Knowledge Created
Research at ESF is remarkably diverse, current and challenging, with contributions being made in fields like aquatic ecosystems, bioenergy, biotechnology, biodiversity, ecology, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, remote sensing, wildlife disease prevention and many others.
ESF is a leader in integrating the energy and excitement of research with the formal requirements of degree and certificate programs. A high percentage of undergraduates and virtually all graduate students participate in research activity as part of their educational experience.
The Office of Research Programs (ORP)
ORP is the central resource for the initiation, funding and management of all ESF research activity. We seek to stimulate, facilitate and highlight research, and we strive to make college research opportunities broad and achievable.
Featured Research
ESF Discovery Challenge
(ESF has announced the winners of the ESF Discovery Challenge Seed Grants. The Discovery Challenge engaged the ESF community to identify five initiatives that will receive SUNY funding. Twenty-six pre-proposals were submitted, with 18 proposal teams invited to make speed talk presentations in front of the campus community in January. The Discovery Advisory Group narrowed the field to the final five proposals
"It's a wake-up call"
Humans have a "disproportionate effect" on the other species of vertebrates that share Earth's surface with us, causing more than 25 percent of the deaths among an array of species all over the globe, according to a recently published study.
Chestnut Restoration Milestone
Two new studies on the environmental impact of transgenic American chestnut trees provide evidence that the trees have no harmful effects on germinating seeds, beneficial fungi, or larval frogs that are dependable indicators of environmental quality.
New Frog Found
Months of old-fashioned scientific fieldwork — more than 2,000 surveys of chirping frog calls, hundreds of photos of individual frogs and tiny tissue samples taken from them — has helped define the range and unique characteristics of the recently discovered Atlantic Coast leopard frog.
Unusual Molecule Discovered
Two ESF scientists are part of a research team that recently discovered an unusual molecule that is produced in the oceans by planktonic microalgae and bacteria. Dr. David Kieber of the Department of Chemistry and Ph.D. student Liang Chen worked on the project with collaborators from the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena in Germany. Their study was published in the prestigious science journal Nature.
CCDR Receives Grant
A grant to engage teenagers on Syracuse's Near Westside as co-researchers to investigate issues impacting their neighborhoods was received by ESF's Center for Community Design Research. The proposal, submitted by Associate Professor Maren King in the Department of Landscape Architecture in collaboration with The Near Westside Peacemaking Project, was awarded the grant by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the federal agency responsible for the AmeriCorps program.
Stephen Stehman in "Nature"
ESF Distinguished Teaching Professor Stephen V. Stehman is co-author of a paper published in the journal "Nature," in which he and his colleagues report on the analysis of 35 years of satellite data and provide the first comprehensive record of global land change dynamics between 1982 and 2016.
Combating Age-related Illness
The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) and Ichor Therapeutics are partnering to train graduate students in researching drugs that could combat age-related illnesses. The educational component will occur at ESF, where students will focus on biochemistry, chemistry or bioprocess engineering. Their laboratory research will primarily occur at the facilities of Ichor Therapeutics in nearby LaFayette, New York. Ichor is a pre-clinical drug discovery and development company that specializes in mechanisms of aging.
What Species Is Most Fit for Life?
There are more than 8 million species of living things on Earth, but none of them - from 100-foot blue whales to microscopic bacteria - has an advantage over the others in the universal struggle for existence. In a paper published today (Jan. 8) in the prestigious journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, a trio of scientists from universities in the United States and the United Kingdom describe the dynamic that began with the origin of life on Earth 4 billion years ago.
