Category Archives: Pratt Institute

Pratt Institute holds 124th Commencement, special gallery show

Pratt celebrated its 124th commencement ceremony at Manhattan’s Radio City Music Hall on Tuesday, May 14th, 2013. I always try to make it to graduation to honor the hard work of our graduating seniors. Although there are usually a few … Continue reading

Posted in A Major Post, Pratt Institute | Leave a comment

Envirolutions asks the Pratt community to identify where there is “room for improvement”

During this year’s Green Week celebration, Envirolutions club members brought their Room for Improvement campaign to the campus, asking members of the Pratt community to identify where the campus has the most “room to improve” in terms of sustainability. Two enticements incentivized participation: those … Continue reading

Posted in A Major Post, Envirolutions, Resource Consumption, Sustainability, Sustainable Energy | Leave a comment

Envirolutions club launches its “Room for Improvement” campaign

This week, students in Pratt’s Envirolutions club launched their newest campaign for on-campus sustainability. Called “Room for Improvement”, the campaign seeks to lower the environmental footprint of the school caused by resource consumption. The posters that advertise the campaign are themed … Continue reading

Posted in A Major Post, Envirolutions, Pratt Institute, Sustainability, Sustainable Energy | Leave a comment

Up-Goer Five text editor challenges you to make accessible explanations

Scientific American blogs “Science in Ten-Hundred Words: The “Up-Goer 5″ Challenge” THE UP-GOER FIVE TEXT EDITOR Oh, and by the way the title of this post would not pass the up-goer five test! Thanks to one of my Pratt students, … Continue reading

Posted in A Minor Post, Pratt Institute, Public Outreach, Teaching, Web | Tagged | Leave a comment

Pratt Institute opens search for new full-time faculty member in the Math and Science Department

My academic department is looking to hire a new full-time, tenure-track assistant professor. The job search is extremely broad: we are looking for the scientist or mathematician with the best fit to Pratt and to our department. I am not … Continue reading

Posted in A Minor Post, Art & Design, Department of Mathematics & Science, Pratt Institute, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences | Leave a comment

Pratt Envirolutions Students Bring Recycling Bins to Campus

Culminating over three semesters of work, Pratt’s Envirolutions student club chose Election Day to celebrate the launch of eleven new recycling bins on the Brooklyn campus grounds. President Schutte joined students to cut the ribbons on the new bins, which … Continue reading

Posted in A Major Post, Center for Sustainable Design Studies, Envirolutions, Greenwashing, Pratt Institute, Resource Consumption, Sustainability | Leave a comment

Concept mapping as a creative tool

If your brain is anything like mine, thoughts pretty much constantly race across it. As I consume media — especially media designed to inform — these thoughts intensify. As I read or listen or watch, my brain makes rapid connections between … Continue reading

Posted in A Major Post, Art & Design, Concept Mapping, MSCI-160, Great Adventures in Evolution, Neuroscience, Pratt Institute | 1 Comment

Envirolutions students release Trash Tetris video to promote recycling bin launch

The students in the Pratt Envirolutions club have worked tirelessly to get a set of recycling bins placed on campus. Please join these students and President Schutte for a ribbon-cutting ceremony on November 6, 2012 in front of the Engineering Building lawn @ 4 PM. … Continue reading

Posted in A Minor Post, Closed Loop Systems, Envirolutions, Pratt Institute, Resource Consumption, Sustainability | Leave a comment

I get downright evangelical about WordPress

Today I took my dedication to WordPress to another level. As I have indicated elsewhere, I am incredibly thankful for the work that the WordPress Foundation [1, 2] does to produce a for-the-people self-publishing platform. It is wonderful that the best tool for putting your ideas … Continue reading

Posted in Pratt Institute, Public Outreach | Leave a comment

Evolutionary Games Infographic Project launches with its first release of graphic packages

In the Fall of 2011 I began a new project with Greg Riestenberg, a graduate student in Pratt’s Communications Design program. Given the ubiquity — especially in recent times — of evolutionary game theory, you would think that someone would have produced … Continue reading

Posted in Department of Mathematics & Science, Evolutionary Games Infographics, Game Theory, Information Design, Pratt Institute, Teaching, Teaching Tools | Leave a comment

Molly H. Adams earns top honors from the Critical and Visual Studies program

Me with Molly and B. Ricardo Brown (coordinator of the Critical and Visual Studies program) at Pratt’s Honors Convocation I am proud to report that a student who I have both taught and mentored, Molly H. Adams, has won top … Continue reading

Posted in Anthropogenic Change, Biomes, Conservation Biology, Critical and Visual Studies program, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Justice, Ethics, Mentoring, Pratt Institute | Leave a comment

Marvin Charton, Pratt professor and renowned computational chemist, is dead at 80

My most senior colleague in the Department of Mathematics and Science at Pratt Institute, Marvin Charton, died on Thursday, April 12th. He was nearly 81 years old and had been a professor at Pratt Institute for over 56 years. Marvin … Continue reading

Posted in Chemistry, Department of Mathematics & Science, Obituary, Pratt Institute | Leave a comment

Green Week events celebrate cycling and recycling

This year’s Green Week celebration brought the return of two regular events, an Envirolutions project to help make Pratt’s campus more sustainable and the return of the NYC Department of Transportation to give away free helmets. Envirolutions’ latest project is a collaboration with the Student Government Association … Continue reading

Posted in Envirolutions, Pratt Institute, Resource Consumption, Sustainability, Sustainable Pratt, Sustainable Transportation | Leave a comment

2012 Sustainability Crash Course at Pratt Institute

For the second year in a row I participated in Pratt Institute’s Crash Course in sustainability, sponsored by the Center for Sustainable Design Studies. I once again gave my talk entitled “Ecosystems: Where they came from, how they work, and … Continue reading

Posted in Art & Design, Biomes, Center for Sustainable Design Studies, Conferences, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Ecosystem Services, Environmental Justice, Green Design, Greenwashing, Life Cycle Analysis, Population Growth, Pratt Institute, Public Policy, Quantitative Analysis, Sustainability, Sustainable Pratt | 1 Comment

Science in Art & Design: Justin Taylor’s “The Gospel of Anarchy”

There are so many science books that I want to read that I frequently neglect to read fiction. This is too bad, because good fiction can be as rich with interesting hypotheses about human nature and evolution as any book … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Evolutionary Psychology, Fiction, Group Selection, Happiness, Human Evolution, Human Nature, Multilevel Selection, Pratt Institute, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Science in Art & Design, Superorganisms | Leave a comment

Pratt Envirolutions trumpets green initiatives during Pratt’s Green Week celebration

This week Pratt’s Envirolutions club took its campaign for waste reduction on campus to the annual Green Week celebration. Tabling for two days, the club had two main projects. The first was a continuation of a campaign kicked off earlier … Continue reading

Posted in Envirolutions, Food, Resource Consumption, Sustainability, Sustainable Pratt | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Pratt Envirolutions leads campaign for reusable containers

Like many educational institutions, Pratt contracts with an outside vendor to provide its cafeteria services. Our vendor is CulinArt, which operates Pratt’s main cafeteria, the Pie Shop, and a series of smaller food stands across campus. If you want to … Continue reading

Posted in Center for Sustainable Design Studies, Envirolutions, Food, Resource Consumption, Sustainability | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Steven Chillrud Visit to Pratt Institute

Every year, Pratt Institute’s School of Liberal Arts and Sciences hosts a “scholar-in-residence” who spends a few days on campus giving talks and workshops to faculty and students. The honor of selecting a scholar-in-residence rotates between the three major departments … Continue reading

Posted in Data Limitation, Department of Mathematics & Science, Environmental Justice, Experiments (General), Pollution, Pratt Institute, Public Policy, Urban Ecology | Leave a comment

Quantitative Sustainability and the practice of Life Cycle Analysis

Pratt Institute, where my primary duties are to teach students about ecology and evolution, is undergoing a green revolution. In many ways this is not all that remarkable: many campuses are “greening” themselves and at least pitching the idea that … Continue reading

Posted in Center for Sustainable Design Studies, Greenwashing, Life Cycle Analysis, Pratt Institute, Quantitative Analysis, Sustainability | Tagged , | 1 Comment