News

  • October 21, 2024
    decorative image from the publication of two stick figure people and a stick figure representation of a termite, with their gut microbes highlighted with an inset
    new article published

    Dr. Stack Whitney recently published an article, Thinking with Termites about Fractious Futures for Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in the United States, in the journal Catalyst: feminism, theory, technoscience. Read it here.

  • August 19, 2024
    decorative image of RECIPES project logo
    new publication

    The RECIPES network, which the SWEET Col(LAB) is a part of, has just published its Guiding Principles and Community Norms document, on the values and commitments guiding the network in its work on wasted food. Read it here.

  • August 1, 2024
    an Asian person with curly short hair and glasses smiling in front of a large format printed poster with images and text about their summer research about campus bees
    Zale presents at RIT URS

    Congrats to Zale on their great presentation about their summer research fellowship work on campus bees and landscaping practices to the annual RIT Undergraduate Research Symposium! This work was a collaboration with the Bahlai Lab at Kent State University.

  • July 13, 2024
    decorative image of white clover
    new pre-print posted

    As a collaborator on the Global Urban Evolution (GLUE) project, Dr. Stack Whitney is part of the team with a new pre-print (Structural variants underlie parallel adaptation following global invasion) posted about this work. The article is currently submitted for peer review.

  • May 17, 2024
    decorative image of food waste
    new article published

    Congratulations to Col(LAB) member Hannah DeFelice on her recently published article ("Understanding Electric Composting Machines as a Potential Household Food Waste Management Strategy") about electric composting machines - and how they compare to other composting methods! Read it here.

  • May 17, 2024
    decorative image of table of 9 steps that local governments can take to address food waste - the table version is in the paper linked to in the post
    new article published

    Congrats to Col(LAB) members Rodhy V and Maddie T on the publication of their article ("Most Public School Districts in Rochester, NY and Albany, NY Metro Regions Not Currently Composting to Manage Wasted Food") about school districts composting in NY! Read it here.

  • May 10, 2024
    decorative image of RIT logo with just letters RIT
    congrats, grads!

    All our well wishes and congratulations to the Col(LAB) members graduating with their Bachelors degrees this weekend! Congrats to Maddie T, Lauren W, Kas C, Kaitlyn C and Hannah D! We are so excited to cheer you onto your next adventures!

  • April 26, 2024
    decorative image of Local Government Lab 2024 logo
    new presentation

    Dr. Stack Whitney recently presented ongoing collaborative research on school districts managing food waste, co-authored with Col(LAB) members Kas, Maddie T, Maddie H, Jordan J, Lauren W, and former Col(LAB) member Rodhy V, at the 2024 Local Government Lab symposium in Albany, NY. The annual event is hosted by the SUNY Rockefeller Institute for Government, a public policy think tank. 

  • April 29, 2024
    decorative image of the front of the NTID LBJ building
    new award

    Dr. Stack Whitney was recently awarded the 2024-2025 NTID Ronald D. Dodge Memorial Endowment Fund grant. This will support collaboration with a student on an upcoming project, focused on assessing ableism strategies in biology and environmental textbooks and course packs used on campus. The larger goal of the project is help provide information and training to faculty on inclusive biology/environmental science teaching strategies that do not rely on deficit frameworks for disability, bodymind differences, and biodiversity.

  • April 12, 2024
    decorative logo of AESS
    new presentation

    Col(LAB) members Maddie T, Jordan J, Maddie H, and Kaitlyn C presented their research in progress today for the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences 2024 AESS Student Research Symposium. Congrats to them on a job well done! Learn more about the conference here.

  • March 28, 2024
    decorative image of a ladybug squished on a yellow glue trap card
    new article published

    Dr. Stack Whitney and Dr. Whitney have a new article out in the latest issue of Environmental HumanitiesSquished Bugs: Teaching and Learning Reflexivity in Ecology. Read it here.

  • March 12, 2024
    decorative photo of white clover in bloom
    new article published

    As part of the global GLUE project and network, Dr. Stack Whitney is a co-author on a new paper out today, Does urbanisation lead to parallel demographic shifts across the world in a cosmopolitan plant?, led by Dr. Aude Caizergues at the University of Toronto - Mississauga. Read it here.

     

     

  • March 2, 2024
    a nonbinary person with blonde hair in a dark suit standing next to a research poster at a conference
    Erika presents at EPA conference

    Erika Mitchell, current STS Aberg research fellow, recently presented their research on worldviews and environmental attitudes at the Eastern Psychological Association 2024 conference in Philadelphia, PA. 

  • February 28, 2024
    decorative image of study site map of NY
    new presentation

    Dr. Stack Whitney presented on the Col(LAB)orative's work over the past 5 years on roadside ecology and environmental humanities in practice to the RIT life science seminar series.

  • November 16, 2023
    decorative photo of a student walking in a roadside
    final report online

    The final report for roadside research focused on the impacts of reduced mowing on pollinating insects and vegetation, led by Dr. Stack Whitney in collaboration with many current and former student colleagues, conducted 2019 through 2022 is now online. Read it here.

  • November 5, 2023
    two people in dark clothes and glasses (Maddie and Rodhy) smile at the camera, standing with their research poster between them
    col(LAB) students present at RAS conference

    Maddie, Rodhy, Erika, and Hannah all presented research in progress at the Rochester Academy of Sciences annual paper session, held November 4 at RIT. Great job! Learn more about the RAS annual conference here.

  • October 20, 2023
    decorative image of RIT logo
    congrats to Erika on Aberg fellowship

    Col(LAB) member Erika has been awarded the Fall 2023 RIT STS Aberg fellowship, to continue their research and present at several upcoming conferences. Congratulations, Erika! Learn more about the STS Department Aberg fellowship here.

  • October 17, 2023
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    new media coverage

    Nature News has written about the reproducibility study, Many EcoEvo Analysts, that Dr. Stack Whitney is a co-author on. The study is currently under review. Read the news article here and the preprint here.

  • October 4, 2023
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    new pre-print posted

    Dr. Stack Whitney is a co-author on a new pre-print, Same data, different analysts: variation in effect sizes due to analytical decisions in ecology and evolutionary biology. The work is a global collaboration to understand variation in how scientists approach analyzing and peer reviewing data, with implications for understanding the reproducibility crisis. Read it here.

  • August 24, 2023
    decorative images of ladybugs from previous manuscript
    podcast interview

    Dr. Stack Whitney was recently interviewed by Joe Lamp'l's gardening podcast about her recent Catalyst article on ladybugs, militarized rhetoric in pest control, and the slippery slopes of villianizing 'non-native.' Check out the episode here.

  • August 3, 2023
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    Erika presents at RIT research symposium

    Erika Mitchell, current STS Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, presented their findings in progress at the RIT Undergraduate Research Symposium today. Learn more about the RIT undergraduate research symposium here.

  • June 20, 2023
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    new media quote

    Dr. Stack Whitney was recently interviewed by WROC about local concern for perceived insect declines. Read/watch it here.

  • June 12, 2023
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    new media quote

    Dr. Stack Whitney's recent scholarship on militarized home and garden pest control was featured in the RIT News. Read the RIT News article here.  Read the Catalyst research article it's based on here.

  • May 17, 2023
    decorative image of RIT tiger logo
    congratulations, graduates!

    Congratulations to current and former Col(LAB) members who graduated this spring, including Rowan Christie (BS Bioinformatics), Ariella Knight (MFA Industrial Design), Claire Corbasson (BS, Environmental Sustainability Health and Safety), and Pema Lama (BS Sociology & Anthropology)! We are so excited to see what they get up to in the future. 

  • April 24, 2023
    decorative image of Dr Stack Whitney in a handmade mask during 2020 pandemic fieldwork
    new public scholarship published

    Dr. Stack Whitney recently published an article, "Bugs in My Basement Freezer: And Other COVID-Conscious Changes to Pollinator Field Research," in the TR News magazine, published by the National Academies of Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering Transportation Research Board. The article focuses on the challenges and successes of conducting essential research through the pandemic. Learn more about TR News magazine here and the issue here.

  • April 21, 2023
    decorative image of food waste
    Hannah presents at research fair

    Col(LAB) member Hannah DeFelice presented her research results in progress at the NTID Student Research Fair this morning. She has been studying the environmental impacts of tabletop electric composting machines, such as heat and smell pollution, and comparing the results to those from other approaches to manage household waste. You can learn more about all the presenters here, read Hannah and other students' abstracts here, and learn more about the RECIPES wasted food network team and projects here.

  • April 5, 2023
    decorative image of a cluster of ladybugs
    new article published

    Dr. Stack Whitney has a new article published, as part of a special section on the 'Domesticities of War' in the journal Catalyst: feminism, theory, technoscience. Read the whole special section and issue here.

  • April 4, 2023
    decorative logo of NYS Organics Summit meeting
    Maddie presents at NYS Organics Summit

    Col(LAB) student Maddie T is presenting ongoing NSF-funded RECIPES research in progress at the annual NYS Organics Summit, hosted by the New York State Association for Reduction, Reuse, and Recycling. Learn more about RECIPES here.

  • February 27, 2023
    decorative image of an experimental milkweed plant
    new article published

    Dr. Stack Whitney, as part of the MAREN collaboration led by Dr. Emily Mohl, have a new article "Common milkweed seeds exhibit latitudinal clines more consistent with adaptation to growing season length than temperature" published today in Restoration Ecology. Read it here.

  • February 17. 2023
    decorative logo of RIT tiger
    congrats to Pema!

    Please join us in celebrating Pema, who has been named an Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar in the RIT College of Liberal Arts! More on the award and all awardees here.

  • February 10, 2023
    decorative image of an experimental milkweed plant
    new article accepted

    As part of the MAREN collaboration, Dr. Stack Whitney and colleagues led by Dr. Emily Mohl have had an article, "Common milkweed seeds exhibit latitudinal clines more consistent with adaptation to growing season length than temperature" accepted in Restoration Ecology.

  • February 8, 2023
    decorative image of a pollinating insect on a flower
    new op-ed published

    Dr. Stack Whitney published an op-ed, "How local governments can protect bees," in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle newspaper on February 5 print edition.

  • December 16, 2022
    decorative image of roadsides
    new presentation

    Dr. Stack Whitney was an invited panelist for the Rights of Way as Habitat Working Group recent Research Roundtable on habitat management on December 7, presenting on the ongoing experimental highway roadside work across the state, which is supported by grants from UTRC and the deCoizart foundation. Watch it here.

  • December 5, 2022
    decorative image of rainbow shaded stick people
    new preprint posted

    Dr. Stack Whitney, in collaboration with coauthors from Kent State University, has just published a new preprint explaining the results of their examination of how "open access" journals incorporate disability accessibility. They found most "open" journals are not including best known accessibility considerations for multimodal representation of information. Read the whole pre-print here. Learn more about the broader project, on barriers to reproducible science and knowledge, here.

  • November 18, 2022
    decorative logo of NEON that also says 'Open Data'
    new article published

    Dr. Stack Whitney and many co-authors just published the article 'People, infrastructure, and data: A pathway to an inclusive and diverse ecological network of networks' in Ecosphere. This work emerged out of the 2019 NEON (National Ecological Observation Network) science summit, and explores how a network of networks may bring people and data together to learn more about the environment. Dr. Stack Whitney's contributions focused on accessibility and inclusion. Read it here.

  • November 8, 2022
    decorative image of the book cover for 'Turn on the Words'
    new article published

    Dr. Stack Whitney reviewed the recent book Turn on the Words!: Deaf Audiences, Captions, and the Long Struggle for Access by Dr. Harry Lang, emeritus professor of RIT/NTID for the journal Disability and Society. It's about the critical role of deaf professionals and grassroots advocates in the history of captioned media in the US. Read the review here

  • October 19, 2022
    decorative image of SUNY Rockefeller Institute logo
    new public scholarship published

    Dr. Stack Whitney just published a write up for the SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government on the potential benefits and limitations of the new FDA rule on over the counter hearing aids - and the policy patchwork and history that got the US to this point. Read it here.

  • October 20, 2022
    decorative image of the edited volume book cover
    new book chapter published

    Dr. Kristoffer Whitney and Dr. Kaitlin Stack Whitney's work on (in)accessible media for deaf/signing children during the COVID-19 pandemic is now a chapter in an edited volume Children and Media Research and Practice during the Crises of 2020 from Routledge. Learn more here.

  • October 19, 2022
    decorative image showing study parameters tested in the new paper
    new article published

    Former collab member and NTID/RIT RISE fellow Rowan Christie is lead author with Dr. Stack Whitney and Kent State colleagues on a newly published paper in PeerJ, examining how study parameters shape the conclusions researchers may draw about black-legged tick populations. Black-legged ticks are vectors of Lyme disease, a critical and growing public health concern. Read the paper here. Learn more about the overall NSF-funded project here. Learn more about the NTID/RIT RISE program here.

  • September 28, 2022
    decorative image, logo of the Sustainable Finger lakes org
    new presentation

    Dr. Stack Whitney presented on roadside solar and renewable energy as part of the Sustainable Finger Lakes webinar series. Learn more here (recording to be posted and slides posted next week). Some of the work presented was part of her Nathan Public Policy Fellowship, through the SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government. Learn more here.

  • September 21, 2022
    decorative image of Ariella, a smiling white woman in glasses
    new blog post by Ariella

    Ariella Knight has published a new blog post for the RECIPES network, about her collaboration with Claire Corbasson this summer, using convergence methods to tackle wasted food. Learn more about Ariella's work here.

  • September 12, 2022
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    new presentation

    Col(LAB) members Ariella and Dr. Stack Whitney presented "Preventing and Reducing Wasted Food in Counties, Towns, and Villages—Case Studies from the Rochester and Albany Metro Regions" at the Locally Sourced: Municipal Green Policy Solutions event, hosted by SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government / SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry, on Friday Sept 9. This presentation was co-authored with Claire, about ongoing research as part of the RECIPES convergence network. Learn more about the conference here and more about the RECIPES network here.

     

  • August 17, 2022
    decorative illustration of deer potentially crossing roads
    Hannah presents at ESA/CSEE

    Hannah presented her ongoing research on animal-related collisions associated with highway roadside restoration for pollinators at the joint Ecological Society of America / Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution on August 17 in Montreal, Quebec. Learn more about the meeting here.

  • August 13, 2022
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    Hannah presents research at DeafRoc

    Hannah, col(lab) member and current U-RISE research fellow, presented research in progress about roadside pollinator habitat and animal related vehicle collisions at the Deaf/HH Scientists Roc conference (DeafRoc), hosted by NTID and the University of Rochester on August 11 and 12 this week. Learn more about the event here. Learn more about U-RISE at RIT here.

  • August 2, 2022
    two white RIT students touch the biopolymers on Claire's research poster
    congrats to Claire and Hannah!

    Congratulations to Claire and Hannah, who presented their summer research at the RIT Undergraduate Research Symposium on July 28, 2022. More on the URS session here.

  • July 15, 2022
    decorative image of a yellow box with the words 'oral history' in black
    new public scholarship published

    Seth Jones (2022 RIT graduate and colLAB alum) just published his oral history collection, resulting from his STS Aberg Family Fellowship with Dr. Stack Whitney as his mentor. Seth collected oral histories of Great Lakes marathon swimmers. Listen to and/or read the oral history collection here.

  • May 26, 2022
    decorative image of the SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government Logo
    new podcast episode

    Dr. Stack Whitney, as part of her ongoing Nathan Public Policy fellowship through the Rockefeller Institute of Government, was recently interviewed for the Policy Outsider podcast. Listen and/or read the transcript here.

  • May 17, 2022
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    new article published

    Col(LAB)orative member Seth Jones, currently the RIT STS Department Aberg family fellow, has recently published a piece in Arcadia. Read it here.

  • May 13, 2022
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    new blog post published

    As part of her ongoing Richard P. Nathan public policy fellowship for the Rockefeller Institute of Government, Dr. Stack Whitney has a new analysis and blog post published on the many potential innovative uses of state highway roadside right-of-ways (ROWs). Read it here

  • May 6, 2022
    decorative image of the RIT tiger logo - tiger looks fierce and is roaring
    congratulations, graduates!

    Several student collaborators are graduating this week! Congratulations to Thomas Murphy, Seth Jones, and Alexandra Bros!

  • April 19, 2022
    decorative image of logo of the Second Annual Global Humanities Conference PostCOVID19 and the Human Spirit
    Seth presents at RIT Global Humanities Conference

    2022 Aberg Fellow Seth Jones presented his ongoing fellowship research, a project collecting oral histories of Great Lakes marathon swimmers, to the second annual Global Humanities Conference hosted by RIT. More on the conference here.

  • April 14, 2022
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    workshop participation

    Dr. Stack Whitney was competitively selected to participate in the National Science Foundation workshop "Using the Rules of Life to Address Societal Challenges," focused on Stewarding an Integrated Biodiversity-Climate System.  Learn more about the NSF Rules of Life program and workshops here.

  • March 21, 2022
    decorative image of the cover of Science magazine with a close up of white clover
    GLUE results and RIT team featured in WROC

    The RIT team, including Dr. Stack Whitney, that collaborated on the GLobal Urban Evolution (GLUE) project was featured in WROC local news. Read/watch it here.

  • March 17, 2022
    decorative image of the cover of Science magazine with a close up of white clover
    new article published

    Dr. Stack Whitney and 5 RIT former students are co-authors on a new article published today, on the cover of Science, as part of the Global Urban Evolution Project led by Marc Johnson's lab at the University of Toronto. Learn more about the project here. Learn more about white clover here, from Dr. Stack Whitney's Plant Love Story piece. 

  • March 1, 2022
    decorative image of Josh, a white man in glasses
    Josh interviewed for RIT reporter magazine

    ColLAB alum Joshua Greene (MS 2021, Environmental Science) was recently interviewed for the RIT Reporter magazine about their thesis research, for an article on redlining and greenlining in Rochester. Read it here - and read the open version of Josh's thesis here.

  • March 1, 2022
    decorative image of Alyssa, a white woman with glasses
    new article published

    MS graduate Alyssa Schoenfeldt (BS 2021, MS 2021 Environmental Science) and Dr. Stack Whitney have published a new article in Northeastern Naturalist, examining bumble bee abundance in highway roadside habitats, across a range of traffic and mowing levels. Read it here.

  • February 8, 2022
    decorative photo of a highway roadside
    new grant awarded

    Dr. Stack Whitney was recently awarded a $92,239 2-year grant from the Sarah K. de Coizart Article TENTH Perpetual Charitable Trust, focused on assessing NY highway roadside management for pollinating insect habitat, with a focus on monarch butterflies. Learn more about the trust here.

  • January 11, 2022
    A white man with brown hair and a white lab coat stands in front of a brick building smiling
    welcome to Seth!

    Seth Jones was recently awarded the 2022 Aberg Family Fellowship in Science, Technology and Society! Congratulations to Seth. He'll be using his fellowship to conduct environmental history research on open water swimming in the Great Lakes, supervised by Dr. Stack Whitney. Learn more about the Aberg fellowship here.

  • January 5, 2022
    decorative image of PloS Computational Biology 10 Simple Rules series logo
    new article published

    Dr. Stack Whitney, with collaborators led by Dr. Jessica Burnett, recently published a new article, "Ten Simple Rules for Creating a Scientific Web Application" in PLOS Computational Biology. Read it here

  • December 20, 2021
    Logo of NEON open data initiative, decorative image
    new article published

    Dr. Stack Whitney is one of ~90 authors of a new article, Harnessing the NEON data revolution to advance open environmental science with a diverse and data-capable community, in the journal Ecosphere. This work comes out of the NEON Science Summit back in 2019, which Dr. Stack Whitney was competitively selected to attend. Read it here. More articles should be coming out in the special feature soon.

  • November 28, 2021
    Logo of open educational resources
    new article accepted

    Dr. Stack Whitney, along with collaborators across the US in the Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN) and National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), have a new article forthcoming in the winter issue Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America on their flexible learning modules using NEON data, designed for in person, remote, or hy-flex learners. Learn more about the modules here.

  • October 18, 2021
    Decorative headshot image of Joshua Greene, a white man wearing glasses
    congrats to Josh on new job!

    Congratulations to lab alum, Joshua Greene (MS 2021), on accepting a new job as an environmental planner! Learn more about his graduate work here.

  • October 5, 2021
    a white hand in a blue glove is handling food scraps
    new grant awarded

    Dr. Stack Whitney is one of 7 RIT faculty and 40 researchers around the US that are part of the new Wasted Food Network, a $15 million dollar new project funded by the National Science Foundation. Learn more here and here.

  • September 22, 2021
    Logo of open educational resources
    Dr. Stack Whitney presents at Metascience2021

    Dr. Stack Whitney is presenting a lightning talk on accessibility in open science at the international Metascience 2021 conference Thursday (9/23) evening. More on the session here. More on the overall conference here.

  • September 22, 2021
    decorative image of a researcher walking in a highway roadside
    Dr. Stack Whitney presents at ICOET 2021

    Dr. Stack Whitney is presenting at the ICOET (International Conference on Ecology and Transportation) 2021 conference. For a limited time, you can watch her captioned presentation here.  More on the conference here.

  • April 2, 2021
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    new conference report available

    The write up of the 2019 EDSIN conference, Bringing Conversations on Diversity and Inclusion in Data Science to the Ecological and Environmental Sciences, is now available on QUBES. Dr. Stack Whitney is a co-author and presented at the conference. Read it here.

  • September 15, 2021
    Logo of open educational resources
    new dataset published

    Dr. Stack Whitney, in collaborator with participants in the EREN-NEON Flexible Learning Projects 'Backyard Beetles + Pollinators' project, has published a dataset of insect floral visitation. This dataset can be used for teaching or by other researchers. Explore it here - and learn more about the larger project here.

  • September 8, 2021
    decorative picture of Amanda
    congrats to Amanda on her new job!

    Amanda has accepted and will soon start a new job as a Life Scientist for the EPA Region 1 Office, working on brownfield issues. Congrats, Amanda!

  • August 18, 2021
    decorative image of Rochester NY highways
    new pre-print

    Josh Greene, recent MS alum, has a new pre-print up based on his thesis research: "Examining the associations between neighborhood socioeconomic status and the potential distribution of four urban ecosystem services in Rochester, NY."  Read it here.

  • August 18, 2021
    logo of the SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government
    Dr. Stack Whitney selected as Nathan Public Policy Fellow

    Dr. Stack Whitney has been selected as a 2021 Richard P. Nathan Public Policy Fellow by the SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government. She will focus on US state environmental initiatives in roadsides. Read more on the fellows and their proposed work for 2021-2022 here.

  • August 13, 2021
    photo of a tall wildflower area along a road
    new publication

    Dr. Stack Whitney has published an encyclopedia entry titled "Wild Bee Conservation in North American Roadside Rights of Way" for Imperiled: The Encyclopedia of Conservation. Read it here.


  • Logo of open educational resources
    new blog post published

    Jay has published a new blog post on their ongoing summer research, as part of the larger NSF-funded EAGER project led by Dr. Christie Bahlai at Kent State University and Dr. Stack Whitney, focused on examining (in)accessibility as a barrier to reproducible science. Read it here.

  • July 1, 2021
    illustration of colored stick figure bodies to represent diversity
    new paper published

    Dr. Stack Whitney and colleagues from across the US have published a new paper "Examining cultural structures and functions in biology" in the journal Integrative & Comparative Biology. This work resulted from selection and participation in an NSF-workshop on integrating biology subfields - and this group focused on cultural and structural barriers to integrating biology. Read it here.

  • July 1, 2021
    Photo of a reduced mowing highway roadside
    Dr. Stack Whitney presents at SEB

    Dr. Stack Whitney presented a poster as part of the Open Electronics session in the Society for Experimental Biology annual conference. An archived version of the poster is here.

  • June 29, 2021
    illustration of NEON infrastructure, decorative image
    new paper accepted

    Dr. Stack Whitney was part of the NEON Science Summit - which has led to a special issue forthcoming in Ecosphere. As part of that issue, she is part of a large team that has a now accepted article "Harnessing the NEON Data Revolution to Advance Open Environmental Science with a Diverse and Data-Capable Community."

  • June 22, 2021
    decorative image of an algorithm output - just to illustrate computation
    new blog post

    Dr. Stack Whitney, as part of the NSF-funded EAGER with Dr. Christie Bahlai at Kent State University, has a new blog post up about one of their ongoing projects focused on understanding and unpacking claims about insect declines. Read it here.

  • June 16, 2021
    map of US states corresponding to figure 1 in the preprint
    new pre-print posted

    Dr. Stack Whitney, in collaboration with now-alumna Briana Burt Stringer, have just published a new pre-print analyzing whether the US state pollinator plans use best practices for evidence based policymaking. Read it here - and find the published open source dataset here.

  • June 9, 2021
    Logo of Rockefeller Institute Local Government Lab event
    Dr. Stack Whitney presents at SUNY forum

    Dr. Stack Whitney presented at the SUNY Rockefeller Institute for Government 'Local Government Lab' on "Evaluation of US state pollinator plans using 3 frameworks for evidence-based policymaking." Learn more about the event here. Presentations are captioned and will be archived online.

  • June 5, 2021
    decorative image of an algorithm
    new paper published

    Dr. Stack Whitney and colleagues, led by Dr. Christine A. Bahlai at Kent State University, have a new paper published in Ecological Informatics. This article and associated methods tackle thorny issues about using short term ecological studies for long term inference. Read it here. 

  • May 28, 2021
    decorative image of an algorithm
    article accepted

    Dr. Stack Whitney and colleagues from across the US have a forthcoming article ("The Broken Window: An algorithm for quantifying and characterizing misleading trajectories in ecological processes") in the journal Ecological Informatics. Led by Dr. Christie Bahlai at Kent State University, this work is part of an NSF-funded EAGER collaboration. Learn more about the project here.

  • May 12, 2021
    RIT tiger logo
    congratulations, graduates!

    Many SWEET Col(LAB) members and former members are graduating this week! Congratulations to Virginia (BS 2021), Matthew (BS 2021), Jacob (BS 2021), Alyssa (BS 2021, MS 2021), Josh (MS 2021), Madison (BS 2021), and Amanda (MS 2021)!  You can watch the festivities remotely - more info here.

  • April 30, 2021
    decorative image of Alyssa thesis poster announcement
    Alyssa successfully defends her MS thesis

    Congratulations to Alyssa for the successful defense of her MS thesis research on April 30, on the impacts of road traffic and roadside mowing on insect pollinator habitat quality and bumble bee abundance in New York highway roadsides. She will graduate with both her BS and MS degrees this month! 

  • April 26, 2021
    image of Josh's thesis defense poster for decorative purposes
    congrats to Josh on passing his defense!

    Josh passed his oral and written thesis defense on Friday April 23. Congratulations to Josh on the successful defense and completion of his Masters degree requirements and research! He will walk in the Spring 2021 graduation ceremonies next month.

  • April 21, 2021
    decorative image of Josh thesis poster, details are in the post
    Josh defends thesis on Friday

    Josh is giving his public seminar on his Masters thesis research, titled "Examining the associations between neighborhood socioeconomic status and the potential distribution of four urban ecosystem services in Rochester, NY" on Zoom (meeting ID: 912 4139 1307, email for password) this Friday afternoon (April 23) at 12:30pm. 

  • April 15, 2021
    decorative screenshot of the STGLobal conference April 15 lineup
    Josh presents at STGlobal conference

    Josh presented some of his thesis findings to STGlobal conference, a national graduate student conference focused on science and technology policy and STS. Learn more about the STGlobal Consortium here and the 2021 presentations here.

  • April 12, 2021
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    Dr. Stack Whitney selected as Open@RIT fellow

    Dr. Stack Whitney has been selected as one of the inaugural class of fellows in Open@RIT. Learn more about Open@RIT here

  • April 9, 2021
    decorative image of open science umbrella
    Dr. Stack Whitney presents at APS symposium

    Dr. Stack Whitney presented "The Future of Science Is Accessible: "Access" in Citizen Science Must Include Disability Accessibility - Or, what citizen science can learn from feminist disability studies" as part of the American Philosophical Society's 'Promises and Pitfalls of Citizen Science' symposium April 5-9. Her slide deck and transcript with alt-text is here.

  • March 24, 2021
    illustration of colored stick figure bodies
    invited commentary published

    Dr. Stack Whitney and colleagues from Gallaudet and MIT have published an invited commentary on disability access and inclusion as a necessary part of intersectional DEI efforts at conferences and more broadly in sustainability. Read it here.

  • March 23, 2021
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    congrats to Jay on Baldwin scholarship!

    Congrats to Jay on winning the Baldwin scholarship through the RIT School of Life Sciences! Learn more about the awards and past winners here.

  • March 22, 2021
    logo of RIT athletic tiger
    congrats to Amanda on summer research fellowship!

    Amanda Walker recently won a RIT College of Science Emerson summer 2021 research fellowship! This will support her independent research on her MS thesis, which is focused on youth environmental education curricula.

  • March 17, 2021
    creative commons photo of Corn Hill park area in Rochester
    new pre-print posted

    Led by Aberg Family fellow in STS, Sarah Bacchus, several members of the col(lab) have a new pre-print up focused on understanding how forests and vegetation in the area around Rochester (Monroe County, NY) is changing. Read it here. Ongoing work by Sarah looks and whether these changes are associated with corresponding socioeconomic shifts.

  • March 8, 2021
    a photo of a deer tick on a white person's finger nail
    new pre-print

    Work led by lab member and RISE research fellow Rowan Christie on how study design and sampling strategies for deer ticks, the Lyme disease vector for humans, shapes scientists' understanding of population trajectories. Read it here. 

     

  • March 2, 2021
    image of RIT logo, which is a drawing of a tiger head in orange and black
    Congrats to col(lab) alums!

    Congratulations to SWEET col(lab) alums Virginia Aswad and Matthew Madsen for winning their colleges' respective RIT Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar Awards for 2020-2021! Read about all the winners here.

  • February 24, 2021
    drawing of an umbrella on a white board with different elements of open science
    new research selected for symposium

    Dr. Stack Whitney's work has been accepted to be part of the American Philosophical Society's "Promises and Pitfalls of Citizen Science" symposium, April 5-9 2021 (free, public). Her paper and presentation are titled "The Future is Accessible: Access in Citizen Science Must Include Disability Accessibility." More on the symposium here.

  • January 19, 2021
    vertical photo of a sampling post in a grassy highway roadside
    Dr. Stack Whitney presents at TRB meeting

    Dr. Stack Whitney presents preliminary results from the ongoing highway roadside project at the virtual Transportation Research Board meeting, taking place across 2 weeks in January. You can see/read the results here.

  • January 12, 2021
    landscape photo of a wildlife crossing over a highway in Banff park in Canada
    new paper published

    Dr. Stack Whitney worked with a group of students in her spring 2020 Environment and Society course to write about how wildlife crossing design impacts different taxa in Banff National Park, Canada. It was just published in the January 2021 volume of Case Studies in the Environment. Read it here.

  • January 3, 2021
    Photo of a reduced mowing highway roadside
    Alyssa presents at SICB

    Alyssa presents some of her thesis research this month at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology virtual conference, taking place from January 3 - February 28, 2021. Her poster is titled "Assessing road traffic and roadside mowing levels on pollinator habitat quality in highway roadsides" and can be viewed here.

  • December 21, 2020
    Picture of the Data Feminism book cover
    new book review published

    Dr. Stack Whitney has an invited book review of Data Feminism by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein (MIT Press) in the winter 2021 American Scientist magazine. Read the review here.

  • December 3, 2020
    Logo of open educational resources
    new zine collection posted

    Students in Dr. Stack Whitney's environmental history course, 'Great Lakes' can choose to make zines as their final projects. Students who make their zines public have made them available for reading, downloading, and noncommercial use. See the updated collection here.

  • December 2, 2020
    3 ASL hand shapes spelling out A - S - L as shorthand for American Sign Language
    new paper published

    Dr. Stack Whitney and Dr. Whitney co-authored a new paper just published today in the Journal of Children and Media. It was competitively selected as part of a special issue on 'The Clarity of Crisis,' focused on how COVID-19 is impacting children. Read it here.

  • November 24, 2020
    Logo of open educational resources
    new pre-print

    Dr. Stack Whitney has a new pre-print with the Open Life Sciences team focused on access and inclusion for collaborative team calls. Read it here: https://osf.io/k3bfn/

  • 11/03/2020
    logo of RIT graduate education week banner, white font on pink background
    Graduate showcase

    Josh and Alyssa will be presenting their ongoing thesis research in the RIT graduate showcase Nov 16 - 20. Their presentations will be accessible by registering here. 

    Alyssa's research looks at the potential synergistic impacts of traffic and mowing on bees in highway roadsides. Josh's research examines the association between socioeconomic status and urban ecosystem service supply in Rochester neighborhoods. 

  • 11/03/2020
    Josh Greene headshot
    New research poster

    Joshua Greene (MS expected May 2021) shares his thesis research results, examining the association between socioeconomic status past (e.g. redlining) and present (e.g. segregation, income) on ecosystem service supply in neighborhoods in Rochester. View the poster here.

  • 10/29/2020
    Logo of open educational resources
    new pre-print up

    Dr. Stack Whitney has a new pre-print up examining how three local seed mixes may potentially contribute to pollinating insect conservation in western NY.

  • September 17, 2020
    Logo of open educational resources
    Backyard Beetles + Pollinators Open Research and Teaching Modules​​​​​​​

    As a PI on an ongoing NSF-funded research project to make flexible experiential learning for a range of learners and course formats during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Stack Whitney has developed and published a new collaborative and open course-based undergraduate research module. Learn more here.

  • 09/15/2020
    Logo of open educational resources
    New course based research module

    Dr. Stack Whitney published a new open, course-based undergraduate research teaching module. Students observe insect pollinators and other floral visitors in their backyards, or campus, or nearby natural areas to describe plant-pollinator networks and assess how the assemblages from their sites compare to those in a range of landscapes. Learn more here. 

  • August 18, 2020
    Close up stock photo of bee on a white clover flower
    Backyard Beetles + Pollinators: EREN-NEON Flexible Learning Project

    Learn more about the project and open educational materials here.

  • July 2020
    Logo of open educational resources
    New Preprint

    New pre-print up on the NSF EAGER 'Managing Our Expectations' collaborative work with the Kent State University Bahlai lab!  Check it out here and learn more about the project here.

  • October 29, 2019
    Bees
    Bee-Friendly Companies Are Getting the Science of the Crisis Completely Wrong

    OneZero talks to Kaitlin Stack Whitney, assistant professor in the science, technology and society department and the environmental sciences program, about the effect of corporations' efforts to protect honeybee populations. More >

Col(LAB)orative News
Fall 2020 - 
  • Dr. Stack Whitney was interviewed by Science magazine about research during COVID-19. Read it here
  • Dr. Stack Whitney launched a new OER course-based research project (anyone can collaborate/join!) as part of the NEON / EREN Flexible Learning Projects.  View the module here.
Summer 2020 -
  • Alyssa has a presentation about some of her research in the RIT undergraduate research symposium. It's up for one week and can be viewed here.
  • Rowan has a poster, with Dr. Stack Whitney and Kent State collaborators, at the Ecological Society of America annual meeting. Check out the poster here and text version with image descriptions here
  • NSF just awarded Dr. Stack Whitney and colleagues a grant to develop open, course based undergraduate research for ecology and environmental science courses around the country to support learners during the COVID19 pandemic. Learn more about the project here - and stay tuned for the new project Dr. Stack Whitney is leading within it! Here's a sneak peek recruiting video.
  • New pre-print up on the NSF 'Managing Our Expectations' EAGER collaborative work with the Kent State University Bahlai lab!  Check it out here
  • Dr. Stack Whitney has a post up about roadside white clover over on Plant Love StoriesRead it here
  • Dr. Stack Whitney was interviewed for the RIT Reporter about data privacy. Read it here
Media Coverage
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