An interdisciplinary approach to the Anthropocene

A dozen Rice professors from across natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities and the arts convened in Fondren Library’s Kyle Morrow Room Oct. 4 for 90 minutes of “lightning talks” on global change. Addressing our current era of rapid global change driven by human activities — which many scientists have dubbed the “Anthropocene” epoch — is incredibly complex, and an interdisciplinary and more holistic approach that brings everyone together to find innovative solutions is perhaps the best path forward, the professors argued.

Speakers included Gisela Heffes, associate professor of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American studies; Jesus Vassallo, the Gus Wortham Assistant Professor of Architecture; Kathy Ensor, the Noah G. Harding Professor of Statistics; Jorge Loyo, associate director of education for the Rice-based Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment Center (NEWT); Amy Dunham, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology; Pedram Hassanzadeh, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; Rick Wilson, the Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Political Science and professor of statistics and of psychological sciences; Dan Cohan, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering; Ted Loch-Temzelides, the George and Cynthia Mitchell Chair in Sustainable Development and professor of economics; Sylvia Dee, assistant professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences; Sophie Esch, assistant professor of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American studies; and Sergio Chavez, associate professor of sociology. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow)