Newest
Division Head Drawn by Diversity
Those with a
penchant for labels have coined terms for various times
in the world's history. There was the Age of the Dinosaurs,
for instance, the Dark Ages, the Age of Enlightenment, and
the Space Age. But none of those are completely accurate,
according to DRI's Dr. Michael Auerbach, whose vote would
go instead to the Age of Insects. "Most people don't
think about it, but insects are winning-in terms of quantity,
diversity, everything."
Auerbach was
recently named Executive Director of DRI's Division of Earth
and Ecosystem Sciences (DEES). His healthy respect for Earth's
myriad six-legged creatures stems from years of research
on the interaction between insects and plant communities,
and what those interactions can teach us about our own relationships
with the environment. "These are small-scale examples
of the world. I chose to work with insect communities because
they are so diverse and easy to manipulate. They give us
a manageable way to study much larger-scale relationships."
Experience with
diversity and relationships will be a great advantage to
the head of the most heterogeneous of DRI's three research
divisions. The scientists working under the heading of DEES
cover a lot of ground-anthropology, archaeology, biochemistry,
plant physiology, soil ecology, geomorphology, paleoclimatology,
and more. Coming from the College/University of Charleston
where he chaired a large and very successful biology department,
Auerbach says he was "used to hanging out with biologists.
The chance to interact daily with such a broad array of
scientists was one of DRI's greatest attractions for me."
It will also
be one of his greatest challenges, as he works to promote
interaction among those varied disciplines. "It presents
the intriguing challenge," says Auerbach, "of
melding diverse scientific perspectives and cultures and
maintaining a sense of cohesiveness within the division."
On his side, he says, is the current trend of approaching
scientific inquiry with interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary
teams of researchers. "These are the kinds of projects
being funded, and they are calling for all the disciplines
to play together. Here at DRI, our people are very well-configured
to take advantage of those opportunities."
Auerbach plans
to be among those people as he finds the time to expand
his own research, possibly with studies of insect and plant
communities in DRI's southern Nevada FACE (Free Air Carbon
dioxide Enrichment) facility. "We have a great ability
here, with our facilities, our resources, and our people,
to look at altered atmospheres and the effects on biological
systems. There's been little work done with insects in these
areas, and it's a wonderful niche waiting to be exploited."
Clearly, he's
learned a thing or two from those bugs.
~
Jackie Allen
Julianne
Miller's Work Begins After the Rain
As a student
at the University of Washington, where she garnered her
B.S. in Geological Sciences, DRI's Julianne Miller was no
stranger to rain. But Miller became more, not less, immersed
in precipitation when she came to sunny Las Vegas, where
she earned her M.S. in Water Resources Management and now
works as a research associate with DRI's Division of Hydrologic
Sciences. Miller's studies of rainfall and hydrologic process
include examining how different surfaces and landscapes
respond to rainfall, investigating how water is lost from
drainage channels, gauging how precipitation affects the
performance of landfill covers, and using remote sensing
to identify drainage patterns and watershed boundaries.
"The point
of most of this research," explains Miller, "is
to understand exactly what happens to rainfall in this arid
environment-how much runs off, how much infiltrates-and
what this can tell us about flood control, watershed management,
and waste management."
Understandably,
most flood control models and designs were developed in
areas where it rains much more than the four inches per
annum average of southern Nevada. "A lot of the models
we've been working with come from other parts of the country,
say the Midwest or the East. Out here, we not only have
much less rain, we have very different types of storms,
and our watersheds obviously respond very differently."
Miller joined
DRI in December 1999, but even then she couldn't really
be called a newcomer. Her University of Nevada Las Vegas
graduate studies were supervised by DRI Research Professor
Dr. Richard French, and her former position as senior Hydrologist/Geologist
with Bechtel Nevada had her working toe to toe with DRI
researchers. "I was actually involved with some of
the same joint projects I'm working on now, just from the
other side."
Ultimately, says
Miller, the goal of her research is to help managers make
better decisions about how to live and work in a desert
environment. "We want to figure out how to modify flood
control and management designs so they make sense here and
we aren't spending a whole lot of money we don't have to
spend."
That makes sense
in any climate.
New
Trustees, Officers Appointed to the DRI Research Foundation
Ten new trustees
have been appointed to the DRI Research Foundation, the
fund-raising arm of the Desert Research Institute. The Board
of Regents of the University and Community College System
of Nevada approved the new board members at is December
1, 2000 meeting.
The new trustees
include Richard Costello, attorney with Quirk & Tratos
in Las Vegas; George El. Dials, Executive Vice President
of Science and Engineering Associates, Inc. in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., president and chief
executive officer of the American Gaming Association in
Washington, D.C.; Harold W. Furman II, chairman and managing
director of the Furman Group, Inc., of Las Vegas, La Jolla,
California, and Washington, D.C.; Fred Gibson, Jr. of Las
Vegas, former chairman, president and CEO of American Pacific
Corporation; Rudolf Gunnerman of Reno, chairman of Clean
Fuels Technology, Inc., a developer of low emission fuels
and combustion processes; Alberto Gutiérrez of Albuquerque,
New Mexico, president and CEO of Geolex, Inc., an environmental
consulting firm; Reno and New York investment banker John
H.O. La Gatta, founder and president of Catamount Fund,
Ltd.; ophthalmologist Kathleen M. Mahon, M.D., F.A.C.S.,
of Mahon Eye Center in Las Vegas and chief of the Ophthalmology
Division, University of Nevada School of Medicine; and Nevada
state assemblywoman and Henderson businesswoman Sandra Tiffany.
Costello and Tiffany are returning to the board following
a mandatory one-year separation after serving two previous
three-year terms.
The foundation
board elected Las Vegas health care consultant Terry Van
Noy as its chairman and Denver-based mining executive Robert
L. Chapman its vice chair.
The DRI Research
Foundation has recently funded major laboratory equipment
and furnishings for new research facilities, as well as
seed money to help DRI scientists launch new research initiatives.
