Environmental studies is beginning to attract the big money. The latest example is at Dartmouth University, which has just revealed a $2.5 million alumni gift to endow a professorship in the field. The inaugural holder of the Richard and Jane Pearl Professorship in Environmental Studies will be Andrew Friedland, the current chair of Dartmouth's Environmental Studies Program.
According to Dartmouth, Friedland's research focuses on the effect of atmospheric pollutants on high-elevation forests, as well as on how our individual energy choices affects the environment. Friedland, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, has been on Dartmouth's faculty since 1987. He is also a co-founder of Dartmouth's graduate program in Earth, Ecosystem, and Ecological Sciences.
Dartmouth currently offers undergraduate majors in environmental studies and environmental earth sciences. It also offers both master's and Ph.D degrees in earth sciences.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Green Job: Bowdoin College
From time to time, this blog will take a look at jobs in environmental studies, both those for graduates and those on the campuses educating those students.
A posting went up on Thursday for the director of the Environmental Studies program at Bowdoin College. The job board note says the post, which will begin next fall, is for a candidate at the associate or full professor level and adds this: "The director will hold a joint appointment in the Environmental Studies program and a department appropriate to his/her disciplinary specialization."
That's because at Bowdoin, which is based on a bucolic campus in Brunswick, Maine, environmental studies is not a standalone major. The college calls it a "coordinate", which means that it expects it to be pared with one of the school's other offerings. The environmental studies department's home page says that students have combined ES with majors from biology to women's studies.
For those interested, the job posting is here.
A posting went up on Thursday for the director of the Environmental Studies program at Bowdoin College. The job board note says the post, which will begin next fall, is for a candidate at the associate or full professor level and adds this: "The director will hold a joint appointment in the Environmental Studies program and a department appropriate to his/her disciplinary specialization."
That's because at Bowdoin, which is based on a bucolic campus in Brunswick, Maine, environmental studies is not a standalone major. The college calls it a "coordinate", which means that it expects it to be pared with one of the school's other offerings. The environmental studies department's home page says that students have combined ES with majors from biology to women's studies.
For those interested, the job posting is here.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Northern Michigan Plant Protest
Educating students about the environment can have unintended consequences: They can become more protective of the environment on their very own campus.
So it was this past week at Northern Michigan University. Students there are challenging the Marquette-Mich.-based institution's plan to build new dorms because the construction would destroy a native plant research project on campus. Student representatives met with NMU's president and brought along a petition bearing 900 names and information on future plans for the four-year-old native plant project. NMU offers majors in both environmental conservation and environmental science.
And the whole thing may be more than a bit ironic since the tag line on NMU's Web site is "Northern. Naturally."
So it was this past week at Northern Michigan University. Students there are challenging the Marquette-Mich.-based institution's plan to build new dorms because the construction would destroy a native plant research project on campus. Student representatives met with NMU's president and brought along a petition bearing 900 names and information on future plans for the four-year-old native plant project. NMU offers majors in both environmental conservation and environmental science.
And the whole thing may be more than a bit ironic since the tag line on NMU's Web site is "Northern. Naturally."
Friday, October 26, 2007
The Young And The Greenish
There are plenty of colleges and universities across the United States that now offer environmental studies. But this week's New York Times had a piece on the environmentalism that's popping up in and around secondary school classrooms.
Things like greening buildings with solar panels, compact fluorescent bulbs and environmentally friendly cleaners, championed by groups like Grassroots Environmental Education. Or measures to ban the idling of car engines at school pickup point. The photo accompanying the story shows middle school kids planting a garden. Some secondary schools are taking it further, the story notes. Some of the schools recognized by the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education assign environmentally themed readings for homework. Green California Schools will hold a summit and exposition for educators in Pasadena in December.
Of course, there are naysayers. Folks who can't see that there's room for an "e" in each of the so-called three "Rs". They probably don't recycle either.
Things like greening buildings with solar panels, compact fluorescent bulbs and environmentally friendly cleaners, championed by groups like Grassroots Environmental Education. Or measures to ban the idling of car engines at school pickup point. The photo accompanying the story shows middle school kids planting a garden. Some secondary schools are taking it further, the story notes. Some of the schools recognized by the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education assign environmentally themed readings for homework. Green California Schools will hold a summit and exposition for educators in Pasadena in December.
Of course, there are naysayers. Folks who can't see that there's room for an "e" in each of the so-called three "Rs". They probably don't recycle either.
WSU's Sustainability Smackdown
Not that long ago, college environmental events were as dull as a U.N. General Assembly session. Thankfully, somebody figured out that you can draw more people with a bit of fun. Like the "Sustainability Smackdown" taking place at Washington State University today.
Yes, there will still be lectures and presentations, but the three student groups sponsoring the event--the local Roots and Shoots chapter, the WSU Sustainability Club and the WSU Environmental Science Club--also want to see some fresh thinking on sustainability from students who might not have thought about it before.
There will be potentially be some green in it for the winners, and I don't just mean the plant kind. Smackdown attendees will vote to award $1,000 to the student group with the best sustainability idea. And students may also get a chance to participate in challenge issued by KEEN, the outdoor performance footwear and gear maker. It plans to award $150,000 in prizes to the best ideas or projects that support sustainability. The winners will be announced at the KEEN's Hybrid.STAND Festival in its home base of Portland, Ore., in June 2008.
Roots and Shoots, by the way, is a global environmental and humanitarian education program that was inspired by the work of primatologist Jane Goodall. More on its work later.
Yes, there will still be lectures and presentations, but the three student groups sponsoring the event--the local Roots and Shoots chapter, the WSU Sustainability Club and the WSU Environmental Science Club--also want to see some fresh thinking on sustainability from students who might not have thought about it before.
There will be potentially be some green in it for the winners, and I don't just mean the plant kind. Smackdown attendees will vote to award $1,000 to the student group with the best sustainability idea. And students may also get a chance to participate in challenge issued by KEEN, the outdoor performance footwear and gear maker. It plans to award $150,000 in prizes to the best ideas or projects that support sustainability. The winners will be announced at the KEEN's Hybrid.STAND Festival in its home base of Portland, Ore., in June 2008.
Roots and Shoots, by the way, is a global environmental and humanitarian education program that was inspired by the work of primatologist Jane Goodall. More on its work later.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Professor Plastic Power
You may have heard that Discovery Channel is launching a network on environmental issues, Planet Green, next spring. But there are already intimations of what shows will be on the new network, like "Eco-Tech", which ran a segment last night that featured Alan Heeger, a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Heeger is already quite well known as one of the three winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2000. But his research into conducting polymers has led him to develop technology that stands to revolutionize the way we will all go solar. Without abandoning his work at UCSB, Heeger co-founded a company called Konarka Technologies, which makes its headquarters in Lowell, Mass., a town more known as a leader of earlier industrial revolutions than current eco-technology. No matter: Konarka is rolling out Power Plastic®, a photovoltaic material that basically puts solar power cells on flexible plastic, not glass. According to the Discovery Channel report, the technology stands to cut the cost of solar panels in half--if not more--while producing more power.
Universities have gotten very smart about helping professors commercialize their research. Look for a lot more breakthroughs like Heeger's in environmental technology for the mass market.
Heeger is already quite well known as one of the three winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2000. But his research into conducting polymers has led him to develop technology that stands to revolutionize the way we will all go solar. Without abandoning his work at UCSB, Heeger co-founded a company called Konarka Technologies, which makes its headquarters in Lowell, Mass., a town more known as a leader of earlier industrial revolutions than current eco-technology. No matter: Konarka is rolling out Power Plastic®, a photovoltaic material that basically puts solar power cells on flexible plastic, not glass. According to the Discovery Channel report, the technology stands to cut the cost of solar panels in half--if not more--while producing more power.
Universities have gotten very smart about helping professors commercialize their research. Look for a lot more breakthroughs like Heeger's in environmental technology for the mass market.
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