To receive email updates about the 2023-2024 seminar series, subscribe to our mailing list. Seminars are free and open to the public. Whenever possible, seminars will be recorded and shared here and on our YouTube channel.
| Date, Time, and Location | Title and Speaker |
|---|---|
Wednesday, January 31 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Defining scholarship as a faculty extension specialist: A water quality case study |
Wednesday, February 7 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Student Lightning Talks |
Wednesday, February 14 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Sources and Mechanisms of Sediment Production in Minnesota Rivers |
Wednesday, March 13 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Xue Feng |
Wednesday, March 20 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Mehmet Ozturk and Samikshya Subedi |
Wednesday, March 27 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Christine O'Connell |
Wednesday, April 3 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Cleo Wölfle-Hazard |
Wednesday, April 17 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Ardeshir Ebtehaj |
Wednesday, May 1 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Rui Cheng |
Wednesday, May 8 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Mindy Ericson |
Past Seminars
Recordings are available for many past seminars; click the link in the talk title or browse our YouTube channel.
Fall 2023
| Date, Time, and Location | Title and Speaker |
|---|---|
Wednesday, November 8 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Dr. Craig Hill | University of Minnesota Duluth Mechanical and Industrial Engineering |
Wednesday, November 15 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Building Resistance to Changing Climate - Rainfall Intensity Ken Wacha, Research Hydrologist, Agroecosystems Management Research Unit |
Wednesday, November 29 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | A Food Company Perspective on Regenerative Agriculture Science and Strategy Steve Rosenzweig, General Mills |
Wednesday, December 6 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Brent Williams | University of Minnesota Department of Soil, Water, and Climate |
Spring 2023
| Date, Time, and Location | Title and Speaker |
|---|---|
Wednesday, January 18 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Dr. Paul Stoy | University of Wisconsin-Madison, Biological Systems Engineering |
Wednesday, February 15 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Linking water age and nitrogen cycling in tile-drained agricultural systems Zhongjie Yu | Univ. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Natural Resources and Environmental Science |
Wednesday, March 1 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | LAAS Graduate Student Lightning Talks Irfan Ainuddin, Michelle Bohnen, Maricia Pacheco, Manuel Sabbagh, Bailey Tangen |
Wednesday, March 22 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Workspace climate in geosciences Erika Marin-Spiotta | UW Madison Geography |
Wednesday, April 5 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Laura Ward Good | UW Madison Soil Science |
Wednesday, April 12 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Environmental changes during the Woolly Mammoth extinction at St. Paul Island William Daniels | UM Duluth Earth & Environmental Science |
Wednesday, April 19 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Hydroclimate extremes and tree rings in California Daniel Griffin | UMN-TC Geography |
Wednesday, April 26 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | International soils, water, and climate perspectives Renzo Negrini and Azucena Sierra Garcia | UMN SWAC |
Wednesday, May 3 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | A Buried Bond: The connection between healthy soil and healthy communities Brenda Hoppe, PhD | Researcher in Soil, Water, and Climate |
Fall 2022
| Date | Speaker and Title |
|---|---|
Wednesday, September 14 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Precipitation and landforms as the primary drivers of river baseflow Dr. Satish Gupta, Professor Emeritus, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate |
Wednesday, September 28 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Rebecca Walker, PhD Candidate, UMN Humphrey School |
Wednesday, October 5 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Gross primary productivity: Quantifying the unmeasurable using flux measurements of carbonyl sulfide Georg Wohlfahrt |
Wednesday, October 19 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom (Speaker will be virtual) | Earth observation for agriculture monitoring Dr. Ying Sun, Assistant Professor, Cornell University |
Wednesday, October 26 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | Entering mentoring! Using soil science to train tomorrow's research mentors Dr. Julie Grossman, University of Minnesota |
Wednesday, November 2 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | LAAS graduate student lightning talks Jéssica Barbosa Oliveira, Hava Blair, Jake Kundert, and Stella Woeltjen |
Wednesday, November 16 | 3:30 PM S415 Soil Science Building & Zoom | SWAC faculty lightning talks |
Spring 2022
| Wednesday, February 9, 2022 | 3:30 PM Improving tart cherry productivity and profitability through variable-rate precision management: A new multi-state, multi-discipline project Dr. Grant Cardon, Utah State University |
| Wednesday, February 16, 2022 | 3:30 PM SWAC Staff Lightning Talks Dr. Alexander Frie, Heidi Reitmeier, Dr. Michael Vermeuel |
| Wednesday, March 2, 2022 | 3:30 PM Unraveling bacteria-mediated processes in soil through multiscale experiments Dr. Judy Q. Yang, University of Minnesota |
| Wednesday, March 23, 2022 | 3:30 PM LAAS Graduate Student Lightning Talks Emma Link, Xueying Yu, Nancy Bohl Bormann |
| Wednesday, April 6, 2022 | 3:30 PM Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) Ebony Webber, MBA, MANRRS |
| Wednesday, April 20, 2022 | 3:30 PM Advancing soil health assessments for enhanced agronomic performance and ecological function Dr. Christine Sprunger, Ohio State University |
Fall 2021
| Wednesday, September 22, 2021 | 4 PM Getting to the Heart of Science Communication Faith Kearns, scientist and science communication practitioner |
| Wednesday, October 13, 2021 | 4 PM Hydroclimate of the Americas: Land Surface Effects on the Overlying Atmosphere Francina Dominguez, Associate Professor, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois |
| Wednesday, October 20, 2021 | 4 PM Wind climatology at the Rosemount, MN wind energy research field site Katherine Klink, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Environment, and Society, University of Minnesota |
| Wednesday, November 3, 2021 | 4 PM Advancing diversity and inclusivity within the College of Science and Engineering Cara Santelli, Associate Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota |
| Wednesday, November 10, 2021 | 4 PM SWAC faculty lightning talks Kyungsoo Yoo, Professor and Peter Neff, Assistant Research Professor, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, University of Minnesota |
| Wednesday, November 17, 2021 | 4 PM Phyto-remediation of arsenic in urban agricultural soils Sarick Matzen, Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, University of Minnesota |
| Wednesday, December 8, 2021 | 4 PM LAAS graduate student lightning talks Andrea Elvir Flores, Azucena Sierra Garcia, and Madeline Vogel |
Spring 2021
Several speakers addressed themes of environmental justice and diversity in environmental science. Speakers marked with an asterisk (*) spoke broadly on these themes. You can read SWAC's statement on diversity, equity, and inclusion here.
| Wednesday, February 10, 2021 | 3:30 PM SWAC Faculty Lightning Talks: Jess Gutknecht and Dylan Millet |
| Wednesday, February 24, 2021 | 3:30 PM *Sally Pusede, Assistant Professor, Dept of Environmental Science, UVA |
| Wednesday, March 3, 2021 | 3:30 PM Andrea Basche, Assistant Professor, Dept of Agronomy and Horticulture, UNL |
| Wednesday, March 17, 2021 | 3:30 PM *Shalini Gupta, Researcher, Writer, and Environmental Justice Advocate |
| Wednesday, March 31, 2021 | 3:30 PM LAAS Graduate Student Lightning Talks: Luis Allen, Jonathan Birkel, and Manny Sabbagh |
| Wednesday, April 14, 2021 | 3:30 PM *Claudia Muñoz-Zanzi, Associate Professor, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, UMN |
| Postponed: Wednesday, April 21, 2021 | 3:30 PM *Cara Santelli, Associate Professor, Dept of Earth and Environmental Sciences, UMN |
| Wednesday, May 5, 2021 | 3:30 PM Tamara Walsky, Graduate Student, UMN Water Resources Science Graduate Program |
Fall 2020
| Wednesday, September 16 | 3:30 PM Dr. Melissa Kenney, UMN Institute on the Environment “Sustainable Human-Environmental System Decisions Given Climate Change” |
| Wednesday, October 7 | 3:30 PM SWAC faculty lightning talks Fabian Fernandez, Jeff Strock, and Melissa Wilson |
| Wednesday, October 21 | 3:30 PM Barbara Bekins, USGS ”Effectiveness of Natural Attenuation for Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Groundwater” |
| Wednesday, November 4 | 3:30 PM SWAC graduate student lightning talks Leanna Leverich, Heidi Reitmeier, and GP Singh |
| Wednesday, November 11 | 3:30 PM Isaya Kisekka, UC Davis “Groundwater Issues and Sustainability of Irrigated Agriculture in California’s Central Valley” |
| Wednesday, December 2 | 3:30 PM John Bilotta, UMN Water Resources Center “Banking Groundwater: Assessing aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) in Minnesota" |
| Wednesday, December 9 | 3:30 PM Nic Jelinksi, UMN SWAC & Melvin Giles, The Storymobile “Developing Sustainable Community-University Partnerships” |
Spring 2020
| January 29, 2020 LAAS Graduate Student Lightning Talks: Persephone Ma, Jon Alexander, Stella Pey |
| February 5, 2020 Devin Henry, University Relations "Speaking with the Media: University Relations Training and Tips" |
| February 19, 2020 SWAC Faculty Lightning Talks: Satoshi Ishii, Lindsay Pease, Ce Yang |
| February 26, 2020 Oliver Chadwick, UCSB "Connections Between Soil Properties and Polynesian Land Use" |
| March 4, 2020 Abimbola Ojekanmi, USDA – ARS "Impact of corn stover retention on soil organic carbon and soil quality" |
| (Additional seminars were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic) |
Fall 2019
| September 18, 2019 "Supporting precision farming with Earth observation technology" Dr. Jiali Shang, Research Scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada |
| October 2, 2019 "Don't call it a comeback: Studying ancient floods to prepare for future hazards" Dr. Scott St. George, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Society, and Environment, UMN |
| October 16, 2019 "Blowin’ in the Wind: Reconstructing upwelling during abrupt North Atlantic cooling events" Louisa Bradtmiller, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Macalaster College |
| October 30, 2019 "A climate reality story and lessons from an experimental mesocosm facility" Lee Miller, LAAS Graduate Student, Dept. of Soil, Water, & Climate, UMN |
| November 13, 2019 "Mechanisms of chromium removal from industrial stormwater via peat sorption" Brandy Stewart, Postdoctoral Associate, Dept. of Soil, Water, & Climate, UMN |
| November 20, 2019 "Water meets plants, geochemistry, and people: A journey through vulnerable environments" Gene-Hua Crystal Ng, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, UMN |
| December 4, 2019 "Agriculture's effects on human health via reduced air quality" Jason Hill, Professor, Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, UMN |
Spring 2019
| February 13, 2019 "Conservation ag at a pace and scale that matters" Leif Fixen, Agriculture Strategy Manager, The Nature Conservancy |
| February 27, 2019 "Sustainable management of ecohydrological systems under climate variability" Xue Feng, Assistant Professor, UMN Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering |
| March 13, 2019 "Soils as environmental barometers: From the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene" Mark Bowen, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Minnesota State University, Mankato |
| March 27, 2019 "Flow, transport, and reaction in porous and fractured media: Bridging the gap between scales and processes" Peter Kang, Assistant Professor, UMN Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences |
| April 17, 2019 "Soil phosphatases as the ‘bio’ in phosphorus biogeochemistry" (Slides, PDF) Andrew Margenot, Assistant Professor, Crop Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign |
| April 24, 2019 "Hydrologic influences on solute and sediment chemistry exported from mixed-landuse watersheds" Diana Karwan, Assistant Professor, UMN Forest Resources Science |
| May 1, 2019 "Wildfire smoke in your backyard: chemistry and emission" Lu Hu, Assistant Professor, Atmospheric Chemistry at University of Montana |
Fall 2018
Spring 2018
| January 24, 2018 "Managing Minnesota's changing climatology and the case for myopia" Kenny Blumenfeld, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate |
| February 7, 2018 "On-farm environmental assessment of corn silage production systems receiving liquid dairy manure" Joshua Gamble, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate |
| February 21, 2018 "Science in seconds" and "Use of chemical and microbe-based additives in the N management of irrigated potato crop cultivated in sandy soils" LAAS Graduate Students and Dr. Emerson Souza |
| March 7, 2018 "The synoptic controls on tornadic activity in Minnesota" Luigi Romolo |
| March 21, 2018 "Stover harvest impact on nitrous oxide emission from corn and soybean growing in no-till field" Jane Johnson |
| April 4, 2018 "Fertilizer management impacts on nutrient mineralization, nutrient availability, plant growth and plant yield" Paulo Pagliari |
| April 18, 2018 "Bank erosion in the Minnesota River Basin and its impact on sedimentation in Lake Pepin" Dr. Satish Gupta |
Fall 2017
| September 11, 2017 Film Screening: "Between Earth & Sky: Climate Change on the Last Frontier" Directors Paul Hunton & Jonathan Seaborn |
| September 27, 2017 "Modular denitrifying and phosphorus-adsorbing bioreactors" Andry Ranaivoson, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate |
| October 4, 2017 "Arsenic concentration variability in newly constructed drinking water wells in Minnesota" Dr. Melinda Erickson, USGS |
| October 11, 2017 "Tillage Erosion: Transforming soil and water conservation" (Slides, PDF) David Lobb, University of Manitoba |
| November 8, 2017 "The synoptic controls on the river-ice hydrology of the Peace River Basin" Luigi Romolo, Minnesota State Climate Office |
| November 29, 2017 "Variability of surface heat fluxes and its driving forces at different time scales over a large shallow lake in China" Xiaosong Zhao, Nanjing Institute of Geography & Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences |
| December 6, 2017 "Forty years as a citizen-scientist" Dr. Mark Seeley, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate |
Spring 2017
| January 25, 2017 "'Worming' up the formerly glaciated world" Adrian Wackett and Dr. Kyungsoo Yoo, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate |
| February 8, 2017 "Earthworms and Earth history: An introduction to the evolutionary history of earthworms, their ecological functions, and interactions with humans" Dr. Samuel James, University of Iowa |
| February 22, 2017 "Soil lead distributions across scales in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area" Dr. Nic Jelinski, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate |
| March 8, 2017 "North Central United States: Climate, runoff, and flooding" Dr. Karen Ryburg, USGS Dakota Water Science Center |
March 22, 2017 Watch the five minute talks, followed by questions and answers, on YouTube: |
| April 5, 2017 "Communicating science" (Slides PDF) Stacy Nordstrom, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate |
| May 3, 2017 "Air pollutants change composition of floral scents and increase insect foraging times" Dr. Jose D. Fuentes, Pennsylvania State University |
Fall 2016
| September 21, 2016 "Improving crop nitrogen management by understanding processes in the nitrogen cycle" Dr. Fabian Fernandez, Department of Soil, Water, and Climate |
| October 5, 2016 "Managing salt-affected soils and the organisms that inhabit them" Dr. Heather Dose, USDA-ARS Unfortunately, there were technical difficulties during the recording of this seminar so a small section of the seminar was not recorded. Recording Part 1 | Recording Part 2 |
| October 19, 26, and November 2, 2016 SWAC Faculty Lightning Talks Watch all of the videos on YouTube |
| November 16, 2016 "Utilizing landscape design for continual improvement of bioenergy feedstock supply systems" Dr. Doug Karlen, USDA-ARS |
| November 30, 2016 "Conservation and restoration of native freshwater mussels in the Upper Mississippi River: a research synopsis" Dr. Teresa Newton, USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center |
Spring 2016
Fall 2015