Three aspiring student entrepreneurs have set their sights on overcoming a major obstacle to electric vehicle (EV) adoption: "range anxiety." Range anxiety refers to the concerns of potential EV buyers about the limited range of these new automobiles and the accessibility of re-charging stations to keep them on the road. University of Michigan students Javier Rivera, Lawrence Han and Ajay Varadharajan believe they can eliminate these concerns by creating an EV network that matches the demand for electric vehicle power with supply.
Improving health outcomes and quality of life for people living with type 2 diabetes are the goals of a project between a new research center at the University of Michigan and university, health and public officials in North Carolina. The Center for Geospatial Medicine, which recently moved from Duke University to U-M's School of Natural Resources and Environment, is a partner in a $6.2 million grant announced today by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation as part of its national diabetes initiative, Together on Diabetes. The project's other partners are the Duke University Medical Center and the Durham County Health Department. The project will focus on residents of North Carolina's Durham County, home to Duke.
SNRE students donned waders, grabbed saws and toasted marshmallows during the 2011 edition of the SNRE campfire. The annual event brings together current students and alumni at Saginaw Forest, which has hosted the event for decades.
SNRE Professor Andy Hoffman talks about reframing the climate change debate during an interview on WEMU-FM (89.1). The interview was aired during the public radio station's "November First Friday Focus on the Environment" show. The hosts are WEMU's David Fair and Lisa Wozniak, executive director of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters.
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.