The Nelson Institute Blog

The students of the New Orleans Sustainable Restoration Workshop invite you to learn more about the project and enjoy a fun-filled night of music provided by Big Mouth Cooperative, photo art, and Cajun culture Friday night at Escape Java Joint!

Restoration: Sustainability in the Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans, a photo show by the University of Wisconsin-New Orleans Sustainable Restoration Workshop

Opening Friday, January 16 from 7:00-11:00 pm at Escape Java Joint, 916 Williamson St. Photos on display through January 29th.

The University of Wisconsin-New Orleans Sustainable Restoration Workshop is a student-led UW project to utilize our academic skills and interests to advise and assist the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans in a wetlands restoration project that could not only bring sustainable economic activity to the neighborhood, but also reduce devastating floods in future hurricanes.

Hurricane Katrina brought national attention to issues of environmental racism, concentrated poverty and segregation, and the widespread governmental failure in serving disadvantaged communities. Although there has been a huge outpouring of national support for New Orleans residents, there is still a lot to be done.

The University of Wisconsin- New Orleans Sustainable Restoration Workshop is in its 3rd year of partnering with the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association and the Lower 9th Ward’s Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development. Working alongside community leaders, residents, non-profits and government agencies, this student group has been conducting essential and much needed wetland and social science.

Please join us as we introduce the Madison community to another face of the Lower 9th Ward. Quickly becoming one of the largest sustainable redevelopment projects in the world, the Lower 9th Ward has become a model recognized for their dedication to community, their insistence on environmental and social justice, and their commitment to empower themselves through environmental sustainability. This photo show serves not only to celebrate the achievements of the Lower 9th Ward but also to invite the Madison Community to participate in this exciting and ground breaking project.

The Midwest Alliance in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) seeks applicants for its mentoring and internship programs for postsecondary students (undergraduate and graduate) and recent alumni with disabilities of all kinds. Stipends of $200 for mentees and $300 for mentors are available for a 16-hour commitment.

The Midwest Alliance also helps students and recent alumni with disabilities find internships in businesses, research labs, camps, and summer programs and provides stipends of $500 to $1,000. Opportunities are offered to students at any postsecondary level (undergraduate, graduate, alumni) who have a degree in any of a variety of STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields or who are in the process of earning one.

For a complete list of eligible majors and fields, visit http://stemmidwest.org/default.asp?contentID=544

Note:  You can receive a stipend for an internship you have found by yourself.

To apply:

Applications are available at http://www.stemmidwest.org

Send completed applications by fax, postal mail, or e-mail.  Contact the Midwest Alliance if you would like to receive an application by mail or in an alternate format.

To receive regular updates:

To receive information by e-mail about Midwest Alliance events, news, and other announcements related to student and alumni opportunities, send a blank email to: midwest-recruit-subscribe@googlegroups.com

For more information:

Contact the Midwest Alliance outreach coordinator for Wisconsin and eastern Iowa:  Dan Nordstrom, TTY/Voice (608) 890-0992,  e-mail: dnordstrom@wisc.edu

The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) has chosen retired Nelson Institute professor Thomas Lillesand to become its next honorary member, in 2009.

Lillesand was longtime director of the Environmental Remote Sensing Center — formerly part of the Nelson Institute, now housed in UW-Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center — and chair of the institute’s Environmental Monitoring Graduate Program until his retirement from the faculty in 2006.

Honorary membership is the highest award an ASPRS member can receive.  The society has only 25 living honorary members at any given time.

Read the ASPRS news release about Lillesand’s award.

Congratulations to Juli Speck (Environment and Resources MS with Professor Paul Zedler)!

Juli Speck is one of only 40 people selected from competitors nationwide for the TogetherGreen Conservation Leadership Program, part of a new conservation initiative of the National Audubon Society with support from Toyota. Fellows receive a $10,000 stipend, specialized training in conservation planning and execution, the chance to work with gifted conservation professionals, and assistance with outreach and evaluation. Each Fellow will also receive funding for a community-focused project to engage local residents in conserving land, water and energy, and contribute to greater environmental health.

With the help of Girl Scouts, Speck will use her fellowship to restore a 15-acre section of prairie at Echo Valley, and plans ultimately to restore a total of 200 acres of prairie on the site. The project will complement the restoration efforts of surrounding landowners, creating a prairie corridor of more than 1,000 acres, providing significant prairie habitat to a nationally declining grassland bird population. And it will expose a whole new world of nature to the Girl Scouts she works with, encouraging them to participate in more conservation efforts in the future.

To learn more about Juli’s project check out her bio on the TogetherGreen website or view the full press release (PDF).

The Editorial Board of the New York Times has prepared a nice little tutorial on oceanic acidification related to increases in atmospheric greenhouse gasses.

How did the Nelson Institute’s Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE) come to be, and how does it enrich the university?

Professor Bill Cronon, CHE’s new director, tells the story in the History Department’s latest newsletter.  Read his article, A New Chapter for Environmental History at UW-Madison.

The Academic Programs Office has created a new Undergraduate and Graduate Professional Development website with links to programs both on and off campus. Thank you to all of the faculty and staff who provided us with information for the website. If you have any additional ideas, please send them to Sara Lorence (262-9206).

This has also prompted us to redesign the entire careers website and relocate the pages. If you have a link somewhere to our careers page, please update the link to www.nelson.wisc.edu/careers.

Climate Leadership Challenge: “Student Solutions for Sustainability…”

Massive energy and resource consumption…
Steadily growing greenhouse gas emissions….
Rapidly changing patterns of climate…
Increasing threats to the economy, human health and our security…

What’s your idea for building a better future?

Submit it to the SAGE Climate Leadership Challenge, and win up to $20,000!

Don’t miss the information meeting on December 3rd:
SAGE is hosting an informational meeting about the CLC on Wednesday, December 3rd at 5:30 in room 140 of Science Hall.

With generous funding from the Global Stewards Society, the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) invites all UW-Madison undergraduate, graduate, and continuing students to join the Climate Leadership Challenge (CLC). Innovate, create, design, and dream ­all ideas welcome!

The CLC competition is open to all types of climate solutions, submitted by student teams of up to four students (individuals are also welcome to submit). Have an idea for a low-emitting car? Green business idea? Public outreach campaign? Activist art project? Let us know ­ by submitting to the CLC, your idea may change the world, and you may earn big money. In addition to a grand prize of $20,000, sub-prizes will be awarded up to $50,000 in total cash prizes.

All team members must be UW-Madison students, with interdisciplinary teams recommended to ensure your team reflects a good balance of skills to design real-world climate solutions. Submission deadline will be April 10th, 2009, with informational meetings beginning in November 2008.

Important Dates

• December 3rd Informational meeting
• April 10th Submission Deadline
• April 22nd Final Presentations at Nelson Earth Day Conference

Come eat FREE PIZZA and learn how you can win $20,000!
SAGE is hosting an informational meeting about the CLC on Wednesday, December 3rd at 5:30 in room 140 of Science Hall.

Questions? Email CLC Project Coordinator Josh Ghena.

and… Get Twice the Mileage for your Sustainability Solution:

Submit to the UW-Madison Business School’s Burrill competition, too. Although the CLC will have its own submission guidelines (to be posted in coming weeks), the CLC will also accept Burrill formatted submissions to encourage sustainable entrepreneurship. Two opportunities to win, with one great idea! See their web site.

Just published: the latest issue of In Common, the Nelson Institute’s semi-annual newsletter for alumni and friends.  Read it online.

Congratulations to Anne Shudy Palmer!

Anne, a CBSD MS student working with Jon Foley, was recently offered one of the student scholarships to the Conservation Capital in the Americas Conference this coming January in Valdivia, Chile.

The conference will include one hundred conservation finance practitioners, educators, and students from North and Latin America. Topics ranging from conservation investment banking to ecosystem services will be covered by our presenters. The exchange of ideas during the three day conference promises to be quite substantive and wide-ranging. In addition, the book that will emerge from the conference case analyses and discussions, to be published in 2009, should make a lasting contribution to the field of conservation finance.

Anne’s scholarship will cover: (1) round trip airfare between the United States and Valdivia, (2) accommodations in a student hotel in Valdivia, including most meals at the conference itself, and (3) free-of-charge participation at the conference.