenities and adverse health risks.

    Despite an increasing interest on the social determinants of health and inequities in the public health domain, critical geographical exploration of overlapping disparities remains under-represented in the literature. Moreover, detailed exploration of socially disadvantaged communities characterized by rapid decline, as evident across U.S. Midwest cities, is even rarer.

    In this presentation, I discuss two case studies. The first case interrogates transportation inequity in Detroit, MI, by examining travel behaviors, built environment, and intersecting social disparities, with a particular focus on gender. The second case explores public health crises in Colorado, such as COVID-19 pandemic and mental health problems, within a broader spatial context of social and health inequities and population vulnerability.

    A recording of this past event can be accessed here. 

  • Raising Awareness of Neurodiversity: Neurodiverstiy in Higher Education, Work Place, and Geography | SWIG | 03-04-22

    The MSU Supporting Women in Geography (SWIG) group hosted a webinar entitled "Raising Awareness of Neurodiversity & Space" on March 3, 2022. The event featured special guests Lindsay Hill and Kelsey Foote from RCPD and Zhenshan Zhong from CAPS, who presented an in-depth look at the experiences and resources of Neurodiverse folks. This highly relevant conversation not only answered "What is Neurodiversity?" but also "How can we appreciate Neurodiversity and build inclusive spaces?". 

    A recording of this past event can be accessed here.  

    Slides and the flyer for this event are available from the SWIG website at https://swigmsu.weebly.com/.

     

  • Big Data at a Planetary Scale: Earth vs. Mars | Dr. Tanya Harrison | 02-04-22

    The MSU Geography Graduate Group (Triple G) welcomed Dr. Tanya Harrison, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Planet Labs on 02-04-22 during a Spring Colloquium event. She presented“Big Data at a Planetary Scale: Earth vs. Mars.”

    What is it like to work with data and technology at a planetary scale, but with constraints that are also out of this world? Dr. Harrison spent over a decade working in science and mission operations with various NASA Mars missions before coming back to Earth as Director of Strategic Science Initiatives at Planet Labs. What are the similarities and differences between trying to understand these worlds through data, and how are they both changing today?

    Learn more about Dr. Harrison here. 

    A recording of the past event can be accessed here. 

  • Understanding the Drivers and Consequences of Personal Adaptation to Environmental Extremes | Dr. Gabrielle Wong-Parodi | 01-21-22

    The MSU Geography Graduate Group (Triple G) welcomed Dr. Gabrielle Wong-Parodi on Friday, January 21, 2022, during the Spring 2022 Colloquium series. Dr. Wong-Pariodi  Dr. Wong-Parodi is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University and her presentation focused on her work on community and individual decision-making in response to climate hazards.

    A recording of the past event can be accessed here. 

  • Afghanistan: Security, Gender, and Development 2001-2021 | Dr. Jennifer Fluri | 10-29-21

    The MSU Supporting Women in Geography (SWIG) group welcomed Dr. Jennifer Fluri on Friday, October 29, 2021, for a presentation entitled “Afghanistan: Security, Gender, and Development 2001-2021.” Dr. Fluri is a feminist political geographer concentrating on conflict, security, and aid/development in South and Southwest Asia, and currently a Department Chair and Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado Boulder.

    This event was co-sponsored by the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, Visiting International Professional Program (MSU VIPP), and Asian Studies Center, with support from the Center of Gender in Global Context at MSU.

    A recording of the past event can be accessed here. Additional details can be accessed here.

  • High Points: The Historical Geography of Cannabis | Dr. Barney Warf | 10-22-21

    The MSU Geography Graduate Group (Triple G) welcomed Dr. Barney Warf on Friday, October 22, 2021, during the Fall 2021 Colloquium series. Dr. Warf is a professor of Geography at the University of Kansas.

    A recording of the past event can be accessed here.

    A copy of Dr. Warf’s paper “High Points: An Historical Geography of Cannabis” published in the October 2014 issue of the Geographical Review is available here.

    Additional details can be accessed here. 

  • A New Kind of Company Town: Extractive Industry and Security in the U.S.-Mexico Borderland | Dr. Scott Warren | 10-08-21

    The MSU Geography Graduate Group (Triple G) welcomed Dr. Scott Warren on Friday, October 8, 2021, during the Fall 2021 Colloquium series. Dr. Warren is a cultural geographer, academic, and volunteer with humanitarian aid organizations at the Mexico-US border. He lives and works in the town of Ajo, Arizona, which is located in the O’odham-Sonora-Arizona borderland.

    A recording of the past event can be accessed here. Additional details can be accessed here. 

  • Geospatial Statistical Methods for Rare Meteorological Events | Dr. Eric Gilleland | 03-26-21

    The MSU Geography Graduate Group (Triple G) welcomed Dr. Eric Gilleland on Friday, March 26, 2021, during the Spring 2021 Colloquium series. Dr. Gilleland is a Project Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research - Research Applications Laboratory (NCAR-RAL).

    A recording of this past event can be accessed here. Additional details can be accessed here.

  • “Decolonized Afterlife” and Implications for More Than Human Life | Dr. Deondre Smiles | 02-26-21

    The MSU Geography Graduate Group (Triple G) welcomed Dr. Deondre Smiles on Friday, February 26, 2021, during the Spring 2021 Colloquium series. Dr. Smiles is the President's Postdoctoral Scholar in the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History at the Ohio State University. 

    A recording of this past event can be accessed here. Additional details can be accessed here.

  • Impacts of Urbanization and Landscape Fragmentation on the Carbon Cycle | Dr. Lucy R. Hutyra | 01-29-21

    The MSU Geography Graduate Group (Triple G) welcomed Dr. Lucy R. Hutyra on Friday, January 29, 2021, as they kicked off their Spring 2021 Colloquium series. Dr. Hutyra is an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University and her presentation focused on the topic of the carbon cycle and urban ecology.

    A recording of this past event can be accessed here. Additional details can be accessed here.

  • Anti-Asian Racism and Covid-19 | Dr. Jennifer Ho | 11-20-20

    The MSU Geography Graduate Group (Triple G) welcomed Dr. Jennifer Ho on Friday, November 20, 2020, during the Fall 2020 Colloquium series. Dr. Ho is the Director of the Center for Humanities & the Arts, Eaton Professor of Humanities and the Arts, and Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is also the president of the Association for Asian American Studies.

    A recording of this past event can be accessed here. Additional details and resources can be accessed here.

  • The White Unseen: Anti-Blackness in the Discipline of Geography | Dr. Aretina Rochelle Hamilton | 10-23-2020

    The MSU Geography Graduate Group (Triple G) welcomed Dr. Aretina Rochelle Hamilton. on Friday, October 23, 2020, during the Fall 2020 Colloquium series. Dr. Hamilton is the Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Interlochen Center for the Arts

    A recording of this past event can be accessed here. Additional details can be accessed here.

  • Erasing the Thin Blue Line: An Indigenous Proposal | Matthew LM Fletcher | 09-18-2020

    The MSU Geography Graduate Group (Triple G) welcomed Matthew LM Fletcher. on Friday, September 18, 2020, during the Fall 2020 Colloquium series. Professor Fletcher is a Foundation Professor with the MSU College of Law and the Director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center.

    A recording of this past event can be accessed here. Additional details and resources can be accessed here.

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