As climate warming stokes longer fire seasons and more severe fires in the North American boreal forest, being able to calculate how much carbon each fire burns grows more urgent. New research led by Northern Arizona University and published this week in Nature Climate Change suggests that how much carbon burns depends… Read more
College of the Environment, Forestry, and Natural Sciences
NAU scientists author papers in Nature Astronomy chronicling legacy of Spitzer Space Telescope
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, designed to study the early universe in infrared light, was the first telescope to see light from a planet outside our solar system. Launched in 2003, Spitzer contained infrared detectors of unprecedented sensitivity, providing astronomers a never-before-possible look at the universe.
Spitzer made important discoveries about comets, stars, exoplanets and distant galaxies. Decommissioned earlier this year—11 years beyond its prime… Read more
NAU planetary astronomer co-authors studies of asteroid Bennu as member of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft mission, launched on Sept. 8, 2016, is the first U.S. mission designed to retrieve a pristine sample of an asteroid and return it to Earth for further study. The mission’s target is Bennu, a carbon-rich near-Earth asteroid that is potentially hazardous, representing… Read more
NAU researchers receive grants for health equity work in the local community
Northern Arizona University’s Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative (SHERC) awarded research grants through its Pilot Project Program totaling $240,000 to four NAU faculty investigators conducting health equity research in the local community.
This year’s award recipients are NAU professors Emery Eaves, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, Catrin Edgeley, assistant professor in the School of Forestry, Regina Eddie, assistant professor… Read more
NAU’s Ecological Restoration Institute to lead new center aimed at building a skilled workforce to help with forest management
A new program from Northern Arizona University aims to increase forest health and contribute to a growing resilient economy in Coconino County in one fell swoop.
Han-Sup Han, a professor of forestry and director of forest operations and biomass utilization at the Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI) at NAU, is the principal investigator on a $350,000 grant from the… Read more
NAU scientist Frank von Hippel connects famine, pandemics, war and ecology in new book, The Chemical Age
From pesticides to chemical weapons, from marshlands to battlefields, Frank von Hippel, ecotoxicology professor in the Northern Arizona University Department of Biological Sciences, traces the efforts of scientists to end famine and plagues, and to wage war, in his new book, The Chemical Age: How Chemists Fought Famine and Disease, Killed Millions, and Changed Our Relationship with the Earth, which was recently published by University of… Read more