The science and reasoning behind New York State’s ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, will be examined from different perspectives by Fredonia at the Arts and Science’s Brown Bag Lecture on Wednesday, Feb. 4, beginning at noon at Williams Center Room S204.
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| Dr. Sherri Mason |
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| Dr. Peter Reinelt |
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| Glen Wahl |
Panelists who will react to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s ban on fracking include Sherri Mason, professor of Chemistry and coordinator of the Environmental Sciences program, who will also act as the moderator; Peter Reinelt, associate professor and chair of the Department of Economics; and Glenn Wahl, a regional environmentalist and co-founder of Cattaraugus-Chautauqua for Clean Water.
The panelists have distinguished themselves in their respective fields.
Dr. Mason is at the forefront of research into plastic pollution within freshwater ecosystems and supervises a research group that is currently analyzing how plastics may make their way through wastewater treatment systems, the food web, streams and sediment.
With a background in atmospheric kinetics and the impact of combustion emission, Mason has led research groups that have examined the impacts of forest fires on atmospheric chemistry, computational model development, computational chemical analyses, smog chamber studies, food waste analyses and biogas production studies. Mason has a doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Montana.
An economist specializing in agricultural and resource economics, Dr. Reinelt has served as a water resources research consultant since 1997. Reinelt’s research in natural resource/environmental economics has been recognized internationally. He has worked as a program director for national park development projects in Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
His doctorate in Agricultural and Resource Economics is from the University of California-Berkeley. Reinelt has also done post-doctoral work at Carnegie Mellon University through the Center for the Integrated Study of the Human Dimensions of Global Change.
Wahl, a retired teacher and area educator and geologist, has presented his findings to a number of regional organizations and participated in debates and workshops on issues related to fracking. He has degrees in Environmental Biology and Geology and has extensively studied issues related to fracking.
Now in its 11th year, the Arts and Sciences Brown Bag Lecture Series, sponsored by the Fredonia College Foundation's Carnahan-Jackson Humanities Fund and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, offers free monthly talks that showcase scholarly and creative work by Fredonia faculty, staff, students and community partners.
Free and open to the public, the talks provide opportunities for intellectual conversations across disciplinary boundaries and seek to create a broad and vigorous community of learners on the campus. A question-and-answer session follows the presentations. Light refreshments will be served.
Drs. Natalie Gerber, Jack Croxton, and Laura Johnson are serving on the CLAS Brown Bag Committee for the spring term.
