The Nelson Institute Blog

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.