A series of research articles examining bat biology and ecology. Articles include The pale spear-nosed bat: A neuromolecular and transgenic model for vocal learning; From island biogeography to landscape and metacommunity ecology: A macroecological perspective of bat communities; Sick bats stay home alone: fruit bats practice social distancing when faced with an immunological challenge; A review of the major threats and challenges to global bat conservation; Individuality and function of chemical signals during conflict resolution of a mammal; Changing resource landscapes and spillover of henipaviruses; Ecosystem services provided by bats; Naturally Long-Lived Animal Models for the Study of Slow Aging and Longevity; Testing the Free Radical Theory of Aging in Bats; Plasmhogen Activators from the Saliva of Desmodus rotundus (Common Vampire Bat): Unique Fibrin Specificity; The Nervus Terminalis in Insectivorous Bat Embryos and Notes on Its Presence During Human Ontogeny; The Sonar Receiver of the Bat; The Possible Role of Brown Fat as a Source of Heat During Arousal from Hibernation; Histochemical and Microchemical Observations on the Lipids of the Interscapular Brown Fat of the Female Vespertilionid Bat Myotis Lucifugus Lucifugus; Bat Rabies: Experimental Host Transmission Studies; Blood Circulation in the Subcutaneous Tissue of the Living Bat’s Wing; On Two Species of Plecotus inhabiting the United States Territory; and Descriptions of Five Species of Vespertilio that inhabit the Environs of the City of New-York.
Three scientists were selected from 169 entries by an international jury of renowned experts for their innovations in food security, sustainability, and healthcare. Each winner will receive INR 2 crores (approximately US$240,000) and will be honoured at a ceremony in Mumbai in December 2023. The jury included distinguished scientists, clinicians, technologists, and engineers spanning six continents from a variety of organizations, including IBM Research, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Public Health Foundation of India, and UN-Habitat.
The 2023 Tata Transformation Prize Winners are:
Food Security Winner: Shilpi Sharma, PhD, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Professor Shilpi Sharma was selected by the jury for her work in the engineering of the soil microbiome using synthetic microbial communities, called microBIOme-based soil TRANSFORMation (BIOTRANSFORM). Plant diseases threaten crop productivity and, consequently, the global economy. Unlike conventional farming that uses agrochemicals and synthetic fertilizers, soil amended organically has the natural ability to suppress a wide range of plant pathogens. Starting from naturally suppressive soil, Shilpi will catalog the active microbial players and their mechanism of suppression of a range of phytopathogens. Her work will be the first to map the natural suppressive potential of soil across six states of India and to harness this potential by microbiome engineering to facilitate sustainable agriculture in the country and beyond.
Sustainability Winner: Purnananda Guptasarma, PhD, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali Professor Purnananda Guptasarma was selected by the jury for his breakthrough methods to degrade polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a common plastic pollutant, using enzymes. PET is currently produced and used at unsustainable levels, creating worldwide plastic pollution and micro-plastic contamination in the air, water, and soil, as well as in animal and human bodies. Only 9% of PET is actually recycled worldwide. Guptasarma’s enzyme-driven strategy uses engineered thermostable enzymes and reactions to demonstrate that solid PET can be broken up into its smallest molecular building blocks with high yield and ultra-high purity to enable PET’s degradation and recycling into virgin plastic. Building on this proof of concept at the laboratory-scale, Guptasarma will further identify and improve enzymatic reagents and reactions for PET degradation and attempt to produce the best enzymes in quantities allowing pilot-scale PET-waste degradation and recycling.
Healthcare Winner: Anurag S. Rathore, PhD, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Professor Anurag S. Rathore is a healthcare pioneer aiming to reduce the manufacturing cost of biotherapeutics for treating cancer and autoimmune diseases, thus enabling equal access to these top-tier, expensive treatments currently out of reach for 90% of the Indian population. Rathore has established a state-of-the-art drug manufacturing facility with continuous processing that incorporates novel methods for real-time process monitoring and control. Rathore’s innovation is projected to reduce manufacturing costs by 50-75%, making best-in-class biotherapeutics for complex diseases significantly more affordable for Indian populations in need and further advancing India’s position at the forefront of global medical innovation.
N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman of the Board of Tata Sons, said, “We are extremely delighted to announce the first cohort of Tata Transformation Prize winners and their groundbreaking innovations aimed at solving India’s national problems in the areas of food security, sustainability, and healthcare. On behalf of Tata Sons, we are pleased to provide these scientists a global stage to take their technologies from India to the rest of the world.”
Nicholas Dirks, President and CEO of The New York Academy of Sciences, said, “Congratulations to the first Winners of the 2023 Tata Transformation Prize. From developing new soil enhancements to improve crop yield, creating methods to make critical medicines available to all, and developing techniques to tackle plastic pollution, these scientists are making important contributions to Indian society and the world. We also thank the jury for sharing their time and expertise in reviewing the submissions in the first year of the Tata Transformation Prize.”
About the Tata Transformative Prize
The Tata Transformation Prize was established in 2022 by Tata Sons and The New York Academy of Sciences to support breakthrough, innovative technologies that address India’s most significant challenges. By recognizing and supporting the implementation at scale of high-risk, high-reward research, the Prize will drive impactful innovation in scientific disciplines of importance to India’s societal needs and economic competitiveness. The Prize will leverage the exceptional potential of scientists in India to address critical national challenges in three categories—Food Security, Sustainability, and Healthcare—and generate improved life quality outcomes across India and beyond. The Tata Transformation Prize recognizes one Winner in each category, with INR 2 crores (approximately US$240,000) for each Winner. Click here for more information about the Tata Transformation Prize.
About the Tata Group
Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, the Tata Group is a global enterprise, headquartered in India, comprising 30 companies across ten verticals. The group operates in more than 100 countries across six continents, with a mission ‘To improve the quality of life of the communities we serve globally, through long-term stakeholder value creation based on Leadership with Trust’.
Tata Sons is the principal investment holding company and promoter of Tata companies. Sixty-six percent of the equity share capital of Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts, which support education, health, livelihood generation and art and culture.
In 2022-23, the revenue of Tata companies, taken together, was $150 billion (INR 12 trillion). These companies collectively employ over 1 million people. Each Tata company or enterprise operates independently under the guidance and supervision of its own board of directors. There are 29 publicly listed Tata enterprises with a combined market capitalisation of $300 billion (INR 24 trillion) as on July 31, 2023. Companies include Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals, Tata Consumer Products, Titan, Tata Capital, Tata Power, Tata Communications, Indian Hotels, Tata Digital, Air India and Tata Electronics. Website: https://www.tata.com
The Tata Transformation Prize is the latest in a series of prominent awards and scholarship programs The New York Academy of Sciences and its partners present each year to accomplished early-career and established scientists worldwide. These initiatives, along with education and professional development programs for students and young scientists, reflect the Academy’s broader commitment to strengthening and diversifying the pipeline for skilled and talented scientists globally. Please visit us online at nyas.org.
Published since 2020, The Year in Climate Science Research is a rolling submission series covering diverse topics in climate science. The editor is Dr. Luis Gimeno, University of Vigo, Spain.
This International Science Reserve online event was hosted by The New York Academy of Sciences. It was of particular interest to those interested in risk management, as well as crisis and disaster preparedness and response—including the 1000+ members of the ISR science community.
In this special edition of Science Unusual, we bring you the International Science Reserve’s session from the Science Summit at the 2023 United Nations General Assembly.
Team members:Tianze H. (Team Lead) (United States), Tianlai H. (United States), Radwa A. (Egypt)
Mentor:Olusola Ladokun (Nigeria)
Urban gardening can be an effective way to provide fresh and healthy food at a low cost, particularly in parts of the world where food security remains elusive. But it involves many variables– climate, soil, location, sun exposure, type of crop– and urban residents often need education and guidance in order to be successful gardeners right from the start.
Three students — Tianze H. (United States, Team Lead), Tianlai H. (United States), Radwa A. (Egypt) — worked under the guidance of their mentor, Olusola Ladokun (Nigeria) to address this knowledge gap, and ultimately won the Spring 2023 Junior Academy Innovation Challenge with their project, “Family Farming: The Ultimate Planting Companion”. The project aims to promote urban gardening around the world by providing useful tips to city dwellers that enables them to supplement their diet with home grown crops.
“After long discussions we finally settled on the current idea,” says Tianlai. “Personally, I contributed creative ideas for our projects, like using deep learning algorithms in our application. I also worked with my teammates on the slides, adding things that they might have missed.” To identify what information would-be gardeners might need, the team conducted a small survey before designing an eco-friendly app called Family Farmers. The app contains a scanner that taps into existing plant and weather databases in order to identify the best potential garden locations based on available amount of space and local climate. The app also provides information about farming methods. It also shows how common household items can help reduce gardening costs.
Adding a Fun Factor to Urban Gardening
Family Farmers is designed to be the ultimate tool for aspiring gardeners, with an AI search engine that can be used to find suitable plants, an option to share progress and tips with a community of like-minded garden enthusiasts, and a calendar to remind users when to water and take care of their plants. The students also added an element of entertainment to their app, with plant-related games that provide fun facts about gardening.
Developing this innovative solution required hard work. The small but mighty team size (just three people) did not deter the committed students– in fact, it helped with the difficult task of coordinating online meetings across time zones.
Strengthening Relationships
“The size of the group does not matter. In fact, it might have even helped everyone strengthen our relationships,” says Team Lead Tianze.
“We were also able to help each other and make up for what we may not be good at. The teammates were willing to cooperate and overcome the time differences that we have,” says Tianze. “We were also able to help each other and make up for what we may not be good at. Helping to solve a real-world problem was a great experience.”
Team member Radwa enjoyed researching the issues surrounding gardening in an urban environment and collaborating with international students. “This was my first time in a program that involves meeting students from different nationalities and working together on new ideas,” he said. “This is a wonderful thing and I’m very glad to have gone through this experience, meeting new friends and learning many things in a field that I’m passionate about. I hope to do something that is related to it one day.”
The Junior Academy was supported by the Stevens Initiative, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. Government, and is administered by the Aspen Institute.
The International Science Reserve convened an expert panel to talk about the role of data in preparing for and responding to potential food system crises.
The world has enough food to feed everyone, yet the World Food Programme estimates that 345 million people around the world remain acutely food insecure in 2023.
Potentially further escalating this inequity, climate shocks are increasing the risks to agricultural yields. Heavy rainfall, droughts, and heatwaves can cause crop failures; climate and environmental pressures can decimate insect populations and microorganisms vital to plants and soil or let new crop pests or diseases emerge. Combined with a globalized distribution system and geopolitics, food system disasters are a compound problem.
To plan for or reduce the impact of these catastrophes, a variety of datasets, modeling, and analytical tools will be key, including observational data, remote sensing, geospatial mapping, and satellite imagery.
The International Science Reserve convened an expert panel from nonprofit and corporate perspectives across disciplinary and geographic boundaries to talk about the role of data in preparing for and responding to potential food system crises, as part of the International Science Reserve’s webinar series, Science Unusual: R&D for Global Crisis Response. Participants were:
Michael Hinge, Senior Economist, ALLFED (Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters)
Levente Klein, Research Staff Member, IBM
Kyriacos M. Koupparis, Head, Hunger Monitoring Unit, United Nations World Food Programme
Kay Sun, Senior Scientist, Mondelez International
Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar, Climate and Environmental Journalist, panel moderator
Here are the top takeaways from the discussion:
Participants agreed about the urgent priority to get accurate data about what’s happening with food systems, weather, and climate patterns:
The information needs to include a wide range of data inputs to make sure it includes the “ground-truthing” from sources where people are seeing the most immediate impacts.
And in turn that the information, modeling and predictions should be made available to the communities who are most affected.
The panelists talked about climate impacts on specific food crop examples and ways that data-based planning can help deal with those impacts with alternative food sources or adapting agricultural cultivation methods.
The Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists seek to identify and honor exceptional young scientists and engineers 42 years of age and younger. Honorees are selected based on the quality, novelty, and impact of their research and their potential for further significant contributions to science. For previous issues of awardee papers, see Ann NY Acad Sci (2012) 1260 and Ann NY Acad Sci (2013) 1293. Or click https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1111/(ISSN)1749-6632.blavatnik-awards.
With more than 500 participants, the Urban Gardens Innovation Challenge was a great success.
Published March 10, 2023
By David Freeman
With the participation of 547 students in 118 teams, the Urban Gardens Innovation Challenge organized in Rwanda by The New York Academy of Sciences in partnership with Association Mwana Ukundwa (AMU) has been a great success.
Sponsored by the Clifford Chance Cornerstone Initiative, the Spring 2022 competition tasked students aged 13-17 from Kigali, the country’s capital, to use micro-gardening techniques to broaden access to nutritious food sources.
Kigali is considered one of the most food-secure cities in Africa, but the ability to obtain nutritious food remains a concern for many poorer households. Malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies can result in stunted growth and put children and adults’ health at risk.
Eager to address food scarcity and poor nutrition, which affect their communities, the students took up the challenge with great enthusiasm and came up with a wide range of practical and creative solutions to help people living in crowded urban environments supplement their diet with home-grown vegetables.
Challenge participants dedicated many after-school hours to their projects, spending time researching urban gardening methods and suitable crops, brainstorming with their teammates and developing their projects.
Ten public schools and three charter schools, coordinated by AMU, supported the competition and gave students access to computer labs. Several Rwandan science teachers acted as mentors for participating teams.
After carefully reviewing submissions, the judges selected a winning project and five runner-up projects of distinction. Members of the winning team got a chance to showcase their project at the 2022 Global STEM Alliance Summit, organized by The New York Academy of Sciences.
Winning Team: Growing Vegetables
Team members: Tarah (Team Lead), Emerance, Solange, Emmanuel, Sandrine, Hirwa Mentors: Baseka Didier (in Kigali) and Gaurangkumar Sharma
The team came up with an innovative solution to address food scarcity. To enable low-income households living in cramped conditions to grow vegetables, the team hung recycled PVC pipes and old bottles and used them as planters. Because PVC pipes contain toxic chemicals, the team stressed that they need to be cleaned with ashes before use. After careful research, the team opted to grow produce like onions, garlic and green vegetables, which do not grow long roots and can fit into these containers. The students also developed a simple but effective irrigation system consisting of old jerrycans, a tap and small tubes.
“We did the project after class, so the challenge was going home late and tiredness,” says Team Lead Tarah. But developing this project that can improve the lives of their relatives and the community around them was also a powerful experience for the enterprising students. “I learned a lot from my teammates,” says Emmanuel. “This group is very important to me, it helped me to be happy and work together.”
Runner-up Team: Reducing Lack of Vitamin in Urban Settlements
After brainstorming on the best way to encourage urban dwellers to improve their vitamin intake by growing and consuming more fresh vegetables, members of this team considered three key factors: potential users in urban settlements tend to move frequently; they have little space to cultivate vegetables; and they are short of time. As a result, the team focused on creating a vertical, space-saving micro-garden on wheels. With recycled wooden planks, they fashioned a stair-like structure consisting of terraced planters, irrigated with tubing, which can be used to grow fresh vegetables.
Building their prototype required hard work but the team learned a lot in the course of working on this project and enjoyed the process. “In this project, I had a lot of fun and did hard work with the group, brainstorming and searching for a solution,” says Esperance.
Runner-up Team: Growing Vegetables
Team members: Fabrice (Team Lead), Nziza, Teddy, Ally, Djanati, Samuel
This team also focused on portability and created a vertical garden with wheels to cultivate a variety of crops. As planting containers, they used old jerrycans cut in half while wooden sticks provided legs. They then added wheels for easy transportation. Team members explored the nutritional qualities and health benefits of several types of vegetables and consulted experts, and opted to focus on carrots, cabbage, onions and green peppers.
“I thought our project would help the poor who do not have a large farm, as they cultivate small and fertile land,” says Ally. Team Lead Fabrice concurs and says he, too, has benefited from the project. “This project helped me in different ways: it got me thinking and work hard and helps my parents to have our own food garden with a great expense.”
The team conducted a survey in the community and discovered that many people lack knowledge and time to grow vegetables. Team members therefore focused on cultivating fast-growing plants such as lettuce, onions, cabbage that require minimal care. They found that by placing plants in a transparent jar filled with water that is changed every second day, roots would grow within two weeks. By encouraging their community to develop basic gardening skills, the team hope their initiative will have a positive impact on people’s daily lives.
“This project taught me that there are multiple ways to grow plants and that growing plants is actually really interesting if you give it time and attention,” says Ivanka. “It was an enlightening experience,” concurs her teammate Albina. “It has improved my communication ability. I would love to do it again.”
Runner-up Team: Growing Crops at Home by Using Discarded Materials
Team: Cedric (Team Lead), Esther, Jean-Marie, Christian, Kevin, Axelle Mentor: Rubarema Maurice (in Kigali)
Having identified the high cost of vegetables as a root cause of poor nutrition, the team focused on using widely available discarded materials such as plastic bottles, glass and sacks to build a tiny kitchen garden. Using old timber, they constructed a small frame that they lined with sack fabric and filled with soil and manure. They carefully selected the vegetables they planted after researching the amounts of water and manure required for each crop.
“As team leader, I helped my team to find the land where we built our kitchen garden,“ says Cedric. Says team member Arielle: “I helped my team with the irrigation of our crops. I learned why we have to irrigate our crops and put manure in soil for every crop.”
Runner-up Team: Using Different Local Tools to Increase Crop Production
Team: Elias (Team Lead), Samantha Kiara, Englide, Glory, Uwase Mentor: Rubarema Maurice (in Kigali)
To optimize the use of space, water and manure, and increase crop production, this team experimented with different seeds that they planted in a variety of recycled containers. For example, they drilled holes in the sides of plastic tubs to plant green onions. They also discovered that they could accelerate germination by poking small holes in nutrient-rich ripe bananas, planting seeds, then covering them up with soil.
“Working in this challenge helped me to think further and brainstorm. I also got new skills in making kitchen gardens, how to create innovation and transform useless tools into useful things,” says Team Lead Elias.
A broad positive impact
In September 2022, Academy and Clifford Chance staff visited Rwanda’s capital Kigali and discussed the Urban Gardens Innovation Challenge in a series of interviews with local stakeholders. They confirmed that the innovation challenge had left a lasting, positive impact at several levels:
Participating students supplemented their studies about nutrition and urban agriculture by deeply researching the subjects and were then able to apply their extended knowledge to improve soil quality and grow vegetables. In addition to improving their own family’s access to food, the students also gained self-confidence and developed a broad range of skills, including leadership, problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork, computer skills, and design and technology.
Teachers and participating schools expressed great satisfaction with the challenge. The nineteen local science teachers who mentored and supported students during the competition reported that the challenge had improved their own self-confidence. They expressed pride in the students’ contribution to address malnutrition in Rwanda. The challenge brought a new approach to teaching STEM, making it more relevant and rooted in the students’ living experience.
Families and the greater community also benefited from the challenge. Students’ parents followed their children’s progress with great excitement and acknowledged that the Urban Gardens Innovation Challenge had improved food stability in their household. They shared their children’s achievements with neighbors and the wider community.
Policy makers also highlighted the potential for further positive effects, since the Urban Gardens Innovation Challenge reinforced a government policy that encouraged households to grow their own food.
Published since 2008, this series includes scholarly review articles in ecology and conservation biology. The series is currently edited by Richard Ostfeld (Cary Institute) and Allison Power (Cornell).
Articles include Un-yielding: Evidence for the agriculture transformation we need; Herbivores in Arctic ecosystems: Effects of climate change and implications for carbon and nutrient cycling; From island biogeography to landscape and metacommunity ecology: A macroecological perspective of bat communities; Prioritizing actions: spatial action maps for conservation; and, A review of carbon farming impacts on nitrogen cycling, retention, and loss.
