News & Events

May 2008

LEAP welcomes Dr. Emily Minor to our faculty!

Dr. Minor recently accepted a joint position in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Institute for Environmental Science and Policy at UIC as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Minor joins us from the Appalachian Laboratory of the University of Maryland 's Center for Environmental Science where she is a postdoctoral researcher. She received her doctorate from Duke University where she studied the effects of urbanization on the distribution and conservation of forest birds. Her research interests also include the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), simulation modeling and spatial statistics to understand habitat fragmentation and connectivity. Her recent work involves the application of network theory to investigate the spread of exotic plants in disturbed landscapes. With her expertise in landscape ecology and interest in urban ecosystems, Dr. Minor will be a valuable addition to the LEAP community.

May 2008

Dr. Mary Ashley and, LEAP Fellow, Jennifer Ison will attend the annual National Science Foundation Meeting for IGERT participants. The meeting will be held in Arlington, Virginia, May 18 - 20. Jennifer has submitted an abstract and will present a poster on recent research by LEAP Fellows. The poster is entitled: "Keeping the Chicago region free of poison hemlock: an interdisciplinary study of the front of an invasive plant." Jennifer has worked on this project with Fellow LEAP students, Paul Gulezian, Dept of Biological Sciences, and Kelly Grantberg, Civil & Materials Engineering, as part of a capstone project.

May 2008

LEAP Trainee Michael Iverson was awarded a 2008 Conservation Design Forum (CDF) sustainable Design Summer Internship. CDF, located in Elmhurst , Illinois , offers planning and design services that result in ecologically, culturally, and economically sustainable results. Michael, an architect, has proposed a projected to develop a sustainable vision plan and demonstration project for the Village of Oak Park . He is currently awaiting approval from the Village. Michael has also submitted a proposal to the American Institute of Architects Research Program entitled, “An Urbanized Ecosystem: Proof of Concept Study.” The goal of the proposed project is to demonstrate how an ecological-based design approach can be applied to an urbanized ecosystem. AIA awards will be announced May 16.

May 2008

Trainee Michael Iverson presented his "Green Blocks Initiative" at a public lecture series in Oak Park (Green Tuesdays in the Village). GBI was developed to affect incremental change in Oak Park on a block-by-block basis and will involve citizen scientists.

January 2008

During the spring semester, 2008, we successfully launched a new course, “Research Methods in Landscape, Ecological and Anthropogenic Processes,” designed to help students develop the knowledge and skills necessary to evaluate, choose and/or utilize appropriate research and evaluation tools used in a variety of disciplines to conduct research, manage natural systems and evaluate impacts of anthropogenic activities. Instructional format includes 1) hands-on laboratory modules taught by faculty from the natural sciences, environmental engineering, urban planning, information systems, social sciences and others; and 2) synthesis of the tools and techniques learned throughout the course in research application papers describing how they would employ the cross-disciplinary methods to their research topics. The course enrolled 18 students, including 9 LEAP students and 9 drawn from graduate programs in various departments.

November 2007

Congratulations to LEAP Fellows Sara Emerson, BioS, Paul Gulezian, BioS, and Jennifer Ison, BioS, who passed their preliminary exams!

Congratulations to LEAP Fellow Michael Iversen!

Michael was awarded a travel grant to the 2007 Conference of Sustainability IGERTs to be held October 10-13, 2007. A national conference sponsored by NSF and hosted by the Resilience and Adaptation IGERT of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the meeting targets doctoral students and participating faculty of IGERT programs with the social-ecological sustainability theme. Michael, who will represent the LEAP IGERT, is a PhD candidate in Urban Planning, CUPPA.

LEAP will offer “Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Integrated Human/Natural Landscapes” for the first time this Fall, 2007.

  BIOS 540 (3 credits)

CRN = #27146

Tuesdays 12:00 – 2:50pm

Room 4273 SEL

Instructors: David Wise, BIOS/IESP (Co-ordinator; dhwise@uic.edu; 413-9191); Mary Ashley, BIOS; Steven Forman, EAES; Martin Jaffe, UPP; Thomas Theis, IESP/CME

This broadly interdisciplinary course introduces students to how scientists, engineers, policy makers and managers define problems, gather and analyze data, and develop policy in the ecology, management and restoration of integrated human/natural landscapes. The format is a combination of lecture, discussion, preparation of position papers, and student presentations. A major course objective is to help students develop the ability to analyze critically core issues in diverse specialties, and to improve their skills in communicating verbally and in writing with colleagues across a broad spectrum of disciplines.

Lectures and readings will introduce basic ecological, evolutionary, biogeochemical and geological processes; basic principles of landscape restoration, remediation and conservation; and fundamental economic, social and policy issues involved in environmental management. A unique feature of the course is its focus on a specific Chicagoland challenge: creation of a comprehensive plan for developing and managing the newly established Openlands Lakefront Preserve at Ft. Sheridan 1 ,2 . The course will relate broad principles, issues and controversies in environmental management to this core project, starting with an overview of the project and its goals, a visit to the lakefront preserve, and identification of major problems to be solved. Students and faculty will then investigate these problems and possible solutions in depth, with the goal of developing a preliminary comprehensive development and management plan by the end of the semester.

This course is the first of four core courses in the LEAP (Landscape, Ecological and Anthropogenic Processes) graduate training program ( www.leap.uic.edu ), which spans several colleges at UIC. This course is required of LEAP IGERT trainees and LEAP Associates, but is also open to graduate students not affiliated with the LEAP training program. Any student interested in a broad, interdisciplinary approach to environmental management who is seeking a highly interactive course is encouraged to enroll. Contact David Wise for more information.

1 Press release: www.openlands.org/reports/FtSheridanPressRelease080106.pdf

2 Action plan: www.openlands.org/reports/FtSheridanActionPlanPt2%28Appendices%29.pdf

LEAP welcomes Dr. David Wise to our faculty! Dr. Wise has recently accepted a joint position in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Institute for Environmental Science and Policy at UIC, and will be an important member of the LEAP community. David joins us from the University of Kentucky where he was a Professor in the Department of Entomology. David studies ecological interactions of terrestrial arthropods.

His research interests span basic to applied ecology, with a focus on food-web dynamics and the impacts of species interactions on ecosystem processes. David received his BA from Swarthmore College and his doctorate from the University of Michigan. Before moving to Kentucky, David held faculty positions at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and the University of New Mexico.