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.
NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco hailed the science partnerships between her agency and the University of Michigan as an important tool in addressing the nation's environmental challenges.
The federal government should launch a series of efforts to assess thoroughly the condition of U.S. ecosystems and the social and economic value of the services those ecosystems provide, according to a new report by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
The federal government should launch a series of efforts to assess thoroughly the condition of U.S. ecosystems and the social and economic value of the services those ecosystems provide, according to a new report by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), an independent council of the Nation's leading scientists and engineers. The report also recommends that the Nation apply modern informatics technologies to the vast stores of biodiversity data already collected by various Federal agencies in order to increase the usefulness of those data for decision- and policy-making.
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.
The second conference of the Initiative on Climate Adaptation Research and Understanding through the Social Sciences, or ICARUS-2, will take place at the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) in the University of Michigan's Dana Building, Ann Arbor campus, May 5-8. The theme for ICARUS-2 is Climate Vulnerability and Adaption: Marginal Peoples and Environment. More than 100 papers are registered to be presented by scholars and researchers from around the world. ICARUS-1was held at University of Illinois in 2010. Since last year, interest in climate adaptation has grown substantially, and ICARUS-2 is twice as large in terms of papers submitted and registered attendees.
The second conference of the Initiative on Climate Adaptation Research and Understanding through the Social Sciences, or ICARUS, will take place at SNRE in the Dana Building May 5 to 8. The theme is Climate Vulnerability and Adaption: Marginal Peoples and Environment. More than 150 papers will be presented by scholars and researchers from around the world. ICARUS II is twice as large as the first conference, held at University of Illinois in 2010, in terms of papers submitted and registered attendees.
April 13, 2011
Rosina M. Bierbaum, dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment, has been named to the National Climate Assessment Development and Advisory Committee to plan the nation's next assessment report.
Rosina M. Bierbaum, dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment, has been appointed a Fellow at The World Bank under a new global fellowship program designed to bring expertise into the Bank's development work. Dean Bierbaum co-directed The World Bank's 2010 World Development Report, which focused on climate change. In her role as Fellow (an advisory position that is not full-time), she will remain based in Ann Arbor while working with the Bank's climate-change team to develop screening tools for lending operations in low-income countries.