June 6, 2011

Three new faculty positions have been added to SNRE. The positions are in the areas of sustainable food systems, sustainable energy and climate change impacts, and sustainability and behavior. SNRE received the positions from U-M as part of President Coleman's 2007 Interdisciplinary Faculty Initiative, a plan to add 100 tenure-track positions in emerging research areas across the university; as of 2010, 72 had been approved in 17 cross-disciplinary clusters.

U-M faculty work in teams across schools and colleges to submit proposals for new positions, commonly known as í¢â‚¬Å“clusterí¢â‚¬  hires. SNRE has been awarded a total of six new faculty positions as part of the initiative. Here are the 2011 clusters and descriptions that include SNRE:

• Sustainable Food Systems: Five junior faculty—SNRE, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning (Urban and Regional Planning program), Ross School of Business, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), and the School of Public Health. SNRE focus: Environmental sustainability of food systems.
• Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Impacts—Integrated Assessment and Modeling: Two junior faculty—SNRE and the College of Engineering. SNRE focus: Impacts of climate change, potential adaptation responses, and potential interactions between adaptation and mitigation of climate change.
• Sustainability and Behavior: Three junior faculty—SNRE, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and Taubman College. SNRE focus: How institutions shape behaviors, motivations and beliefs of "rational actors."

SNRE was part of three previously funded cluster proposals: one in 2008 and two in 2009. SNRE filled a position in the Energy Storage/Energy Sustainability cluster with Assistant Professor Shelie Miller and a Sustainable Built Environment position with Assistant Professor Josh Newell. Earlier this year, it filled the Environment, Information, and Sustainable Development: The Asia-Africa Nexus position with Assistant Professor Bilal Butt, who joins the faculty this fall.

Full a list of U-M funded proposals, visit http://www.provost.umich.edu/faculty/faculty_initiative/funded_proposals...