ESF professors lead initiative that wins $5 million NSF grant

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SYRACUSE — Two professors at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) are leading an international initiative to develop sustainable bioproducts from waste biomass. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is supporting the work with a $5 million grant to the Global Center for Sustainable Bioproducts (GCSB), an international research hub dedicated to developing […]

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SYRACUSE — Two professors at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) are leading an international initiative to develop sustainable bioproducts from waste biomass.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is supporting the work with a $5 million grant to the Global Center for Sustainable Bioproducts (GCSB), an international research hub dedicated to developing sustainable bio-based solutions for environmental and economic challenges, per ESF’s Feb. 19 announcement.

Chang Geun Yoo, with ESF’s department of chemical engineering, and Gyu Leem, with ESF’s department of chemistry, are at the helm of the NSF Global Centers program that brings together experts from Canada, Finland, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. Their goal is to create eco-friendly and economically viable alternatives to traditional plastics and composites, ESF said.

“Dr. Yoo and Dr. Leem’s groundbreaking work is crucial for developing sustainable solutions that can transform industries and protect our environment,” ESF President Joanie Mahoney, said in the school’s announcement. “Their leadership in this international initiative highlights ESF’s commitment to innovative research with real-world impact.”

GCSB’s research focuses on four main areas. They include sustainable bio-utilization, or transforming abundant biomass into valuable materials; ensuring processes help mitigate climate change; designing eco-friendly products that are also market-viable; and improving technologies for efficient bioproducts production.

The team involved is focused on polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), a biodegradable bio-based plastic from agricultural residues. By combining PHA with bio-fillers such as nanocellulose and nanolignin, they aim to develop materials for 3D and 4D printing. They will also work to ensure these new materials are environmentally friendly and cost-effective. ESF will lead the research and educational programs with a $1.45 million grant, the SUNY school said.

“By integrating cutting-edge science with industry applications, we’re building a sustainable future,” Yoo said in the ESF announcement.

Leem also adding, “This research bridges the gap between science and real-world solutions.”

The NSF award highlights the foundation’s support for “impactful global research.” With backing from international agencies, GCSB’s work aims to “make a lasting impact on global sustainability.”

Partnering institutions include the University of Tennessee, University of Iowa, Howard University, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, University of Surrey, University of Strathclyde, Åbo Akademi University, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, and Hanyang University.

OPINION: Is Trump Inheriting Biden’s Recession?

Opinion, Subscriber Only

Don’t look now, but the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s GPDNow estimate (www.atlantafed.org/cqer/research/gdpnow) for the first quarter of 2025 shows the U.S. economy potentially contracting [by up to nearly 3 percent] annualized. Coupled with initial jobless claims peaking up to 242,000 [as reported on Feb. 27], a good question to ask is whether President Donald Trump inherited

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It wouldn’t be the first time an incoming president had to deal with either an ongoing recession or a new one in their first years of office. Just ask Richard Nixon (1969), Ronald Reagan (1981), George W. Bush (2001), and Barack Obama (2009) who all had recessions their first years in office.

Politically, the good news is each one of those administrations went on to get reelected relatively easily in 1972, 1984, 2004, and 2012. So, first-year recessions are not politically fatal per se for the White House incumbents.

Midterms are what they are — regardless of the circumstances, there is usually a 90 percent chance of the White House incumbent party losing seats in the House of Representatives during the midterms — and that’s agnostic in terms of recessions.

During and after COVID, slowdowns in global economic production combined with trillions of dollars of monetary and fiscal stimulus heated up inflation to 7.5 percent by January 2022, peaking at 9.1 percent by June 2022. Overall, inflation outpaced earnings for the entire four-year period of Biden, even as the rate of inflation cooled — and it made Biden-Harris a one-term proposition.

During that time, the spread between 10-year and 2-year treasuries inverted and then un-inverted. Usually, the periods of un-inversion are when unemployment tends to rise. Well, since January 2023, that spread has been rising — and so has unemployment by 1.1 million, and so has the unemployment rate, from a low of 3.4 percent in April 2023 to 4 percent in Jan. 2025.

The key point is that these trends have been ongoing for months and years. They didn’t begin yesterday. A recession today, if there is one, will have had many fathers.

The truth is, what goes up must come down. If there is a recession now or soon, then it’s because inflation overheated the economy since 2021, the American people maxed out their credit cards, and demand is finally pulling back. The upside is recessions tend to eat inflation, but the downside is unemployment goes up.

If so, the sooner the better. Rip off the band-aid, but the Trump administration would do well to manage expectations. And that applies to anything, underscoring a communications problem that any White House needs to overcome.

The point is to set goals but also be prepared for setbacks. Nobody said this was going to be easy.

If the economy is softening following the inflation, then that could provide more of an impetus for President Trump’s plans to cut taxes and stimulate long-term growth, for example. And then, to control future inflation, to cut spending and borrowing, and so forth.

The “soft” landing — long sought by Biden and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell — was remotely possible but considering the U.S. was coming off 9.1 inflation in 2022, and perhaps in hindsight, rather fanciful. Nothing is set in stone, naturally, but generally, all an administration can do is hope for the best — and prepare for the worst. Stay tuned.

Robert Romano is the VP of public policy at Americans for Limited Government, a conservative 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that says it is dedicated to restoring constitutionally limited government, allowing individuals to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.

OPINION: Vladimir Putin’s quarter-century reign has been remarkable

Opinion, Subscriber Only

Vladimir Putin has been Russia’s undisputed leader for 25 years. That is a remarkable achievement. Only a handful of today’s world leaders have held onto power for that long, and only Putin has done so in a nation as large and complex as Russia. Consider this: If Putin remains in charge for four more years,

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Consider this: If Putin remains in charge for four more years, he will match the tenure of Josef Stalin, the cruel dictator who ruled the Soviet Union until his death in 1953. Putin, 72, is starting a six-year term of office, so it seems likely that will happen.

Unfortunately, Putin’s tenure has been authoritarian and brutal; nothing like Stalin’s, certainly, but bad enough. He has crushed dissent, jailed critics, and eliminated independent news media. Elections have become one-sided, with no opposition able to thrive. His foreign policy has grown more and more aggressive.

It’s easy to forget that the West had high hopes for Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed. The Cold War had ended. Russia adopted a constitution with democratic principles and transitioned to a more capitalist economy. Under Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s first elected president, there were problems of economic weakness and corruption, but Western observers remained hopeful.

On New Year’s Eve in 1999, Yeltsin surprised the world by resigning and leaving Putin, a former KGB intelligence officer, as his successor. Including four years when Dmitry Medvedev was a figurehead president, Putin has been in charge ever since.

The initial optimistic response was that Putin would restore order after the chaos of the Yeltsin years. U.S. President George W. Bush, after meeting with Putin in June 2001, said: “I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy.” German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder called Putin a “flawless democrat” in 2004.

But Putin is no democrat. Secrecy and intolerance became hallmarks of his regime. Independent news outlets and political groups were shut down. Writers and artists were censored. Critics were jailed or worse. Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was shot to death near the Kremlin in 2015. When Alexei Navalny died last year in prison after multiple episodes of poisoning, then-President Joe Biden said he had “no doubt” Putin was to blame.

Meanwhile, Russia thumbed its nose at Western democracies and acted as a neighborhood bully. It seized part of Georgia in 2008, annexed Crimea in 2014, and invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Hundreds of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian troops have been killed or wounded in that war, which hasn’t gone well for Russia.

And Russia has other problems: unemployment, a low birth rate, and high inflation and interest rates. Its standing in the Middle East took a hit in December when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, its ally, was ousted. Western sanctions over the Ukraine war have hurt Russia, although oil and gas exports have kept its economy above water.

Even so, polls indicate Putin is popular at home. He has linked himself to Russia’s proud history, reaching back 300 years to Emperor Peter the Great and including the 20th century, when the Soviet Union made immense sacrifices to stop Hitler. Putin, in 2005, called the breakup of the Soviet Union a “major geopolitical disaster.”

You could say that Putin wants to “make Russia great again” with his geopolitical ambition. And that raises an obvious question: What should we expect in U.S.-Russia relations now that Donald Trump is back in the White House.

Trump criticized Biden’s support of the Ukraine war effort and claimed he could end the war in a day. Of course, he hasn’t done that. Putin, knowing Trump loves flattery, has praised him, even endorsing his claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

Both men are canny, ambitious, and unpredictable. It would be interesting to watch their competition play out — if only there weren’t so much at stake for the rest of us.

Lee Hamilton, 93, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south-central Indiana.

Ask Rusty: Can I Get Extra SS for my Military Service?

Business Mentors, Subscriber Only

Dear Rusty: Please help. I served from 1964-1966 in the US Army. I have been trying to contact the Social Security Administration (SSA) to request extra benefits for veterans. The telephone is a recording, and you never get to speak to anyone. The web site (www.ssa.gov) is useless to me. I went to the Social

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Dear Rusty: Please help. I served from 1964-1966 in the US Army. I have been trying to contact the Social Security Administration (SSA) to request extra benefits for veterans. The telephone is a recording, and you never get to speak to anyone. The web site (www.ssa.gov) is useless to me. I went to the Social Security (SS) office and there was a huge line outdoors in the freezing cold. I am disabled and cannot stand on a line in this cold. Please advise me about my options. Financially, is it worth the trouble?

Signed: Disabled American Veteran

Dear Disabled Veteran: My profound thanks for your service to our country. FYI, the “special extra credit for military service” you refer to does not provide an incremental Social Security benefit amount for military veterans. Rather, it adds an additional amount to your recording earnings for the years you served, which may affect your Social Security benefit.

In your case (serving between 1964 and 1966), if you told the SSA of your military service when you applied for benefits (or gave it a copy of your DD-214), it would have added up to $1,200 per year to your recorded military pay record (FYI, those who served after 1967 were automatically given earnings credit for their military service years). However, whether those special extra credits would affect your SS benefit depends on what your lifetime earnings record was when you later claimed SS. When you applied for benefits, the SSA reviewed your lifetime earnings record and used the highest-earning 35 years of earnings over your lifetime (adjusted for inflation) to calculate your “primary insurance amount” (or PIA), which is what you get if you claim benefits to start at your SS full retirement age. If, after your military service, you had 35 or more years of earnings which were higher than what you earned while serving, the SSA would have used those later higher earnings to calculate your benefit, and your military earnings wouldn’t affect your benefit. If, however, any of your military earnings (including the special extra credits) were among the highest over your lifetime, then those higher military earnings would be included when calculating your benefit.

So, whether you will benefit from these special extra credits for military service depends largely on your post-service earnings history. If your military earnings were among the highest-earning years over your lifetime, and you provided SSA with a copy of your DD-214 when you applied for Social Security, then your current SS benefit already includes consideration of your military service. The SSA should have asked about your military service when you applied. If you didn’t advise the agency of your military service when you applied for Social Security, or if you aren’t sure, you should contact the SSA at (800) 772-1213 and ask if you were given those special extra credits for military service when you applied. However, if you had at least 35 years of higher earnings after you left military service, your current SS benefit is already based on those later higher-earning years, and you will not get anything additional from those special extra credits for your military service years.

FYI, we know it is often difficult to contact the Social Security Administration by phone, as well as trying to visit SSA offices without an appointment (which is why our AMAC Foundation provides this free service). SSA is now allowing in-person visits “by appointment only” and you can call the above number to schedule an in-person appointment at your local SSA office. But before you do, please consider what I’ve said above. And remember that your SS benefit is based on the highest-earning 35 years over your entire lifetime and each year represents only 1/35th of your benefit amount. So, is it worth the trouble? That depends on whether your military earnings, including the special extra credits for military service, are among the highest over your entire lifetime. If the answer is “yes” then it is likely worth it; if “no,” then perhaps not.

Russell Gloor is a national Social Security advisor at the AMAC Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC). The 2.4-million-member AMAC says it is a senior advocacy organization. Send your questions to: ssadvisor@amacfoundation.org.

Author’s note: This article is intended for information purposes only and does not represent legal or financial guidance. It presents the opinions and interpretations of the AMAC Foundation’s staff, trained, and accredited by the National Social Security Association (NSSA). The NSSA and the AMAC Foundation and its staff are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other governmental entity.

Rotary Club of Cooperstown donates to Bassett School-Based Health Program

Education & Training, Health Care, Mohawk Valley, Subscriber Only

COOPERSTOWN — The Rotary Club of Cooperstown presented Jane Hamilton, practice manager of Bassett Healthcare Network’s School-Based Health Program, a nearly $1,150 donation for the program at its Feb. 18 meeting. “The work being done by Bassett’s School-Based Health Program is a direct match for three of the Rotary’s key missions: fighting disease, saving mothers

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Colgate University generates $157M economic impact

Education & Training, Mohawk Valley, Subscriber Only

HAMILTON — Colgate University had an economic impact of $157 million on the surrounding community for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the most recent period for which data is available. That’s according to an economic impact report compiled by Lightcast and released by the university. “The study provided an opportunity to focus on all the ways

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CARS, Cayuga Health open new opioid treatment program in Cortland

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Health Care, Subscriber Only

CORTLAND — Cayuga Addiction Recovery Services (CARS), an affiliate of Cayuga Health, recently opened opioid treatment program services to local residents at the building at 6 Euclid Ave. in Cortland. CARS provides treatment options to assist with opiate-use disorder. Services include individual and group counseling, Hepatitis C treatment, and peer services. The CARS Cortland treatment

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Fresco Fish Market moves to new location in New Hartford

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Featured, Mohawk Valley, New York News, Small Business, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism

NEW HARTFORD, N.Y. — Fresco Fish Market celebrated its move from the New Hartford Shopping Center to 8483 Seneca Turnpike with a grand-opening event on

Greater Binghamton Chamber joins state Manufacturers Alliance

New York News, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Manufacturing & Engineering, Nonprofits, Small Business, Southern Tier

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — The Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce announced it has joined The Manufacturers Alliance of New York, led by the Manufacturers Association of

Carpenters’ union recruiting women for pre-apprenticeships

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Education & Training, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Featured, Nonprofits

ALBANY, N.Y. — The North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters (NASRCC) has started its annual recruitment of women to establish a career in carpentry,

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