Contributor: Stephen C. Nodvin

Click here to view all articles this Topic Editor is responsible for.
Click here to view all articles written by this Author.

Stewardship Committee

The Encyclopedia of Earth

I serve as Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Science and an Associate Professor of Natural Sciences at Wentworth Institute of technology in Boston, Massachusetts. My background is in science and technology and I have held leadership positions in academia, government, and business. I am a member of the Liberal Arts Committee of the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences (CCAS). I am also a member of the "Deans Think Tank" of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education (NERCHE).

Prior to my work at Wentworth, I served in a number of positions in academia, government, and business. I have been a government researcher and administrator, university professor, business owner and entrepreneur, and technical consultant. I have taught undergraduate and graduate courses; directed Master’s, Doctoral, and Post-Doctoral students; and have presented research results at many national and international scientific meetings and symposia. I have authored and co-authored scientific research papers published in peer-reviewed journals. I organized and was the proceedings editor of an international scientific conference on fire and the environment published by the U.S. Forest Service. I have developed business plans and made presentations to the investment community including venture capital firms and Wall Street investment banks. As part of my research and educational activities, I participated in federal agency and congressional workshops in areas such as Global Change, made presentations to school and civic groups, and gave interviews to local, regional and national media.

My undergraduate degree is in Biology from Emory University. As a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellow at Cornell University, I completed my doctoral research on biogeochemical processes in the White Mountains of New Hampshire as part of the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study. The focus of that work was the effects of atmospheric deposition and forest management on nutrient flows and streamwater quality.The results of that work led to the publication of a number of papers in journals including Biogeochemistry and the journal Nature. Since completing my doctoral work, I have had the opportunity of conducting related research projects on streams, lakes, and watersheds in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, the coastal mountains of Maine, and several national parks including Sequoia National Park and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. My research areas have included studying multiple environmental impacts to natural ecosystems including: global climate change; atmospheric deposition and air pollution; acid mine drainage; bridge construction, forest management, invasive and introduced species, and fire.

As a research scientist and administrator, I developed a number of grant proposals for cooperative research projects. These projects were submitted to and funded by agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Electric Power Research Institute. I served in the capacity of project manager, research coordinator, or principal investigator and managed the operations and budgets of the projects. In several instances, I established analytical laboratories for testing water quality and identified and implemented new field research sites and stream monitoring programs. I coordinated research efforts and logistics for projects that involved at any one time in excess of a dozen academic institutions, corporate landowners, and state and government agencies. I managed dozens of students, staff, and cooperative researchers on campus and at numerous environmental field sites.

A primary focus of my interests today is the current state of American educational systems, with particular reference to science education. As I have written in my blog, the weak state of science literacy in American college students and high school students is deeply concerning. The good news is that we can now see positive developments on U.S. efforts to improve student literacy and American competitiveness.

I see the Encyclopedia of Earth as a very important project towards helping enhance students' and the general public's understanding of the science of natural processes.

--

Stephen C. Nodvin, Ph.D. Head, Dept. of Applied Math & Science Wentworth Institute of Technology 550 Huntington Avenue Boston, MA 02115

[Image:]