Kuruom vidyalaya: the Power of One in a Billion

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Portrait of Bal Ram Singh, Ph.D.In Korown, an Uttar Pradesh India farming village where little has changed for hundreds of years, a 21st century school opened its doors for the first time in July to 100 girls and boys in grades 1-4, 6, and 7. Kuruom vidyalaya is the bricks-and-mortar embodiment of the Hindu goddess Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, and testimony to one man’s spirit and commitment. That man is Bal Ram Singh, Ph.D., 51, once a child of the village and now a successful biophysical chemist at a U.S. university (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth) and director of its Center for Indic Studies, who built the school himself without government assistance. Deeply engaged as a Hindu, a family man, a professor, research scientist, and a U.S. citizen, he is also determined to prove that “one little man” can change the status-quo in India for the better.

La Vie de Josiane Zerubia: A Very Modern Woman of Science

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Cropped image of Josiane Zerubia Josiane Zerubia is a director of research, first class, at INRIA, the premiere French public research institute in applied mathematics and computer science. Her contributions to Markovian modeling in image processing and remote sensing were recognized by IEEE with her elevation to Fellow in 2003. But her story really begins in Cannes, France where she was taught at an early age by her mother Jeanne and grandmother Louise that she could do whatever she wanted if she worked hard enough. La Vie de Josiane Zerubia: A Modern Woman of Science begins here.

Forest Watch science and education strive to halt climate change

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Portrait Dr. Barrett N. ‰ÛÏBarry‰Û RockAs the international remote sensing community readies the 2009 IGARSS in Cape Town, South Africa this July, Earthzine recalls last summer’s conference in Boston, Massachusetts with this Featured Person interview with Dr. Barrett N. “Barry” Rock, professor of forestry, botany and remote sensing in the Complex Systems Research Center and the Department of Natural Resources at the University of New Hampshire. Barry Rock exemplifies IEEE’s mission to put science and technology to work for the benefit of humanity and Earth. He has “grown” a network of hundreds of students and teachers in Forest Watch, the outreach program he founded in 1991 in order to scientifically track the effects of U.S. efforts to diminish the damage of air pollution on human health and vegetation. In Boston, he demonstrated the Forest Watch model of university/K-12 partnership and IEEE scientific/community outreach at the 2008 IEEE International Geosciences and Remote Sensing Symposium.

Indigenous Perspectives in GEOSS: An Interview with Dr. Gregory Cajete

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Cropped image of Dr. Gregory CajeteEarthzine’s Editor-In-Chief Paul Racette speaks with Dr. Gregory Cajete – a Tewa Indian from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico and author of five books on Native American education, history and philosophy – about Native American science and the role Indigenous perspectives have in realizing an integrated Earth observing system.

Halting Biodiversity Loss: An Earthzine Conversation with Kalemani Joseph Mulongoy

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Cropped image of Kalemani Joseph MulongoyFor perspective on biodiversity loss and the data management challenges facing the CBD, Earthzine contributor Peter Fairley interviewed Kalemani Joseph Mulongoy by telephone at the CBD Secretariat in Montreal. Since 1999, Mr. Mulongoy has served as Principal Officer in charge of the Secretariat’s Scientific, Technical and Technological Matters Division.

Straight Talk on Climate Communication and Earth Observation: A conversation with Dr. Jerry Mahlman

EarthzineClimate, Feature, Featured Person, Original, People, Sections

Cropped image of Dr. Jerry MahlmanAn expert on the behavior of the upper atmosphere, Mahlman led the development of one of the first global climate models, for which he received the American Geophysical Union’s Carl-Gustav Rossby Medal, its highest honor. Mahlman chaired the Earth System Science and Applications Advisory Committee for NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth program in the 1990s and was involved in the founding of the IPCC; He created the so-called betting odds scheme used by IPCC to evaluate uncertainty and was a reviewer of the Working Group I report for IPCC’s 2007 assessment.