The Nelson Institute Blog

The Nelson Institute Research Committee held a productive meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 21. Proposals for Research Circle support have been received and will be reviewed. To read the minutes of this meeting, please click here: Research Committee Minutes 2.21.06

This effort is moving forward through some conversations that I have had with Gary Sandefur in L&S and Jocelyn Milner in the Provost’s office. Both of these conversations have been productive.

The most stimulating question I have been asked was “What do you hope to accomplish with the establishment of a Major in the Environment?” I replied that I hoped to provide future citizens with the skills and tools that they need in order to make judgements regarding very complex challenges, particularly with respect to the environment. Furthermore I think that providing such a foundation should be a requirement of an institution such as UW-Madison.

What is your answer?

The following came in through climate-l…

The Institute for the Study of Society & Environment (ISSE) at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is pleased to announce its Summer 2006 Climate & Health Colloquium, July 16- July 22, 2006. This colloquium exposes graduate and post-graduate students to methods for integrating climate change, climate variability and public health research. It will include presentations, opportunities for students to discuss integrated work with leaders in their respective fields, and gain hands-on experience with analytic tools.

To apply, visit our website http://www.isse.ucar.edu/climatehealth or contact Veronica Wynne,(303)497-8117.

Hello all-

I am currently in Santa Barbara, California attending the Environmental Studies Summit at UC-Santa Barbara. The Summit was called with the mission to answer the question, “Does the field of Environmental Studies need a professional association? If so, what should it look like?”

I hope to soon post my observations and reactions to the Summit, the variety of participants in attendance, and some of the many lessons learned.

You can learn more about the Summit here.

This week marks the introduction of the Nelson Institute blog. Please check it out at www.nelson.wisc.edu/blog. From here on, I will only post the message there. We hope you will all not only visit the blog, but also add your comments and concerns.

And the good news is … Eileen Hanneman has been chosen as the first ever recipient of the Martha Casey Award for Dedication to Excellence! The award is one of nine awarded by the Chancellor for Academic staff excellence. Eileens nomination was supported by a group of faculty and staff, and I am delighted. There will be a formal award ceremony in April and a celebration at the Institute then. I am sure you will join me in offering her our warmest congratulations on this much deserved recognition.

A change in faculty governance — We had our first governance meeting of 2006 and among other things formally voted on a change in our rules for membership in our governance committee and our executive committee. This change was provoked by a desire to return to a more inclusive approach to faculty governance in the Nelson Institute. After our last governance meeting in April, I will be inviting all affiliates to signify if they wish to be part of the Nelson Institute Governance Faculty for 2006-2007. If you wish to be part of our governance group, you will only need to respond with an indication of your interest, and your willingness to attend all four Governance meetings. The new guidelines will be posted in full on the blog.

UW Madison encourages online offerings — A study is currently underway at the campus level re: the possibility of increasing online offerings in order to both improve course delivery and to increase revenue streams to the units. I think that short coursesin the area of the environment would be of interest not only to alumni but also to others in the State and might represent a strategy to increase the resource base of Nelson Institute, in order to support new teaching and research initiatives.

Update on geospatial teaching at UW-Madison — For those of you who have been involved in the effort to engage the central administration in a discussion of the future of geospatial teaching on campus, the interim Provost, Gina Sapiro has will soon announce the names of those she has appointed to a committee to explore options for meeting teaching needs and outreach needs in this area.

And lastly — I had the opportunity last week to visit the west coast (Seattle and San Francisco). The first part of the trip was an invitation to present to a group of environmental grant makers including Wilberforce Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Brainerd Foundation, the Christensen Foundation and the Moore Foundation, among others. This is the second in a series of workshops that I have given under the auspices of the Resilience Alliance (with Steve Carpenter and Ann Kinzig of ASU), with the intent of underlining the application of ecological theories to innovation in the social sector and the importance of training programs. The presentations were very well received and I believe that we have created some relationship with these Foundations. Please let my office know if you feel you have a proposal that would appeal to any of their funding programs.

I also had a chance to meet several people at Stanford School of Earth Sciences, including Pam Matson, their Dean. She has agreed to join our Board of Visitors, and I think will be a great addition.

Frances

I am not sure what the definintion of a young scientist is but see the announcment below:
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YSC DEADLINE EXTENDED

START is pleased to announce that due to tremendous interest the deadline for application to the Young Scientists’ Conference has been extended to 31 March 2006.

The International Young Scientists’ Conference on Global Change Research (November 7-9, 2006, Beijing International Conference Center) is intended to stimulate competition, encourage excellence, reward outstanding performance and foster the development of personal and institutional networks. The conference precedes the Earth System Science Partnership’s Open Science Conference, Global Environmental Change: Regional Challenges (November 9-12, 2006, Beijing International Conference Center) and it is
expected that all the young scientists will also participate in the Open Science Conference.

Application instructions are attached to this message or available for download from the START website (www.start.org). Inquires should be directed to: ysc@agu.org. We hope that you will share this message widely within your networks and apologize for cross-postings.
Thank you.

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Young Scientists’ Conference
7 - 8 November 2006
Beijing, China
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The Animal Welfare Institute has announced the creation of the Christine Stevens Wildlife Award. This program provides $10,000 grants to “defray the cost of studies designed to test tools and techniques that provide non-lethal alternatives for the humane resolution of all types of wildlfie conflicts.” For more infomation view their on-line brochure, or call 609-601-2875.

Society in Science: The Branco Weiss Fellowship is a unique experiment in research and learning dedicated to exploring new avenues in the relationship between science and society. It is aimed primarily at researchers from the life sciences who – as part of their scientific research – want to challenge the disciplinary boundaries and extend their scientific and personal perspectives by incorporating novel social and cultural aspects into their work.

NSF has announced a competition for funds to develop and enhance undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) curriculum - Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) nsf06536.

I am wondering if this could be a catalyst to thinking about how to enhance our offerings here at UW-Madison?….

Thoughts?

As a networked organization with members distributed across the campus, we face an ongoing challenge in ensuring that everyone remains informed. This blog is part of our effort to address that challenge.

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Blog entries are sorted into a number of categories. In the”Director’s Reports” category, you will find regular messages from the director with news about the institute. We have also set up “Committees” to localize meeting summaries, etc.; “Of Student Interest” for student-oriented posts; and other categories.

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