An Interview With Prominent Hydrologist: Rachel Z Kamman

Rachel Z. Kamman, P.E.

Consulting Hydrologist of Kamman Hydrology & Engineering
Interview by Julia McKeag, Terra Linda High School

1) Why did you become a hydrologist? What inspired you to study hydrology and engineering in college?

RK- I always loved sciences in school and entered college as a biology major. In my freshman year I heard that there were some cool water classes in the engineering department, so I sat in during my second semester and as a sophomore, signed up for a class in fluid mechanics (the study of the physics of water movement).  I was hooked after the first class.  Hydrology 101 was next and I loved that even more because it focuses on the movement of water across the landscape.   I studied both biology and water resources engineering in College, and wanted to combine the majors but the departments had no combined program (this was before environmental engineering existing). Eventually I had to pick a degree, and chose engineering because I wanted to focus on applied science. 

2) What types of projects do Kamman Hydrology & Engineering do?

RK- Most of KHE’s projects are focused on ecological restoration of wetlands, creeks and rivers and estuaries.  We have projects throughout California; almost all of them are on public lands (parks -  open space -  baylands).  Most of our project entailed site assessment, monitoring, engineering and geomorphic analysis, and collaboration with other natural resource scientists.  Each project is as unique as the place, the critters or habitat we are trying to improve, and then impacts and constraints created by human modifications of the landscape.    Since we can not turn back time, KHE works to understand how the landscape has changed and how best to improve, restore or protect ecological communities in the context of people and their infrastructure.  Since water is fundamental to nature, understanding the landscape in terms of hydrology is a logical starting point for both evaluating the impacts of change and restoring ecological function. 

3) What kinds of problems are affecting our local watershed?

RK- One of the biggest problems affecting our local watersheds is that people are disconnected from the natural landscape that they live in.  Once disconnected from our natural setting, we are no longer aware of our day to day impacts.  If you don’t recognize that the water in your driveway or yard is connected by a storm drain to the creek and the bay, you probably don’t think twice about rinsing your paint brush, washing your car or fertilizing your lawn. 

The second biggest problem is that there is a disconnect in our local government between individual development projects and a cumulative and long term impacts of those developments on the surrounding watersheds.   We need to get better as stepping back from a proposed development and looking at the landscape context and real costs (environmental and infrastructure) associated with new development.  These are costs that communities will have to shoulder for generations to come.  This is particularly true in the context of seal level rise.

4) What can we do to help our local watershed?

RK- One of the biggest things we can do to help our local watershed is to understand that our watershed, our communities our homes ARE habitats. The more we can integrate our neighborhoods with the native plant and animal communities and the physical landscape they depend on, the more likely they are to thrive in our midst.    Everyone who lives in a watershed is responsible for it’s care; a term often used for this is stewardship.  Every action has an impact, our daily choices determine the ecological integrity our community.   

Another important thing you can do is to act in any way possible to protect and restore the ecological integrity of our watersheds.  Protecting what we have left is critical, since, even with the best science and all the money in the world,  rarely can you replace the diversity and resiliency of a wild ecosystem. 

5) What is your opinion on the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir? Do you think the Hetch Hetchy Valley should be restored?

RK- Hetch Hetchy is a great example of an amazing natural resource lost in an era when we focused solely on meeting human demands for water without placing adequate value on natural resources.    It would be wonderful to see it restored.  

6) In your opinion, what invention (related to water) was most crucial for the success of our society today?

RK- Water treatment and delivery systems, and waste water treatment.  These systems are critical for our health.    We take them for granted.  

7) What do you think is water’s most interesting quality?

RK- Two actually:  1) The way water effects light, water colors almost everything we see.  2) The amazing power and energy contained and transmitted by water.   Consider Tsunami in Japan last year.  Water transmits energy over vast distances and timescales, think about ocean circulation, waves on a beach, water washing down the street after a downpour, raindrops on your roof.  Now shift contexts - think about role of water in a single human body, and then expand your thinking to world populations. 

  

             

Marin Science Seminar Website

Interview By: Julia McKeag

Upcoming Seminar: Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

Terra Linda High School, Room 207

7:30-8:30 p.m.

How we Know What we Know about the Brain

by Julia Moore, Drake HS

On January 25, 2011, Dr. Raymond Swanson explained to the youth and community of Marin the modern devices and techniques used in neuroscience.

About the Seminar:

            Dr. Swanson is the professor and Vice-Chair in the Department of Neurology at UCSF.  He first became interested in neuroscience when he took at class in Physiological Psychology as an undergraduate.  His lab (Swanson Lab) does medical research to understand what will keep neurons alive, in hopes of improving the lives of patients suffering from strokes.    

            He discussed the past and current methods of neurological research.  Comparing normal brains and brains with differences is how we determine what certain parts of the brain do.  He gave the famous example of Phineas Gage who had his frontal lobe destroyed through an accident when building a railroad.  We saw major differences in Gage’s abitlity to have normal human controls (eg: sit still) and plan ahead, indicating that the frontal lobe had to do those human traits (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrULrWRlGBA the story of Gage in song form).  Dr. Swanson referred to this method of brain research as “breaking the brain”.

            The current method of brain research that is superior to breaking the brain is using a  fMRI  (functional magnetic resonance imaging).  The fMRI began dominating neuroscience research in the early 1990's.  This machine gives us non-invasive magnetic resonance imagery into the inner workings of the brain.  While this has progressed neuroscience research greatly, it can only show major energy shifts in the brain, so we cannot yet understand all the neurons involved in every process. 

fMRI Machine

fMRI Brain Scan

Please check out the links below for more information about the seminar and Dr. Swanson.

Video of the Seminar: http://vimeo.com/35806730

Swanson Lab: http://neurology.ucsf.edu/swansonlab/

Written By: Julia Moore

The Large Hadron Collider: 

What it is and what we have Learned from it so far  

Photo from ParticleFever.com

with Beate Heinemann, Ph.D.

Marin Science Seminar Presentation: "The Large Hadron Collider: What it is and what we have Learned from it so far" Watch the protons fly as Dr. Heinemann returns to tell us the latest on CERN's Large Hadron Collider and the ATLAS project. Download the flyer here, (November 16, 2011, 7:30-8:30 pm, Terra Linda HS, Room 207, San Rafael, CA)

R.S.V.P. on Facebook here:

"The field of "particle physics" tries to understand the physics of the most fundamental building blocks of matter. How many such building blocks are there? How do they relate to each other? Why are they there? Currently we do not have a good theory why we have any mass at all, even though of course we know that all matter has a mass. There are, however, many theories about why this might be and the goal of my experiment is to prove or disprove them, or to maybe find completely unexpected phenomena that will then need to be explained. One exciting possibility is that we find extra dimensions of space that could even result in the production of mini-blackholes. My experiment is called ATLAS and is situated at the "Large Hadron Collider" (abbreviated as LHC) that is located in Switzerland. There are more than 2000 physicists on my experiment, and many engineers and technicians: all of them collaborate with each other to answer some of the most basic and fundamental questions of Science today. In my talk I will describe how this experiment works and what we hope to discover there." 

Dr. Heinemann is Associate Professor of Physics at UC-Berkeley.

SPOOKY Physiology & Embryology this October at MSS!

“Making Faces: Developmental Mechanisms of Craniofacial Evolution” 

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

7:30 - 8:30 pm

Terra Linda High School, San Rafael, Room 207

Dr. Rich Schneider, Man of Mystery

 

Dr. Schneider will overview experiments in his laboratory that have revealed molecular and cellular processes involved in facial patterning. He will describe how his studies to understand the basis for skull shape in breeds of dogs led him to create a cell transplant system whereby duck embryos develop with quail beaks. He will bring an assortment of skulls. Get the flyer here. (October, 2009; October 19, 2011)

Visit Dr. Schneider's website

R.S.V.P. on Facebook here:

 

Dr. Schneider graduated from Hampshire College in 1991. As an undergraduate, he published his first paper, which was on skull evolution in domestic dogs, following an internship at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. He received his Master's Degree in 1994 and his PhD in 1998 from Duke University. He also studied embryology at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, and at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, NY. For his Postdoctoral work at the UCSF, Dr. Schenider investigated molecular mechanisms that pattern the craniofacial skeleton. In 2001, he joined the faculty of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at UCSF.

Let's welcome back Vania Coelho, Ph.D. of Dominican University 

Photo by Vania Coelho

“Homeless Nemo: What Does the Future Hold for Coral Reef Communities?”

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Terra Linda HS, San Rafael, CA - Room 207

7:30 - 8:30 pm

Coral reefs are undoubtedly among the most threatened ecosystems in the world. Studies predict that without increased conservation and restoration efforts a complete collapse is only a few decades away. This talk will focus on the current status of coral reefs around the world, including threats to them and the consequences of those threats. (4/30/08, 9/29/10, October 5, 2011) Get the flyer here.
 
Dr. Coelho holds degrees in Biology, Ecology and Zoology and she completed doctoral research while working as a visiting scientist at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. After completing her doctorate she held research scientist positions at Columbia University. Dr. Coelho’s research focuses on the ecology and evolutionary biology of marine invertebrates including benthic community ecology, population biology, behavior, systematics of crustaceans, and coral reef ecology. She is currently Associate Professor of Biology at Dominican University.

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What's in Our Genes?: How our genes make us who we are"

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
Terra Linda High School, 320 Nova Albion Way, San Rafael, CA
Room 207

RSVP on FaceBook

with Jane Gitschier, Ph.D. of UCSF's Institute of Human Genetics

What makes us male or female?  What makes us susceptible to disease?  What makes us different from each other? And what makes us different from other animals?  Come learn the answer to these questions.  It's all in our genes! Download the flyer. (September 28, 2011)
 

Dr. Gitschier’s laboratory has broad interests in the field of human genetics, ranging from past work on the molecular genetics of hemophilia, through gene discovery for a variety of inherited disorders. Combined with discovery of genes in mouse mutants and the generation of mouse models for human disease, her research has led to a deeper understanding of heavy metal metabolism and has provided more accurate genetic diagnosis and prognosis for families. Currently her lab is engaged in two unusual projects. The first concerns understanding the genetic basis for absolute pitch perception, a rare cognitive trait in which the pitch of a tone or sound can be named without any reference tone. While she hypothesizes that AP has a large genetic component, exposure to music in early childhood is also key. A second project involves the use of DNA haplotypes to infer ancestry, an endeavor known as genetic genealogy.

 

Jane Gitschier joined the UCSF Faculty in 1985 following post-doctoral work at Genentech. She received her PhD from MIT in Biology in 1981. She was an HHMI Investigator and a Guggenheim Fellow. Her longstanding interest is in human genetics. She lives with her daughter Annie Steinberg and cat Pogo in San Francisco.

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Sea Cucumbers Invade TLHS!

Wed. January 26, 2011

“Life in the Slow Lane - Peristaltic Locomotion in Sea Cucumbers” How exactly do soft-bodied animals get around? This talk combines results from projects investigating locomotion in four species of sea cucumbers (Echinoderms). Professor Spain will talk about peristaltic locomotion being used to crawl and burrow into sand. She will also give an overview of results on the kinematics analysis of crawling across sand. These include variables like stride distance, stride length, and crawling velocity. Crawl on over and check it out! Download the flyer. (January 26, 2011)  

Dr. Spain is Assistant Professor of Biology at Dominican University, San Rafael. She earned her B.S. in Biology Education from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Currently, her research focuses on the functional morphology and locomotion of invertebrates