Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost
Institute on the Environment
New Permanent Director of the Institute on the Environment
July 22, 2008
I am very pleased to report that, following an extensive international search, I have selected Professor Jonathan A. Foley as the permanent Director of the Institute on the Environment. Dr. Foley is the founder and Director of the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) at the University of Wisconsin and is the Gaylord Nelson Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences. He will begin his duties as Institute Director on August 25, 2008.
Jon Foley is a world-class scientist of earth systems modeling, an exceptionally creative and experienced institution builder, with a rich and high impact range of interdisciplinary research, teaching, and outreach experience. Jonathan Foley's work examines complex global environmental systems and their interactions with human societies. Professor Foley shares our commitment and vision to see that the Institute on the Environment flourishes as one of the very finest in the world.
Professor Foley has won numerous awards and honors, including the National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development Award, the Samuel C. Johnson Distinguished Faculty Fellowship, the J.S. McDonnell Foundation's 21st Century Science Award, and the Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological Society of America. In 1997, President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Professor Foley holds a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude for the remarkable leadership and dedicated service of Interim Director Deborah Swackhamer. Her role in creating the Institute's initial structure and mission and in building it to its current strength has been exemplary.
For more on the Institute on the Environment and its new Director, please see: http://environment.umn.edu/
E. Thomas Sullivan
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
Founding Fellows of the Institute on the Environment
Founding Fellows
Professor Susan Galatowitsch
Department of Horticulture Science
College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences
Professor Sagar Goyal
Department of Veterinary Population Medicine
College of Veterinary Medicine
Senior Research Assoc. Lucinda Johnson
Natural Resources Research Institute
University of Minnesota Duluth
Professor Anne Kapuscinski
Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology
College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences
Professor Bradley Karkkainen
Law School
Professor David Mulla
Department of Soil, Water, and Climate
College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences
Professor Lance Neckar
Department of Landscape Architecture
College of Design
Associate Professor Paige Novak
Department of Civil Engineering
Institute of Technology
Professor Christopher Paola
Department of Geology and Geophysics
Institute of Technology
Professor Stephen Polasky
Department of Applied Economics
College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences
Department of
Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
College of Biological Sciences
Regents Professor Lanny Schmidt
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Institute of Technology
Professor Emeritus Richard Skaggs
Department of Geography
College of Liberal Arts
Regents Professor G. David Tilman
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
College of Biological Sciences
Professor Lawrence Wackett
Department of Biochemistry
College of Biological Sciences
Assistant Professor Elizabeth Wilson
Humphrey Institute
The call for nominations resulted in an overwhelmingly positive response, and a large number of highly qualified candidates. The Institute on the Environment is pleased to announce that fifteen Founding Fellows will participate in establishing the newly approved Institute on the Environment. Appointments will be for 20% time in the Institute, beginning January 1, 2007 for up to two years. Compensation to the home departments of the Fellows will be made at the rate of up to $20,000/year, depending on time allocation. Following are the expectation and qualification requirements:
Expectations of Founding Fellows
- Implement recommendations from the Institute Blueprint approved by the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
- Serve as advisors to Interim Director/Director
- Establish Institute governance structure and culture
- Design and implement process for deciding on research themes
- Provide leadership in forming initial multidisciplinary research teams and pursuing initial research opportunities
- Identify and recruit an initial cohort of Institute Fellows
- Design and implement process for Associate Membership
- Define roles and membership of External Advisory Board
- Participate regularly in weekly planning meetings
Qualifications
- Must be leading scholar in environmental field, with robust record of scholarly accomplishments in publishing and research support
- Must have experience in multi-investigator and multidisciplinary research
- Must be excellent leaders, team-builders, communicators, and Institute “ambassadors”
- Must have strong commitment to the mission of the Institute
Related News: Founding Fellows Announcement by the University News Service
Provost's Advisory Committee on the Institute on the Environment
In May 2006, the Provost’s Advisory Committee was named to propose recommendations for consideration by the Provost for a world-class, system-wide Institute on the Environment. The impetus for such an Institute originally arose from a recommendation made by one of the strategic positioning task forces. This committee concluded its work in September 2006 with the issuing of the following documents.
To read the report:
Executive Summary (download PDF)Committee Members
- Deborah Swackhamer, Environmental Health Sciences (co-chair)
- Stephen Polasky, Applied Economics (co-chair)
- Efi Foufoula-Georgiou, Civil Engineering
- Lucinda Johnson, UMD Natural Resources Research Institute
- Anne Kapuscinski, Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology
- Bradley Karkkainen, Law School
- Peter McMurry, Mechanical Engineering
- David Mulla, Soil, Water, and Climate
- Peter Reich, Forest Resources
- Harvey Thorleifson, Minnesota Geological Survey
- David Tilman, Ecology, Evolution and Behavior
- Jon Binks, Academic Affairs & Provost (staff)