On each episode of The Sweaty Penguin, we invite an expert to share their research and insights into that week’s topic. The Sweaty Penguin is proud to feature a wide variety of professors around the world, from countries including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Kenya, and Australia. Since the environment is so interdisciplinary, we invite guests from a number of fields such as Biology, Ecological Forecasting, Economics, Geology, History, International Relations, Medicine, Policy, and more. We encourage you to click on any of our guests below to learn more about their background, and to check out their interviews!
PAST GUESTS
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Patricia Keen
New York Institute of Technology -
Julie Zähringer
University of Bern -
Jennifer Le Zotte
University of North Carolina, Wilmington -
Christopher Conz
Tufts University -
Madhu Dutta-Koehler
Boston University -
Syma Ebbin
University of Connecticut -
Adil Najam
Boston University -
Valerie Pasquarella
Boston University -
Henrik Selin
Boston University -
Elizabeth Garland
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai -
Nathan Phillips
Boston University -
Robert Buchwaldt
Boston University -
Julie Klinger
University of Delaware -
Rachael Garrett
ETH Zürich -
Rick Reibstein
Boston University -
Sarah Phillips
Boston University -
Christopher Brown
Teed & Brown, Inc. -
Cutler Cleveland
Boston University
Patricia Keen
New York Institute of Technology
Dr. Patricia Keen is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Energy Management at the New York Institute of Technology, Vancouver Campus. Dr. Keen’s research focuses on antimicrobial resistance genes and antimicrobial resistant organisms as environmental contaminants, environmental effects of trace metal, inorganic and organic pollutants on water quality, and the fate and effects of emerging contaminants in the wastewater treatment process. She has published several papers on antimicrobial resistance and co-edited two books: Antimicrobial Resistance in the Environment and Antimicrobial Resistance in the Wastewater Treatment Process.
Click here to listen to Episode 18 on Wastewater Treatment Plants featuring Patricia Keen’s interview.
Julie Zähringer
University of Bern
Dr. Julie Zähringer is a Senior Research Scientist in the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Dr. Zähringer’s research focuses on land use changes, ecosystem services, and human well-being in the context of land investments and conservation in view of sustainable development in East Africa and South-East Asia. She has done extensive fieldwork in Northeastern Madagascar, and published several papers on cash crops in the region such as vanilla and clove. She is also a Co-leader of a scientific working group on “Telecoupling Research Towards Sustainable Transformation of Land Systems” within Future Earth’s Global Land Programme.
Click here to listen to Episode 17 on Vanilla featuring Julie Zähringer’s interview.
Jennifer Le Zotte
University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Dr. Jennifer Le Zotte is an Assistant Professor of U.S. History and material culture at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Dr. Le Zotte also authored the book From Goodwill to Grunge: A History of Secondhand Styles and Alternative Economies (UNC Press, 2017), which looks at how secondhand goods sold at thrift stores, flea markets, and garage sales came to be both profitable and culturally influential. Her work has appeared at CNNOpinion.com, smithsonianmag.com, Racked.com, theconversation.com, as well as in Winterthur Portfolio, The New England Quarterly, and Business History.
Click here to listen to Episode 16 on Fast Fashion featuring Jennifer Le Zotte’s interview.
Christopher Conz
Tufts University
Dr. Christopher R. Conz is a lecturer at Tufts University teaching African History, and he teaches writing seminars at Boston University on African environmental studies. His studies focus on the intersections of knowledge, agriculture, health, and development in Lesotho. This year, he published a paper entitled “(Un)Cultivating the Disease of Maize: Pellagra, Policy and Nutrition Practice in Lesotho, c.1933–1963” in The Journal of Southern African Studies.
Click here to listen to Episode 15 on Pellagra featuring Christopher Conz’s interview.
Madhu Dutta-Koehler
Boston University
Dr. Madhu Dutta-Koehler is an Associate Professor of Practice and Director, City Planning and Urban Affairs at the Boston University Metropolitan College. Dr. Dutta-Koehler’s current research interests include climate change adaptation — particularly in the urban Global South — and environmental sustainability in the built environment. Dr. Dutta-Koehler has over fifteen years of experience in the field of urban planning, design, and architecture as an educator, researcher, and practitioner. Dr. Dutta-Koehler also serves on the Faculty Advisory Boards for the Initiative on Cities and the Institute of Sustainable Energy, and is a Faculty Associate at the Pardee Center for the Longer Term Future at Boston University.
Click here to listen to Episode 14 on Megacities featuring Madhu Dutta-Koehler’s interview.
Syma Ebbin
University of Connecticut
Dr. Syma A. Ebbin is an Associate Professor in Residence at the University of Connecticut College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources. Her research has focused on developing better understandings of subsistence harvesting of coastal resources, marine spatial planning efforts in Long Island Sound, participatory management approaches including the Native American co-management of Pacific salmon in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest and soft shell clam co-management in the Georges River region of Maine. She is also the Research Coordinator of the Connecticut Sea Grant at UConn.
Click here to listen to Episode 13 on Wild Salmon featuring Syma Ebbin’s interview.
Adil Najam
Boston University
Dr. Adil Najam is the Inaugural Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. Before becoming the Dean, Dr. Najam served as Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in Lahore, Pakistan and as the Director of the Boston University Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. Dr. Najam was a co-author for the Third and Fourth Assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, work for which the scientific panel was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the public understanding of climate change science. In 2008 he was invited by the United Nations Secretary-General to serve on the UN Committee on Development (CDP). Dr. Najam has written over 100 scholarly papers and book chapters.
Click here to listen to Episode 12 on Rethinking Climate Change, featuring Adil Najam’s interview.
Valerie Pasquarella
Boston University
Dr. Valerie Pasquarella is a Research Assistant Professor at the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences in the Department of Earth and Environment. Her research focuses mainly on the intersection of remote sensing and ecology along with the mapping and monitoring of landscape dynamics. In 2018, Dr. Pasquarella published a paper in the journal Biological Invasions on gypsy moth related defoliation in Southern New England.
Click here to listen to Episode 11 on Gypsy Moths featuring Valerie Pasquarella’s interview.
Henrik Selin
Boston University
Dr. Henrik Selin is the Associate Dean for Studies at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He is also an Associate Professor of International Relations specializing in global and regional politics and policy making on environment and sustainable development. He is the author of the book EU and Environmental Governance, and is the co-editor of two books: Changing Climates in North American Politics: Institutions, Policymaking, and Multilevel Governance, and Transatlantic Environment and Energy Politics: Comparative and International Perspectives.
Click here to listen to Episode 10 on the United Nations Environment Programme featuring Henrik Selin’s interview.
Elizabeth Garland
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Dr. Elizabeth Garland is a Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She has been Director of the EMPH Division of Preventive Medicine and Community Health since 2002 and as Director of the General Preventive Medicine Residency since 1995. She is also the Principle Investigator on a Children’s Environmental Health Foundation study to evaluate the impact of LEED-certified green housing on asthma, obesity, and social factors in the South Bronx.
Click here to listen to Episode 9 on Asthma featuring Elizabeth Garland’s interview.
Nathan Phillips
Boston University
Dr. Nathan Phillips is an Earth & Environment Professor at Boston University and the Acting Director of the BU Institute for Sustainability’s Sustainable Neighborhood Lab. His research focuses on physiological mechanisms that regulate water, carbon, and energy exchanges between plants/ecosystems and the environment as it pertains to environmental change, particularly in cities. Dr. Phillips has been one of the most vocal critics of the Weymouth Compressor Station project, and has worked closely with the local community group Fore River Residents Against Compressor Station (FRRACS).
Click here to listen to Episode 8 on Natural Gas Compressor Stations featuring Nathan Phillips’ interview.
Robert Buchwaldt
Boston University
Dr. Robert Buchwaldt is a Research Assistant Professor in the Earth & Environment department at Boston University, specifically focused on geology and earth science. One of Dr. Buchwaldt’s primary research interests is plate tectonics, which in addition to causing earthquakes, cause volcanoes, and help geologists trace the earth’s history and climate back millions of years. Dr. Buchwaldt has published dozens of scientific papers on geology, acts as a reviewer on several ranking journals including Nature, and was a scientific adviser on BBC’s “Madagascar” and “Earth” with David Attenborough.
Click here to listen to Episode 7 on Earthquakes featuring Robert Buchwaldt’s interview.
Julie Klinger
University of Delaware
Dr. Julie Klinger is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences at the University of Delaware. Dr. Klinger’s research focuses on the geography, geology and geopolitics of development and resource usage, with a particular emphasis on social and environmental sustainability. Klinger is the author of Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes which won the 2017 Meridian Book Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work in Geography given by the American Association of Geographers (AAG).
Click here to listen to Episode 6 on Rare Earth Minerals featuring Julie Klinger’s interview.
Rachael Garrett
ETH Zürich
Dr. Rachael Garrett is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy at ETH Zürich. Dr. Garrett’s research examines interactions between agriculture, ecosystem services, and economic development to better define what sustainable food systems look like and how to achieve them. She has spent years interviewing Brazilian farmers to better understand the challenges of extensive cattle ranching and deforestation in the Amazon. She is also on the editorial board for LAND.
Click here to listen to Episode 5 on Beef featuring Rachael Garrett’s interview.
Rick Reibstein
Boston University
Rick Reibstein is a Lecturer in Boston University’s Earth & Environment department, the Principal Director of the Coalition for a Public Conversation on Lead, and the Founder and Director of the Regulated Community Compliance Project which is focused on ensuring that real estate professionals understand the federal requirements pertaining to lead paint in residences. Professor Reibstein previously worked for 27 years as the Assistant Director of the Massachusetts Office of Technical Assistance, where he helped nearly 2,000 facilities to reduce the use of toxics. From 2000-2003, he worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, mostly enforcing the lead disclosure rule.
Click here to listen to Episode 4 on Lead Paint featuring Rick Reibstein’s interview.
Sarah Phillips
Boston University
Dr. Sarah Phillips is a Professor of History at Boston University and the Co-Executive Editor of Cambridge’s Modern American History journal. Some of her primary research interests are history of land use and conservation, environmental history, and history of the American West. She is the author of the book This Land, This Nation: Conservation, Rural America, and the New Deal, which posits a new interpretation of the New Deal, saying that it used conversation and environmental policy to economically rehabilitate rural areas and in doing so, gained their support for large government land management institutions.
Click here to listen to Episode 3 on Yosemite National Park featuring Sarah Phillips’ interview.
Christopher Brown
Teed & Brown, Inc.
Christopher Brown is the Co-Founder and CEO of Teed & Brown, a company that “combines science with practical knowledge to provide unique lawn care solutions” for Connecticut and New York homes. Prior to launching Teed & Brown, Chris received a Bachelor’s in Turfgrass Science at Penn State, and served as Assistant Superintendent at Rockrimmon Country Club in Stamford, CT. Teed & Brown is known for investing in safe, high quality pest control products, and employs strategies like Integrated Pest Management.
Click here to listen to Episode 2 on Lawn Pesticides featuring Christopher Brown’s interview.
Cutler Cleveland
Boston University
Dr. Cutler Cleveland is a Professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University and Associate Director of the Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy. Dr. Cleveland’s research and teaching focus on the connection among energy, climate change, and sustainability. He recently served as the principal investigator for Carbon Free Boston, a technical assessment of strategies with a significant focus in transportation policy, to assist the City of Boston in reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.
Click here to listen to Episode 1 on Traffic, featuring Cutler Cleveland’s interview.
UPCOMING GUESTS
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Douglas Arion
Carthage College -
Graeme Auld
Carleton University -
Jennifer Allan
Cardiff University -
Kottie Christie-Blick
University of San Diego -
Luz Claudio
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai -
Margaret Awuor Owuor
South Eastern Kenya University -
Michael Dietze
Boston University -
Michael Kingsford
James Cook University -
Noelle Eckley Selin
Massachusetts Institute of Technology -
Pamela Templer
Boston University -
Susan Park
University of Sydney -
Travis Wagner
University of Southern Maine
Douglas Arion
Carthage College
Dr. Douglas Arion is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Donald D. Hedberg Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Carthage College. Dr. Arion is also the Executive Director of Mountains of Stars, a partnership of colleges that offers astronomy-based programs and activities to the public to promote “environmental awareness from a cosmic perspective.” Prior to Carthage, he was head of the Applied Physics and Engineering Division and Assistant Vice President at Science Applications International Corporation, developing and directing research in radiation effects, space systems, and electro- and optical-mechanical systems. He also serves on the dark sky preservation commissions of both the American Astronomical Society and International Astronomical Union, and is an International Dark Sky Ambassador.
Graeme Auld
Carleton University
Dr. Graeme Auld is a Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University in Canada. Dr. Auld’s research focuses on comparative environmental politics and policy, global environmental governance, and the rise of private governance and authority. Much of his work examines the formation, evolution, and impacts of non-state and hybrid forms of global governance across economic sectors. He is the author of Constructing Private Governance: The Rise and Evolution of Forest, Coffee, and Fisheries Certification, which explores product certification programs and the factors that explain their varied success in becoming global governors equipped to tackle environmental and social problems effectively.
Jennifer Allan
Cardiff University
Dr. Jennifer Allan is a Lecturer in International Relations at Cardiff University in Wales. Through contributing to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin – the de facto record of global environmental negotiations, Dr. Allan has attended roughly 40 UN conferences where states negotiate the rules of global climate governance, as well as chemicals and wastes management, and has published over 100 Bulletins with her ENB colleagues. Her recent work focuses on the politics of sustainable post-COVID recoveries, including green stimulus packages in the UK and the emergence of the green recovery norm globally. She is part of the COP26 Universities Network, a growing group of more than 30 UK-based universities that created a briefing this year for policymakers outlining a path to net-zero emissions economic recovery from COVID-19.
Kottie Christie-Blick
University of San Diego
Kottie Christie-Blick is an instructor at the University of San Diego, and a Climate Education Consultant. She works with educators – elementary through high school – helping them design climate change and sustainability lessons that fit with their required curriculum. She is also an award-winning classroom teacher, member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Planet Stewards Program, and webmaster of the popular website, KidsAgainstClimateChange.com.
Luz Claudio
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Dr. Luz Claudio is a tenured professor of environmental medicine and public health at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. She is also Chief of the Division of International Health. Her research focuses on how environmental factors affect health in vulnerable populations such as children and those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged. She is best known for studies on health disparities in children and for her work in global health. Her recent paper, “Combined association of BTEX and material hardship on ADHD-suggestive behaviours among a nationally representative sample of US children,” found a link between ADHD and toxic air pollutants in marginalized communities.
Margaret Awuor Owuor
South Eastern Kenya University
Dr. Margaret Awuor Owuor is a Lecturer in the School of Environment, Water and Natural Resources Management at South Eastern Kenya University. She is also a National Geographic Explorer, and Education and Science Officer of the Society for Conservation Biology, Africa Chapter. She has studied the valuation and mapping of mangrove ecosystem services in Mida Creek, and has received a National Geographic Society Early Career Grant to carry out a project on mapping of mangrove ecosystem services flow in Mtwapa Creek. She is also interested in adopting the ecosystem services approach to the management of aquatic ecosystems, particularly the mangroves of Kenya. She leads a research group that will study the management and conservation of mangroves as an important ecosystem along the coast. She has also been working on enhancing community involvement and participation in conservation through tree planting initiatives.
Michael Dietze
Boston University
Dr. Michael Dietze is an Associate Professor of Earth & Environment at Boston University. Dr. Dietze leads the Ecological Forecasting Laboratory, the mission of which is to better understand and predict ecological systems. Much of the current work in the lab is organized under two broad umbrellas, the Near-term Ecological Forecasting Initiative (NEFI) and the PEcAn project. NEFI is focused on addressing overarching questions about ecological predictability while developing forecasts for a wide range of ecological processes (vegetation phenology and land-surface fluxes; ticks, tick-borne disease, and small mammal hosts; soil microbiome; aquatic productivity and algal blooms) and advancing statistical and informatics tools for ecological forecasting. PEcAn is focused more specifically on the terrestrial carbon cycle, improving our capacity for carbon MRV (monitoring, reporting, verification), forecasting, data assimilation, and multi-model benchmarking and calibration within the land component of Earth System models. Dr. Dietze is the author of Ecological Forecasting, and a coauthor of the 2020 study “Pervasive shifts in forest dynamics in a changing world,” which was published in Science Magazine.
Michael Kingsford
James Cook University
Dr. Michael Kingsford is a Distinguished Professor of Marine Biology at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. Dr. Kingsford was recently the Dean of the JCU College of Science and Engineering, and has served as the President of the Australian Coral Reef Society, the Director of One Tree Island Research Station, a Chief Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Innovative Coral Reef Studies, and a member of the Great Barrier Reef Research Foundation and the Museum of Tropical Queensland advisory committees. He has published one hundred and ninety six publications including three major books: Studying Temperate Marine Environment: A Handbook for Ecologists, and the first and second editions of Great Barrier Reef: Biology, Environment and Management. A major focus of his research has been on connectivity of reef fish populations, environmental records in corals and fishes and deadly irukandji jellyfishes.
Noelle Eckley Selin
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr. Noelle Eckley Selin is Associate Professor in the Institute for Data, Systems and Society and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and Director of MIT’s Technology and Policy Program. Her research uses modeling and analysis to inform sustainability decision-making, focusing on issues involving air pollution, climate change and hazardous substances such as mercury. She received her PhD and M.A. (Earth and Planetary Sciences) and B.A. (Environmental Science and Public Policy) from Harvard University. Her work has focused on atmospheric chemistry, air pollution, as well as interactions between science and policy in international environmental negotiations. She is the recipient of a U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER award (2011), a Leopold Leadership fellow (2013-2014), Kavli fellow (2015), a member of the Global Young Academy (2014-2018), an American Association for the Advancement of Science Leshner Leadership Institute Fellow (2016-2017), and a Hans Fischer Senior Fellow at the Technical University of Munich Institute for Advanced Study (2018-2021).
Pamela Templer
Boston University
Dr. Pamela Templer is a Professor of Biology at Boston University. Dr. Templer leads the Templer Lab, which explores how plant-microbial interactions influence carbon exchange, nitrogen retention, forest productivity, and water and air quality, and collaborates with governments, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. Dr. Templer has done extensive fieldwork in temperate forests of the northeastern United States, urban sites throughout the Greater Boston Area, and tropical forests of Mexico. Some of her recent work studied the effects of snowpack decline and soil freezing on northern forest tree growth, including the sugar maples that are home to New England’s maple syrup industry.
Susan Park
University of Sydney
Dr. Susan Park is a Professor of Global Governance at the University of Sydney in Australia. Dr. Park’s research examines both Accountability in Global Environmental Governance, and the rise, spread and efficacy of accountability mechanisms that have been created by Multilateral Development Banks in order to redress the negative impacts of development projects on local communities. She is Associate Editor of Global Environmental Politics, and was the chair of the fifth Oceanic International Studies Conference, a biennial event that is the largest conference on international relations and international studies in Australia and New Zealand. Dr. Park was the editor of Global Environmental Governance and the Accountability Trap.
Travis Wagner
University of Southern Maine
Dr. Travis Wagner is a Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of Southern Maine. Dr. Wagner’s research focuses on sustainable material management especially the application of zero waste principles to eliminate, reduce, and recover single-use consumer plastics with innovative environmental policy instruments. Prior to teaching, Dr. Wagner worked for a series of environmental firms focusing on a variety of environmental projects including solid and hazardous waste policy development; contaminated site remediation; pollution prevention; and regulatory compliance. He has published several papers on policy instruments to reduce the use of single-use plastics such as straws and bags.
