School of Natural Resources and Environment

Shelie Miller

Six SNRE Faculty Part of First Wave of MCubed Project Winners

MCubed officials announced the first 50 projects to receive $60,000 seed grants in phase one of the program
In a live-tweeted lottery today at @umichresearch #mcubed, MCubed officials announced the first 50 projects to receive $60,000 seed grants in phase one of the program. The $15 million, two-year pilot will give out 200 more early-stage grants soon, in an effort to jumpstart innovative, interdisciplinary work. Projects by Mary Carol Hunter, Joan Nassauer, Josh Newell, Shelie Miller, Paul Mohai, and Brad Cardinale from U-M's School of Natural Resources and Environment were six of the 50 chosen.

SNRE's Miller works to switch up energy sources

Shelie Miller, who won a National Science Foundation award for her development of a switchgrass research tool, says biofuels won’t solve our energy or climate problems—but they can help. “They are a source of domestic energy that can create jobs and stimulate rural economies,” says Miller, an assistant professor of natural resources and environment, School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE), with a joint appointment in civil and environmental engineering, CoE. She teaches environmental systems analysis at the graduate level and ecological issues to undergrads.

U-M students help build sustainable community in rural Africa

A merry-go-round that generates electricity to light a rural African schoolhouse is among the sustainability projects tackled this summer by a team of University of Michigan graduate students working with villagers in Liberia. With colleagues from Clemson University and the University of Liberia, the U-M student group also designed and installed a toilet system that creates biogas to fuel the school's kitchen stove and a solar-powered produce dehydrator that allows the villagers to keep dried mangoes, tomatoes and eggplant for up to a year without refrigeration. "The developing countries are a key to global sustainability," said Jose Alfaro, a doctoral student at the School of Natural Resources and Environment and co-founder of the U-M student group, Sustainability Without Borders.

SNRE's Miller among early-career scientists honored by White House

Three University of Michigan researchers, including SNRE's Shelie Miller, are among the 85 recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the nation's highest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. Ten federal departments and agencies annually nominate scientists and engineers whose work shows exceptional promise for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge. Participating agencies award these talented researchers up to five years of funding to further their work in support of critical government missions.

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