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Katrina. Irene. Droughts in Texas and the Horn of Africa. Floods in the Midwest, Thailand and Pakistan. What's next?

Does the progression of climate change indicate future incidents of "extreme weather"? Predicting the timing of such events remains an uncertain business. How should scientists communicate such risks to a skeptical public? How are members of the public likely to assess these risks? And how can policymakers make plans for adaptation, mitigation and development in the face of this uncertainty?

Four distinguished panelists will address these and related questions in a series of short presentations followed by a dynamic panel and public discussion.

• Gabriel Vecchi - Research Oceanographer, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Baruch Fischhoff - Howard Heinz University Professor of Social and Decision Sciences and Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University
• Joe Witte - George Mason University, Center for Climate Change Communication, broadcast meteorologist, formerly chief meteorologist at NBC-TV
• Richard Moss - Senior Staff Scientist with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Joint Global Change Research Institute at the University of Maryland and Visiting Senior Research Scientist at Maryland's Earth Systems Science Interdisciplinary Center 
This colloquium is co-sponsored by the Initiative on Climate and Society and the Climate and Environmental Change Initiative.Light refreshments will be served. Please register for this event here.

Scholarship Says 'Well Done' for

Two Outstanding Pre-Veterinary Students

Two Animal Sciences students who always dreamed of being veterinarians now have reason to be doubly happy: each has been accepted to prestigious veterinary schools, and each has just received a scholarship that will help her be able to save to get there.

Clair Park and Divya Ramnath are George H. Cook Honors Scholars working under the tutelage of Sarah Ralston, VMD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences

Professor Ralston (with one of the RU young horses) is advisor to Clair and Divya.

at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. For their honors theses, they have been analyzing data collected by Ralston through her Young Horse Teaching and Research Program.

The two seniors recently were notified that they will share a scholarship that is a combination of a gift of a Rutgers staff member, who wanted to honor her longtime equine veterinarian, John Walsh, DVM, himself an alumnus of the School, and a donation from Lenore Carasia, who has been a loyal supporter the Young Horse Teaching and Research Program.

In addition to high academic achievement, the students' love of animals has guided their routes to this successful destination.

Clair has managed the longest journey: from childhood in Korea, where she had the opportunity to assist a local veterinarian as a teenager, to a new life in the United States and the tremendous challenges of integrating into an English-speaking American culture and working full time to help her mother establish a business in this country. Her transition was a struggle, she says, but she wouldn't abandon her dream, and that led her to volunteer at a local animal hospital, which then led her to Rutgers.

Divya started as a child volunteer, socializing cats before their adoption at a nearby SPCA. She came to Rutgers with veterinary medicine as a goal and soon "graduated" from cats and dogs to large animals -- working with goats, sheep, dairy cattle and horses on Rutgers' College Farm Road. At the same time, she scored a veterinary assistantship at a nearby clinic - all the while keeping up with her research and studies at the university.

In addition to the financial boost, the scholarships validate the students' dedication - both on and off campus. "One cannot overestimate the impact of scholarships for these hard-working students," says Ralston. "The pre-veterinary curriculum is especially rigorous, and almost always, our students have obligations outside the classroom - interning in a veterinary clinic for experience or, in Clair's case, working full-time in her mother's store in North Jersey. A scholarship in any amount is a declaration of 'Job well done!'"

For Clair and Divya, graduation is just around the corner. And their veterinary school acceptances? Clair's choice will be - depending on finances - Cornell, Tufts, Penn or Wisconsin. Divya has Penn, Ohio State and Tufts from which to choose, and she says she has decided on Penn.

According to the Rutgers University Foundation, more than 86 percent of all Rutgers students need and receive financial aid. If you are interested in supporting the School's scholarship program, please contact Kelly Watts at watts@aesop.rutgers.edu.