School of Natural Resources and Environment

Wege Foundation

Peter M. Wege addressing SNRE students in the Dana Building.

"I felt that if we could have a chair at Michigan, we could feature the best of ecology, the best of economics, and the best of environmental problem solving."
-Peter M. Wege

The Wege Foundation's $1.5 million gift to the University of Michigan endows the Peter M. Wege Chair of Sustainable Systems at the School of Natural Resources and Environment. With this chair, the School hopes to take a leadership role in the application of life-cycle-design methodology needed to achieve a sustainable global society.

The Wege Foundation, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., has pledged to fund a new graduate student fellowship and a professorship in the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) as part of its ongoing support of the school and the University of Michigan. Both gifts acknowledge the decades-long relationship between Peter M. Wege, the foundation's founder, and Jonathan W. Bulkley, who retired in June as a University of Michigan professor after 43 years of service. The announcements were made as part of a special academic panel discussion, organized to reflect upon the career and celebrate Professor Bulkley's research, teaching and mentoring accomplishments.

March 17, 2011

By Kevin Merrill

Dr. Larry Brilliant, an epidemiologist, technology entrepreneur, philanthropist and medical doctor, addressed responses to such global threats as climate change, epidemics, water scarcity and nuclear proliferation Wednesday in the 10th Annual Wege Lecture on Sustainability.

Brilliant, a U-M alumnus who also is president and chief executive officer of the Skoll Global Threats Fund, delivered the lecture titled "Sustainable Humanity" in Rackham Auditorium.