Dr. William Solecki, Director, Institute for Sustainable Cities, City University of New York, and Professor, Department of Geography, Hunter College, City University of New York, was the keynote speaker for the 2013 CAP All Scientists Meeting on January 11, 2013. His presentation, "Transitions in urban environmental systems: Lessons from New York City and Hurricane Sandy," reflects on the past urban environmental system crises and transitions. He notes that the lens of critical transition theory and writings on urban system resilience can be used to sharpen our analytical capacity to study such issues. His presentation makes reference to the case of Hurricane Sandy, which heavily impacted the New York City metropolitan region and is now defined as one of the most damaging disaster events in U.S. history.