Two alumni of the SNRE Landscape Architecture program were honored with their industry's highest professional honor: being named a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Honored were Carol Macht (M.L.A. '75) and Martha Schwartz (M.L.A. '78), who were recognized Tuesday at the ASLA Council of Fellows Investiture Dinner in San Diego during the ASLA 2011 Annual Meeting & Expo.
John DeCicco has been appointed as a research professor at the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute (MMPEI). DeCicco holds a joint appointment as a newly-named professor of practice at the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE), where since 2009 he served as a senior lecturer and MMPEI faculty fellow.
North American forests appear to have a greater capacity to soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas than researchers had previously anticipated. As a result, they could help slow the pace of human-caused climate warming more than most scientists had thought, a U-M ecologist and his colleagues have concluded. The results of a 12-year study at an experimental forest in northeastern Wisconsin challenge several long-held assumptions about how future forests will respond to the rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide blamed for human-caused climate change, said University of Michigan microbial ecologist Donald Zak, lead author of a paper published online this week in Ecology Letters.
SNRE Professor and Interim Dean Dave Allan provided an update on his Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping Project during a plenary address Thursday, Oct. 12 as part of the Seventh Annual Great Lakes Restoration Conference.
Several University of Michigan researchers will be among the speakers at next week's Great Lakes Week in Detroit, a gathering of several organizations concerned with preserving and restoring the health of the Great Lakes. The week's events will include meetings of the International Joint Commission, the Great Lakes Commission and the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition's Great Lakes Restoration Conference. The events will take place at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel and Wayne State University.
A transformation is under way on the east side of the Dana building. Based on input gathered from the SNRE community in the winter of 2011, the Dana Garden is being improved by SNRE students as part of a design/build class. The new garden will feature improved aesthetics, native plants, sustainable site design practices and increased seating opportunities.
Eight SNRE students who are either Duke Conservation Fellows or Wyss Conservation Scholars returned this week from an annual retreat held each year for members of the programs. The retreat, held at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, W.V., was again facilitated by SNRE Professor Steven Yaffee, who also serves as the school's director of the Duke and Wyss scholars program.
President Mary Sue Coleman higlighted several programs of the School of Natural Resources and Environment in her address yesterday unveiling the progress and new goals behind the university's sustainability initiatives.
Once again, the Michigan Ross School of Business is among the best business schools in the world for integrating environmental, social and ethical issues into its MBA program, according to the Aspen Institute's 2011-12 Beyond Grey Pinstripes report. The biennial survey and ranking of business schools placed the Ross School at No. 7 overall. Ross is the only U.S. school to make the Top 10 in every ranking since Beyond Grey Pinstripesbegan in 2001. Ross also was once again ranked highly in the relevance and business impact of course content and in peer-reviewed faculty research related to social and environmental responsibility.
The Wege Foundation, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., has pledged to fund a new graduate student fellowship and a professorship in the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) as part of its ongoing support of the school and the University of Michigan. Both gifts acknowledge the decades-long relationship between Peter M. Wege, the foundation's founder, and Jonathan W. Bulkley, who retired in June as a University of Michigan professor after 43 years of service. The announcements were made as part of a special academic panel discussion, organized to reflect upon the career and celebrate Professor Bulkley's research, teaching and mentoring accomplishments.