2018

LSU CNH Research Team Collaborates with East China Normal University To Study Mega-Delta Resilience

December 2, 2018

In collaboration with the LSU NSF Coupled Natural-Human System project (PI: Lam), colleagues from the East China Normal University have recently received a grant from China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) for a 3-year project, titled “A Comparative Study on Mega-Delta Erosion Hazard and Adaptation Measures in China and USA”. Award amount is $3.7 million RMB (US $576,000). Investigators from the LSU group include Professors Nina Lam, Kam-biu Liu (Oceanography and Coastal Sciences), and Yi-Jun Xu (School of Renewable Natural Resources).

Mihunov Awarded Travel Funds, Participates in AAAS Student E-poster Competition

February 18, 2018

Mihunov, Volodymyr, PhD candidate, Environmental Science, 2018. Received a travel award of $1,000 by the South-Central Climate Science Center to attend 2018 AAAS Meeting Austin TX, Feb. 2018. His participation in AAAS Student E-poster Competition included 3-minute lightning talk on community resilience to drought hazard in front of AAAS judges and poster session audience.

Dr. Lam Receives the NSF "RAPID" Grant to Study the Role of Social Media During Hurricane Harvey

January 9, 2018

Texas Army National Guard aids citizens in areas flooded by Hurricane Harvey, Aug. 27, 2017. Photo Credit: U.S. Army National Guard, 1st Lt. Zachary West

Dr. Lam receives a new research grant from NSF. The grant, titled “RAPID: The changing roles of social media in disaster resilience: The case of Hurricane Harvey”, is an interdisciplinary project with co-PIs from CCT and other disciplines. Co-PIs are: Michelle Meyer (Sociology), Seung-Jong Park (CCT and Computer Science), Margaret Reams (Environmental Sciences), Seungwon Yang (CCT & Information Science), and Kisung Lee (Computer Science). Updates on the research progress were recently published by LSU CC&E Media Center.

2017

Dr. Lam's Article in "The Conversation" Recieves Media Attention

August 29, 2017

Dr. Lam published an article titled “Americans who live far from coasts should also be worried about flooding” in The Conservation on August 28, 2017, right after Hurricane Harvey flooded Huston. The article, which is based on an academic article authored with postdoctoral research associate Dr. Yi Qiang and graduate students, generated media coverage such as by: The Washington Post: “Moving away from the coasts doesn’t mean you’re safe from flooding”, PBS: “Why moving inland might not keep you safe from floods”, National Science Foundation: “Study reveals America’s most flood-vulnerable communities”, Radio Talk Show in New York: “Climate change: Are we adapting?”.

Podcast: “Climate change: Are we adapting?” (Duration: 42:44)

Zou Attends CESM Tutorial at University of Colorado, Boulder

August 18, 2017, Boulder, CO

PhD candidate Lei Zou has been selected to attend the 2017 CESM Tutorial held at University of Colorado in Boulder. CESM stands for the Community Earth System Model, it is a fully-coupled, community, global climate model that provides state-of-the-art computer simulations of the Earth's past, present, and future climate states'. The project is sponsored by NSF and US Department of Energy, and maintained by NCAR.

Cai, Mihunov, and Zou Awarded Travel Funds, Present at the 2017 International Cartographic Conference

July 7, 2017, Washington, DC

PhD candidates Heng Cai, Volodymyr Mihunov, and Lei Zou received a travel award of $1,000 each to present a paper at the International Cartographic Conference (ICC2017), held at Washington DC, July 2017.

Cai and Mihunov Awarded Travel Funds, Attend UCGIS Summer School and Symposium. Mihunov Wins in Poster Competition

May 25, 2017, Arlington, VA

PhD candidates Heng Cai and Volodymyr Mihunov were selected to receive a travel award of $2,000 each to attend the UCGIS Summer School on Collaborative Problem Solving with CyberGIS and Geospatial Data Science, held at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and UCGIS Symposium held at Arlington, VA, May 2017. Mihunov received the People’s Choice award ($500) for his poster presented at the UCGIS symposium. His poster, coauthored with students and earlier career scientists from different universities, is titled “Food, Water, and Energy Nexus: The Impact of Climate Change on Agricultural Productivity”.

Li Receives Honorable Research Awards at 2017 ABM Symposium

April 22, 2014, San Diego, CA

Dr. Kenan Li, one of the first two PhD graduates in Environmental Science (Fall 2015) and is currently postdoctoral research associate with the Keck School of Medicine at University of Southern California. His poster presentation in the Agent-Based Modeling Conference (ABM 2017) in San Diego, April 2017, has received both the PEA award and the ABM2017 Star award. Kenan is the only early scientist to receive both awards. His poster is titled “ABShape: An Open-Source Python Platform for Agent Based Modeling and Simulation”.

Cai Receives Jeanne X. Kasperson Award at 2017 AAG Annual Meeting

April 8, 2017, Boston, MA

Cai, Heng, PhD candidate, received the AAG Hazards, Risk, and Disasters Specialty Group's Jeanne X. Kasperson Award for her presentation at the AAG meeting, April 8, 2017. Paper title is: “Modeling the dynamics of resilience using a Bayesian network: the case in the Lower Mississippi River Basin”.

Qiang Joins Faculty of University of Hawaii

January, 2017

Dr. Yi Qiang, a postdoctoral research associate with Dr. Nina Lam for 3.5 years, joined the Department of Geography at University of Hawaii at Manoa as a tenure-track assistant professor in January 2017.

2016

Zou Awarded With Two Prestigious Research Stipends From LSU Graduate Dean

December, 2016

Zou, Lei, PhD candidate, Environmental Science, received two highly competitive research stipends from LSU Graduate Dean in one year. Zou was awarded the LSU Graduate Dean’s Summer 2016 Research Stipend, $4,000, and the LSU Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Year Assistantships (one of the four students received in a university-wide competition). 01/01/17-06/30/17. $12,600.

Dr. Lam Receives Inaugural UCGIS Carolyn Merry Mentoring Award

September, 2016

Dr. Lam is the recipient of the 2016 inaugural UCGIS Carolyn Merry Mentoring Award. According to the UCGIS website, the award is given to an individual who has demonstrated exceptional mentoring abilities and practices. Please see UCGIS website for more details.

Dr. Lam Inducted as UCGIS Fellow

September, 2016

Dr. Lam was inducted as a Fellow of UCGIS. The UCGIS Fellows Program honors members of the geospatial community who have extraordinary records of accomplishments. They have demonstrated exemplary competence to:

• Advance research in the field of Geographic Information Science;
• Expand and strengthen Geographic Information Science education;
• Advocate policies for the promotion of the ethical use of and access to geographic information technologies;
• Build scholarly communities and networks to foster multi-disciplinary GIS research and education.

Please see UCGIS website for more details.

Dr. Lam Receives NSF Grant to Study Social Media and Disaster Resilience

August 2, 2016

Dr. Lam receives a research grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The grant, titled "Understanding Social and Geographical Disparities in Disaster Resilience through Social Media," is LSU's first NSF funded grant to involve collaboration between social and computer scientists at the Center for Computing Technology (CCT). Please see the announcement “CC&E Receives NSF Interdisciplinary Grant” (p.5) and NSF award page.

Previous Years

Dr. Lam Joins Interdisciplinary Research Team to Study Coastal Resilience

September 1, 2014

Dr. Lam is a co-PI of an interdisciplinary NSF funded project led by Dr. Robert Twilley (Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences). The project is titled “ Coastal SEES collaborative research: Changes in actual and perceived coastal flood risks due to river management strategies.” For more details, please check NSF website.

RSGIS Lab Collaborates with Climate Science and Policy Adaptation Researchers to Study Drought

August 12, 2014

Dr. Lam, Dr. Margaret Reams, and Dr. Robert Rohli received a grant from the USGS South-Central Climate Science Center for a project titled “Community resilience to drought hazard: An analysis of drought exposure, impacts, and adaptation in south-central United States." Please see Research project page for more details, and the two publications (Mihunov et al. 2018; Rohli et al. 2017)

Dr. Lam and Dr. Qiang Recieve Louisiana Sea Grant Funding to Study Resilience Measurement Methods

December 2, 2014

Dr. Lam (PI) and post-doctoral research associate Dr. Yi Qiang received a grant from Louisiana Sea Grant College for a project titled “A synthesis of resilience measurement methods and indices.”

Update Oct 2018: An article bearing the same title has been published in International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction (2018, by Heng Cai, Nina Lam, Yi Qiang, Lei Zou, Rachel Correll, and Volodymyr Mihunov).

Dr. Lam and Dr. Liu Contribute Commentary on the Oscar-nominated Film

February 28, 2013

As part of the media outreach, PI Lam and Co-PI Liu contributed commentaries on the film "Beasts of the Southern Wild", which was nominated for several awards including the Best Picture award in the 2013 Academy Award Ceremony. The commentary titled "Run Wild" was featured on LSU website. Lam's commentary was on "Building Resilience", while Liu's commentary focused on "Climate Change and Stronger Storms".

Dr. Lam and Co-PIs Awarded with $1.5 Million NSF Research Grant

October 2, 2012

Dr. Lam and several LSU Faculty have been awarded $1.5 million to study coastal resilience of the Mississippi River Delta (see the archived LSU press release, and the webpage for more details).