Heath Nero
Wyss Scholar
MS 2009, focus on Environmental Policy and Planning
Professor Michael J. Wiley has been named the Theodore Roosevelt Chair of Ecosystem Management at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE). Wiley, who has taught at the school since 1987, was nominated by fellow SNRE faculty and recommended by an internal screening committee. The announcement was made today by Rosina M. Bierbaum, dean of the school. "I'm honored that my peers recommended me and thankful to the committee members who reviewed the nominees," Wiley said. "I hope that during my tenure as the Roosevelt Professor, I can bring more attention to the science and policy of ecosystem management."
Bunyan Bryant, a founder of the academic field of environmental justice, is being honored with the state of Michigan's highest environmental honor. Professor Bryant, a faculty member in the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE), will receive the Helen and William D. Milliken Distinguished Service Award May 28. The ceremony takes place as part of the Tenth Annual Environmental Awards Celebration, coordinated by the Michigan Environmental Council (MEC). The annual Milliken Award recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the protection of Michigan's environment.
Allen Burton, professor and chair of the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at Wright State University, has been named director of the Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystem Research (CILER) at the Universityof Michigan effective Aug. 1. Professor Burton will hold a simultaneous appointment as a professor in U-M's School of Natural Resources and Environment, which houses CILER.
The Landscape Architecture Program, which is ramping up to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2009, celebrated student achievement this week at its 2008 Scholarship Luncheon. "Our Landscape Architecture program has earned a national reputation because of the work of its students and faculty," said Rosina M. Bierbaum, dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment, which is home to the Landscape Architecture Program. "More importantly, the program's presence helps differentiate our school nationally. It's an honor to recognize these students and their faculty mentors for continuing the program's legacy of excellence."
The New Jersey-size Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" will likely grow in coming years unless federal policies to control it change, in part because the demand for corn-based ethanol fuel will worsen the problem, University of Michigan scientists say. The dead zone forms each spring off the Louisiana and Texas coast when oxygen levels drop too low to support most life in bottom and near-bottom waters. This summer the oxygen-starved zone swelled to 7,900 square miles, the third-largest Gulf of Mexico dead zone recorded since measurements began in 1985.
A $10.5 million sustainability initiative has been created by the University of Michigan to advance the university's position as a global academic leader in a critical area of research and teaching. The Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute is being launched with a $5.25 million expendable gift from the Graham Foundation, a philanthropic organization established by Donald Graham and his wife Ingrid. The Office of the Provost will provide an additional $5.25 million to augment the University's extensive ongoing work in the field and bring the effort to a new level.
Bunyan Bryant, a prominent educator, social activist and pioneer in the environmental-justice movement, received national recognition on Oct. 20 for his personal contribution and dedication to environmental justice during a national symposium on the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University, which hosted the event in New Orleans on Oct. 19-21, presented Bryant, a University of Michigan professor, with the Damu Smith Power-of-One Environmental Justice Award. The award honors the late Damu Smith, an activist who advanced the cause of environmental justice and paved the way for the formation of the first-ever national network of Black environmental-justice activists.
Environmental injustice in people-of-color communities is as much or more prevalent today than 20 years ago, say researchers commissioned to conduct a follow-up to the 1987 landmark study, "Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States." The new report, "Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty, 1987-2007: Grassroots Struggles to Dismantle Environmental Racism in the United States, " shows that 20 years later, disproportionately large numbers of people of color still live in hazardous waste host communities, and that they are not equally protected by environmental laws.
Sometimes messier is better. Walter Hood's ideal landscape is messy. Its essence comes from the land and the people who occupy it. He wants it to be the kind of place where people feel free: free to loiter, sleep, walk the dog or just be. Unconventional may be a good term to describe Hood, professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. As the Harlow O. Whittemore guest lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, Hood pointed out that he doesn't have an office, but does maintain a studio. He doesn't tag his work with conventional labels, but uses a litany of descriptors to identify his projects.