Events

As part of the mission of FLI, workshops will help to advance, coordinate, and disseminate scientific understanding about the Finger Lakes environment and provide interdisciplinary training for the next generation of environmental researchers, educators, and policy makers.

Ongoing Events

Calling All Cellular Phones!
The Finger Lakes Institute encourages Finger Lakes residents to safely recycle their cellular phones and accessories. Recycling and properly disposing of electronic waste reduces the amount of persistent toxic chemicals that may compose landfill leachate, which has the potential of contaminating soil and drinking water via the leachate treatment process. Donate your cell phone to the Finger Lakes Institute and it will be recycled by Eco-Cell, a program that encourages organizations to collect all used cell phones and accessories, including batteries. Eco-Cell will pay the Finger Lakes Institute up to $12 for each working cell phone. Generated funds will directly benefit the FLI’s mission to promote environmental research and education of the Finger Lakes and surrounding environments. Acceptable drop off items include: cellular phones, batteries, accessories, PDAs, blackberries, pagers, and chargers.

Fall 2009

November

November 10, 2:00 pm, Finger Lakes Institute (601 S. Main St. Geneva)(campus map)
Finger Lakes Institute's 5th Anniversary Celebration
Finger Lakes region community members are invited to celebrate the Finger Lakes Institute's 5th Anniversary by attending a reception highlighting some of the Institute's accomplishments since 2004, such as ENERGY STAR 2009 Small Business Award, EPA Environmental Education Award, and collaborations with a number of organizations throughout New York state. Guests will have a chance to win door prizes and tour our green facility, Seneca Room, and rain garden. The current educational exhibit is titled Collection Fever and Scientific Adventurers: Historical record of Finger Lakes Research. Refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public.

November 12, 7:00 pm, Finger Lakes Institute (601 S. Main St., Geneva) (campus map)
The Geography of Everything: Can you really trust that map?
Nathan Burtch, FLI GIS Specialist
While maps have always been an important method of communication within a society, in recent times they are even more of an everyday sight. Whether it is the dashboard mounted GPS navigation unit in a car, or the various maps highlighting events the world over on the evening news broadcast, we use maps to understand spatial concepts on a daily basis. But how far can we trust these maps? In this presentation, Nathan Burtch will explain some processes in which maps are created, and how errors can be propagated and manipulated in published maps. While a wide variety of map subjects will be viewed, we will also look at maps showing issues of local importance, such as Marcellus shale and land use. This event is free and open to the public.

November 17, 4:30pm – 7:30 pm, HWS Warren Hunting Smith Library(campus map)
So You have a GPS Unit Part 2: How to Get Your Data Into Google Earth
Nathan Burtch and Sheila Myers, FLI Staff
Teachers, if you have been looking for ways to utilize the GPS units sitting in your classroom this workshop is for you! This workshop is Part 2 in our series of how to incorporate GPS technology into lesson plans. During this workshop participants will learn how to input data and coordinates into your GPS units and then download this information into a Google Earth platform. Registration is required by November 13. Please send the following information to the Finger Lakes Institute (601 S. Main St.) care of Sheila Myers.
Brochure and Registration Form

November 18, 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm, Albright Auditorium (campus map)
Food, Finance, and Climate: Seeing Common Roots, Searching for Solutions – Lecture and Panel Discussion
Frances Moore Lappe, founder of the Small Planet Institute and author of Diet for a Small Planet
Moderated by Rodmon King, HWS Philosophy Department
Frances Moore Lappe is a democracy advocate and world food and hunger expert who has authored or co-authored 16 books. She is the co-founder of three organizations, including Food First: The Institute for Food and Development Policy, and, more recently, the Small Planet Institute, which she leads with her daughter Anna Lappe. In 1987 she received the Right Livelihood Award (a.k.a, the "Alternative Nobel"). Her first book, Diet for a Small Planet, has sold three million copies and is considered "the blueprint for eating with a small carbon footprint since long before the term was coined" [JM Hirsch, Associated Press].
Her most recent book is Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World Gone Mad, awarded the Nautilus Gold/"Best in Small Press" award. In June 2008, that book and Diet for a Small Planet were designated as must-reads for the next U.S. president (by Barbara Kingsolver and Michael Pollan, respectively) in The New York Times Sunday Review of Books. Other recent books include Hope's Edge, written with Anna Lappe, about democratic social movements worldwide, as well as You Have the Power and Democracy's Edge.
Lappe has received 17 honorary doctorates from distinguished institutions including The University of Michigan and was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000-2001. She received the 2008 James Beard Foundation Humanitarian of the Year Award for her lifelong impact on the way people all over the world think about food, nutrition, and agriculture.
See the JBF's video introduction to Frances and her work here.
In 2008, Gourmet Magazine named Lappe among 25 people (including Thomas Jefferson, Upton Sinclair, and Julia Child), whose work has changed the way America eats. The same year, Diet for a Small Planet was selected as one of 75 Books by Women Whose Words Have Changed the World by members of the Women's National Book Association in observance of its 75th anniversary. Articles by or about Frances have appeared in O: The Oprah Magazine, Harper's, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, People, and more. She has most recently been featured in The Boston Globe, AARP: The Magazine, Sojourners, The Progressive, and on WSJ.com, The Huffington Post, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's The National, NPR, and the BBC.
Together, Lappe and her daughter Anna Lappe lead the Cambridge-based Small Planet Institute, a collaborative network for research and popular education to bring democracy to life. With her daughter, she is also co-founder of the Small Planet Fund, channeling resources to democratic social movements worldwide. More details about this specific event will come as the date approaches. This event is free and open to the public. Learn more about Frances Moore Lappe at www.smallplanet.org.

December

December 5, Hobart and William Smith Colleges Comstock Hall Dining Room and Lounge (campus map)
5th Annual Finger Lakes Research Conference
The 1st Annual Finger Lakes Research Conference for students, faculty and other scientists was held Saturday, October 8, 2005 at the Finger Lakes Institute, located on the campus of Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. The conference highlighted Finger Lakes scientific research, and provided opportunities to meet others interested in environmental science and scholarship, particularly as they apply to problems related to the Finger Lakes of western and central New York State. Both 15-minute oral presentations and afternoon poster displays were scheduled during the day-long conference. Presentations were either: 1) results of ongoing or completed research, or 2) research plans and proposals. Obtain conference forms, announcements and detailed information about the 5th Annual Finger Lakes Research Conference agenda and plans at fli.hws.edu/conference.asp
Our goal for this annual conference is to highlight all aspects of Finger Lakes research.
Potential Themes include but are not limited to:

• Wetland/Forest Ecosystem Studies;
• Limnology
• Fisheries, Trophic Interactions;
• Ecosystem Modeling;
• Watershed/Lake Interactions;
• Geolimnology, Sedimentology & Paleoclimatology;
• Meteorology, Physical Limnology & Atmosphere/Lake Interactions;
• Groundwater/Surface Water Hydrogeochemistry & Interactions;
• Exotic Species Introductions & Ecological Impacts;
• Environmental Chemistry & Toxicology;
• Environmental Engineering & Modeling; and
• All Environmental/Natural Sciences.

Funding for conference provided by NYS through the advocacy of Senator Michael F. Nozzolio. All those attending the Conference will receive FREE registration, which includes a copy of the extended abstract volume, refreshments, snacks and lunch.

Important dates for the 2009 Finger Lakes Research Conference include:
Abstracts Due October 26
Notification of Accepted Abstracts November 6
Announcement of Agenda Early November
Conference Registration Due November 27
Register Online!