SNRE Dean Rosina M. Bierbaum provided briefings to the top environmental staff members on Capitol Hill this week on a report that explores U.S. ecosystems and the social and economic value they provide. Dean Bierbaum co-authored the much anticipated report titled "Sustaining Environmental Capital: Protecting Society and the Economy." It was released July 22 and commissioned by President Obama through the Presidentí¢â‚¬â„¢s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). PCAST then assembled a Working Group of its members to conduct a study to identify research priorities, the supí‚ ­porting informatics development and related institutional arrangements necessary for protecting biodiversity and managing ecosystems to ensure their long-term sustainability and security.

Assistant professor Maria Carmen Lemos is a co-PI on a new project lead by Purdue University to develop decision-support tools to help corn and soybean growers adapt their practices to changes in climate. Lemos will be focusing on understanding how farmers in Michigan, Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska use, or don't use, climate information and on the role of social networks—farmers, extension agents, and farmers' advisers—on knowledge dissemination and uptake.

Developing sustainable societies is a major challenge for the 21st century. Policies developed by the United States and China will play an especially important role, since these two countries consume nearly one-third of the total world energy expenditure to power their economies and are the largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Both countries have major industrial complexes, large urban population centers, and large expansive rural areas that require extensive water management.

"I have followed a career path that did not exist when I graduated from the University of Michigan. But this great University gave me the skills to create it," Peter C. Mertz, Visiting Committee member and alumnus, delivered this year's Commencement address April 30. Mertz is chief executive officer and co-founder of Global Forest Partners (GFP), one of the largest timber investment management organizations in the world.

Andy Winkelman, a doctoral student at the School of Natural Resources and Environment, has been named a Presidential Management Fellow finalist. Presidential Management Fellowships (PMFs) are highly competitive two-year post-graduate fellowships with a federal agency. Fellows are selected for their exceptional leadership qualities, and agencies groom them to be future leaders. Fellows have the opportunity to rotate to other agencies, are eligible for accelerated promotion potential, receive 160 hours of formal classroom training (on leadership, management, policy and other topics), and can receive an immediate appointment to a position in the competitive or excepted service.