Traditionally, taking inventory of the species in a rainforest requires sending in a team of experts with field guides and binoculars for a multi-day expedition. But the devastating pace of the destruction of the world’s rainforests and increasing urgency to better monitor and protect what remains demand faster, easier, and more efficient approaches.

Several years ago, a Yale-based team devised an alternate approach: they use lightweight, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to collect this critical biodiversity data in remote areas.

Now they’ve collected something else: a coveted international honor.

XPRIZE Rainforest, a $10 million global competition to find the most innovative technology for exploring Earth’s biodiversity, has awarded one of its top prizes to Map of Life Rapid Assessments (MOLRA), an international research group led by Walter Jetz, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and director of the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change.

The MOLRA team placed second in the five-year competition, earning a $2 million. XPRIZE Rainforest officials made the announcement Nov. 15 at a ceremony associated with the G20 Social Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Tennesseans value the importance of higher education, according to The Tennessee Poll, conducted in July by the Applied Social Research Lab (ASRL) at East Tennessee State University, which found that 45% of Tennesseans believe that a college education is very important or extremely important in “helping a young person succeed in the world today.” That figure is compared to 41% who indicated that a college education is “somewhat important” and 14% who indicated it is “not too important.”

David Weisburd, Distinguished Professor, Criminology, Law and Society, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS); Executive Director, Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy (CEBCP), received funding for: “Safer Stronger Together (SST) Initiative: An evaluation of the impact of a place-based social intervention on youth and their families.” 

About The Study: The results of this study suggest a disproportionate burden of cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome by social determinants of health and sex. These findings highlight the need to address inequities in cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome through targeted interventions.