Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost
Institute on the Environment
Finalists Announced for The Founding Director Search
Three finalists have been selected for the position of Founding Director of the University’s new Institute on the Environment. Each finalist will visit the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses on the dates as listed below. Each finalist will present their research on the first day of their visit from 2:30-4:00 in Room 105 of the Cargill Building and there will be a public forum from 2:00-3:30 in 402 Walter Library on the second day of their visit. There will be a public forum on the Duluth campus from 10:00-11:00 in the Library Rotunda.
- March 3-4 (Twin Cities), March 5 (Duluth): Deborah L. Swackhamer, Interim Director, Institute on the Environment and Professor, Environmental Health Sciences (University of Minnesota)
- March 10-11 (Twin Cities), March 12 (Duluth): Malcolm K. Hughes Regents’ Professor of Dendrochronology, and of Watershed Management (University of Arizona)
- March 24-25 (Twin Cities), March 26 (Duluth): George M. Hornberger, Ernest H. Ern Professor of Environmental Sciences (University of Virginia)
Details of finalist schedules listed here.
The research presentations and UMTC public forums for each finalist will be videotaped and posted to this website. They also will be broadcast via UM Connect via the following link: https://umconnect.umn.edu/instituteontheenvironment/
For questions, contact:
Jon Binks
binks001@umn.edu
Related links :
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)