Ning Ai receives grant to assess environmental impacts of rail infrastructure in IllinoisNovember 1, 2012 Ning Ai, IESP and Urban Planning and Policy joint faculty, received a 18-month grant of $99,540 for her project titled “Environmental Impact |
IESP announces winners of the 2012 predoctoral fellowship competitionOctober 31, 2012 Three IESP predoctoral fellowships were awarded to students pursuing doctoral degrees, whose research is related to interdisciplinary environmental scholarship. The winners are Eunjung (EJ) Shin from the Department of Public Administration, Andrea Hicks from IESP/Department of Civil and Materials Engineering and Kristin Woycheese from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Each winner will receive $10,000 award for the 2012-2013 academic year. EJ is interested in how natural resources are managed, shared and collectively governed across individuals, organizations and sectors. Her research areas also include knowledge networks in environmental policy. Currently, she is working on a dissertation research on sharing of non-plant genetic materials among agricultural researchers. Her research advisor is Prof. Eric Welch. Andrea’s work has an interdisciplinary focus in regards to understanding how humans consume artificial light and the impacts of that consumption. Her research focuses on studying the overall lifecycle of lighting, and understanding at what phases the greatest impacts occur and also how changes in consumption may shift those impacts. Her research advisor is Prof. Thomas Theis. Kristin’s studies carbon sequestration in modern lacustrine microbialites. Her research advisor is Prof. D’Arcy Meyer-Dombard. Visit EJ, Andrea and Kristin’s profile pages for more details on their research projects. Congratulations, EJ, Andrea and Kristin! |
Samuel Dorevitch receives CDC grant to build resilience against climate change in IllinoisOctober 30, 2012 Samuel Dorevitch, IESP and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences joint faculty, received a four-year $999,971 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Environmental Health for his project titled “BRACE: Building Resilience Against Climate Effects in Illinois”. His Co-Investigators are Linda Forst, David Ibrahim, Bernard Turnock and Mark Dworkin, faculty from the School of Public Health, and Kevin Gibbs from the Institute for Health Reasearch and Policy. The team will develop a Climate and Health Adaptation Plan for Illinois to address the consequences of climate change and associated extreme weather events. Click here for more information about this project |
Moira Zellner receives NSF grant to study climate, water and land-use decisions in the Argentine PampasOctober 15, 2012 Moira Zeller, IESP and Urban Planning and Policy joint faculty, is part of a multi institutional team that received a three-year $1,425,000 grant from National Science Foundation for their project titled “CNH: From Farm Management to Governance of Landscapes: Climate, Water, and Land-Use Decisions in the Argentine Pampas”. The team is led by Guillero Podesta from the University of Miami. Click here for more information about this project |
Moira Zellner receives NSF grant to conduct workshops on e-infrastructure for social science reseaerch on Sustainable Urban SystemsSeptember 24, 2012 Moira Zellner, IESP and Urban Planning and Policy joint faculty, with colleagues from Urban Planning and Policy, PI Piyushimita Thakuriah and Co-PI Nebiyou Tialhun, received a two-year $137,280 grant from National Science Foundation to conduct two workshops on e-Infrastructure for social science research. The title of the project is “Workshops on Big Data and Urban Informatics: e-Infrastructure for Social Science Research on Sustainable Urban Systems”. Click here for more information about this project |
Jane Lin receives NSF grant for work that seeks to contribute to development of more efficient urban transportation systemsSeptember 24, 2012 Jane Lin, IESP and Civil and Materials Engineering joint faculty, is part of a team that was awarded three-year $200,000 grant from National Science Foundation for a project titled “ICES: Small: Collaborative Research: Dynamic Parking Assignment Games”. The team is comprised of faculty from the Department of Computer Science, PI Bhaskar DasGupta and Co-PI Ouri Wolfson. The team will “address parking slot selection problems in urban environments” and “seek to contribute to development of more efficient urban transportation systems.” Click here for more information about this project |
New faculty, Sybil Derrible, joins IESPSeptember 12, 2012 New faculty, Sybil Derrible, joins IESP as a Research Assistant Professor in the fall 2012 semester. He holds a joint Assistant Professor appointment in the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering. Dr. Derrible holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto. He came to UIC after spending a year in Singapore as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology. His research interests include sustainable and resilient urban infrastructure planning, complex systems, infrastructure network design, network science and urban economics. For more information about Dr. Derrible, visit his web page Welcome, Dr. Derrible! |
Andrea Hicks receives the Provost Award for Graduate ResearchApril 23, 2012 Andrea Hicks, IESP graduate research assistant and doctoral student in the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering, won the Provost Award for Graduate Research. She is one of only 15 graduate student winners of the Provost and Deiss Spring 2012 competition. Her project is titled “Solid States Lighting: A Nano-enabled Case Study”. She will use her award to attend the Industrial Ecology Gordon Research Conference: Role of Industrial Ecology in Addressing Sustainability Imperatives, June 17-22, 2012 in Les Diablerets, Switzerland. She will be presenting her research and a poster during the conference. Andrea's research advisor is Dr. Thomas Theis, Director of IESP. The Provost’s Awards are designed with five objectives in mind: To improve the quality of research conducted by graduate students at UIC; to augment the professional training of graduate students by providing an experience in grant-writing; to stimulate applications by graduate students to external funding agencies; to speed degree completion; and to improve the placement of UIC graduates by conferring distinction on promising researchers. The Awards are granted on a competitive basis and are intended primarily for students who are actively engaged in research for a project, thesis or dissertation. They are designed to allow students to take advantage of unique opportunities to further their research, and to aid progress toward their degrees. Students may apply for awards up to $3,000. Congratulations, Andrea! |
Andrea Hicks wins sustainability award at the uic student research forumApril 18, 2012 Andrea Hicks, IESP graduate research assistant and doctoral student in the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering, won the Sustainability Award at the UIC Student Research Forum held on April 17, 2012. Andrea presented a poster of her research "Solid State Lighting: Adoption of Energy Efficient Light Technology", which described modeling the adoption of LED lighting using an Agent Based Model and incorporating environmental, economic, and societal considerations. Andrea was presented with an award certificate and a cash prize of $125. One Sustainability Award was given each at the undergraduate and graduate student level for research projects that best reflect the principles of sustainability. Projects were evaluated on their merit to address questions or problems that deal with the overlapping issues of environmental protection, social justice, and economic equity. The Student Research Forum represents one of the finest student-run activities at UIC. It is one of the few student activities that is academic in nature and includes the entire student body; undergraduate, graduate and professional. The Forum provides a venue for students at UIC to present their scholarly efforts and is an event in which the campus celebrates the wealth of research across all disciplines carried out by the dedicated students of the campus. Students from all disciplines are invited to present their work one-on-one to Forum attendees and judges during a high-energy 3-hour session, followed by an awards ceremony. Research presentations are accompanied by a poster or other visual display that captures the spirit of the research work and/or highlights key features of the project. Congratulations, Andrea! |
USC releases Climate Change and Your Health Report, After the Storm: The Hidden Health Risks of Flooding in a Warming WorldApril 3, 2012 Over the past 30 years, floods have tended to be one of the most deadly and expensive type of natural disaster in the United States. The impact of a flood is typically measured in terms of lives lost and the dollar value of property damaged or destroyed. But the often-substantial public health costs that follow a flood—and the toll that such health impacts may take on families even long after the waters have receded—are rarely included. Heavy rains or storm surges can contaminate drinking and recreational water with sewage, agricultural waste, chemical pollutants, or animal wastes, leading to waterborne gastrointestinal illnesses. Flooded homes and buildings can be a breeding ground for mold, which can cause debilitating respiratory and neurological problems. Mental health problems also tend to increase in the wake of extreme weather disasters. Extreme rainfall events have become more common in the United States during the same period that the climate has warmed, and it is likely that this trend will continue as temperatures rise. The Midwest region has experienced a 31% increase in the number of extreme precipitation events over the last 50 years. After the Storm: The Hidden Health Risks of Flooding in a Warming World, a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (USC), discusses the health hazards posed by extreme precipitation and flooding and what can be done to protect families, particularly those who are at greatest risk. Next, it addresses other flooding risk factors, such as where and how we choose to develop. Finally, the report summarizes the evidence linking climate change to the increased risk of weather events that can lead to flooding. Please click here to acces the USC report |
April is Earth Month! Celebrate 2012 Earth Month by attending events at UICApril 2, 2012 To celebrate the 2012 Earth Month, UIC is putting on many interesting and fun events. Attendees will be eligible for a prize drawing at the end of the month! Earth Month, 2012 Highlighted Events: Thursday, April 12, 12pm-1pm: The Inuit: Today's Victims of Global Warming, 1047 ERF, 842 W Taylor. Pizza will be served! Monday, April 16, 10am-2pm: The University of Common Sense (UCS) - The Future of Nuclear Energy (http://bit.ly/Ha8Dw9), Student Center East, 750 S Halsted. Exploring topics in nuclear energy, panelists from the scientific, corporate, and academic worlds will discuss questions related to the future of nuclear energy; pros, cons and sustainability. UCS will be moderated by UIC distinguished professor George Crabtree. RSVP at http://bit.ly/UCS2012 Follow the month's activities on Facebook (http://on.fb.me/HgKimZ) or Twitter (http://bit.ly/H9rPKc) using the hashtag #UICEarthMonth. Questions or need special arrangements? Contact the Office of Sustainability at sustainability@uic.edu or call (312) 413-9816. Please click here to view the complet schedule of April Earth Month events. |
College of Engineering offers a new minor in Environmental EngineeringJanuary 27, 2012 Growth in the world's population continues to put increasing pressure on resources that must be met in a sustainable way. Environmental Engineering is the field of engineering that employs biological, chemical, and physical treatment principles for the reduction of pollution in water, soil, sediment, and air to protect both human and ecological health. While great strides have been made in the last half century to improve the quality of these resources, much needs to be done to limit pollution of the environment and prevent pollution from happening in the first place. The College of Engineering offers a minor area of study in Environmental Engineering that crosses disciplinary boundaries among engineering specialties and departments. Students interested in the Minor in Environmental Engineering should contact Professor Karl Rockne in the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering at krockne@uic.edu. Click here to view a list of requried courses. |
IESP faculty awarded OVCR Areas of Excellence grantsJanuary 18, 2012 Two IESP faculty, Samuel Dorevitch and Thomas Theis, were awarded grants under the Office of Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR) Areas of Excellence (AOE) Award Program. This program is based upon OVCR’s 2010 Strategic Goals and Mission Statement which proposed an investment strategy targeted to scholarly themes - specifically, those poised to capitalize upon UIC’s unique strengths and opportunities and thereby achieve national distinction. The themes are: Biomedical and Health Science Discovery, Community Disparities and Urban Resilience and the Global Environment. The funding is designed to stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration, maximize the extramural leveraging potential of established areas of expertise, and solidify existing impactful programs. Samuel Dorevitch, IESP and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences faculty, received the award for his project "Urban Water Infrastructure, Policy, and Infectious Diseases". He is collaborating on this project with Charlotte Joslin (Ophthalmology), Rachael Jones (Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences), Karl Rockne (Civil and Materials Engineering), and Ruxana Sadikot (Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine). Dr. Dorevitch’s project will assess the feasibility of creating a UIC Water AOE while developing practical research applications that may be pursued in a multidisciplinary manner. This project is cosponsored by IESP and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. Click here for more information about this project. Thomas Theis, Director of IESP, received the award for his project “Building Urban Resilience and Sustainability (BURST): Integrating Adaptive Infrastructure Systems with Institutional and Ecological Functions”. He is collaborating on this project with Isabel Cruz (Computer Science), Ning Ai (IESP/Urban Planning and Policy), Farhad Ansari (Civil and Materials Engineering), Samuel Dorevitch (IESP/Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences), Sarah Dunn (School of Architecture), Ernesto Indacochea (Civil and Materials Engineering), Kazuya Kawamura (Urban Planning and Policy), Jie Lin (IESP/Civil and Materials Engineering), Emily Minor (IESP/Biological Sciences), Karl Rockne (Civil and Materials Engineering), Eric Welch (Public Administration), David Wise (IESP/Biological Sciences), and Moira Zellner (IESP/Urban Planning and Policy). Dr. Theis’s project will develop a new approach for the conception, analysis, and design of urban infrastructures that is consistent with the sustainability paradigm. This project is cosponsored by IESP, College of Engineering, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, and Biological Sciences. Click here for more information about this project. |
Andrea Hicks receives Chancellor's Graduate Research FellowshipDecember 6, 2011 Andrea Hicks, IESP graduate research assistant and doctoral student in the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering, received the Chancellor's Graduate Research Fellowship Award. The Fellowship will support her research on lighting as a consumer application of nanomaterials, particularly on how nano-enabled lighting technology will change how humans consume light and the impacts of the consumption of light. The Fellowship is awarded to students who "show exceptional promise for future multidisciplinary research and creative activity in their fields of interest." Fellows receive funding of up to $4,000 per year for up to 2 years. Congratulations, Andrea! |
November 21, 2011 is the Public Health Thank You DayNovember 21, 2011 On the Monday before Thanksgiving, Research!America and the Campaign
for Public Health Foundation, the American Public Health Association, the Association of Schools of Public Health, the Association of State
and Territorial Health Officials, the National Alliance for Hispanic
Health and the National Association of County and City Health Officials
ask Americans to give special thanks to their state and local "public
health heroes" who protect the nation's health throughout the year and
who work tirelessly every day to protect us. |
Samuel Dorevitch publishes results of the CHEERS study: Health Risks of Limited-contact Water RecreationNovember 3, 2011 IESP joint faculty, Samuel Dorevitch, published the results of the Chicago Health, Environmental Exposure, and Recreation Study (CHEERS) “Health Risks of Limited-contact Water Recreation” in the Environmental Health Perspectives online version on October 26, 2011. The CHEERS study was funded by the Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. The study’s objective was to “evaluate the incidence of illness, severity of illness, associations between water exposure and illness, and risk of illness attributable to limited-contact water recreation on waters dominated by wastewater effluent and on waters approved for general use recreation (such as swimming).” Dr. Dorevitch and his UIC collaborators, Preethi Pratap, Meredith Wroblewski, Daniel O. Hryhorczuk, Hong Li, Li C. Liu, and Peter A. Scheff, found that the recreational use of the Chicago River leads to similar incidence of gastrointestinal illness as the use of other local waterways. This was a surprise finding, according to Dr. Dorevitch, as he expected higher rates of sickness for people using the Chicago River which is primary a waste water effluent. However, people using the Chicago River had higher rates of eye symptoms than people using other local waterways. Another surprise finding, for Dr. Dorevitch, was that people using the Chicago River did not have higher rates of severe gastrointestinal illness requiring hospitalization than people using other local waterways. For Dr. Dorevitch, the study findings raise questions about the safety of use of the Chicago River, but also questions about the water quality of the other local waterways, which are not primary waste water effluent, but have such high rates of illness for people who use them for recreational purposes. Click here to view the UIC News release about this study and to listen to Dr. Dorevitch talk about the study’s results. |
Office of Sustainability announces Caterpillar Sustainability Scholarships, application deadline October 31, 2011October 26, 2011 The Office of Sustainability is pleased to announce up to six scholarship awards of $1000-$1500 each, applied toward tuition. The Caterpillar Sustainability Scholarship awards undergraduate students who:
For more information visit the Office of Sustainability scholarship webpage |
Gro Harlem Brundtland, UN Special Envoy on Climate Change and former Prime Minister of Norway, visits UICSepember 29, 2011 Gro Harlem Brundtland visited UIC on September 29, 2011 to speak at IESP sponsored event. Dr. Brundtland is United Nations Special Envoy on Climate change, former Prime Minister of Norway, former Director-General of the World Health Organization and Chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development. She presented a lecture “Our Common Future: Sustainable Development in a Deteriorating World”. Before the lectuere, Dr. Joe G.N. Garcia, Vice President for Health Affairs and Vice Chancellor for Research at UIC, presented opening remarks and introduced Dr. Charles Evans, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Director of University Outreach and Public Services at the Urbana campus. Dr. Evans announced the Open Source Textbook on Sustainability. Dr. Theis, the IESP Director, introduced Dr. Brundtland. The lecture was held in the Student Services Building, 1200 W. Harrison Street, in Chicago. This event was sponsored by: Institute for Environmental Science and Policy, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and University of Illinois Open Source Textbook Initiative. Additional support provided by: School of Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Engineering, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Office of Sustainability, Vice Chancellor for Administrative Services, Honors College and Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs. |
Moira Zellner receives NSF grant for interdisciplinary study to support participatory environmental planningAugust 22, 2011 Moira Zellner, IESP and Urban Planning and Policy joint faculty, receivced a two-year grant of $249,953 from the National Science Foundation for project titled "CI-TEAM Demonstration Project: Enhancing Stakeholder Participation in Environmental Planning with Visualization Tools that Support Complex Systems Learning and Spatial Thinking". This is an interdisciplinary project with co-invesigators William Dieber (Urban Data Visualization Lab), Charles Hoch (Urban Planning and Policy), Andrew Johnson (Computer Science), Leilah Lyons (Computer Science), Emily Minor (IESP and Biological Sciences), and Josuha Radinsky (Curriculum and Instruction). The aim of this project is to enhance existing visualization tools and the social processes in which they are embedded to better support participatory planning addressing complex environmental problems. Click here for more information about this project |
New faculty, ning ai, joins IESPAugust 17, 2011 New faculty, Ning Ai, joins IESP as a Research Assistant Professor starting in the fall 2011 semester. She holds a joint Assistant Professor appointment in the Department of Urban Planning and Policy. Ning comes to UIC from Georgia Institute of Technology where she received her PhD in August 2011. Her research and teaching interests focus on urban environmental planning and its integration with land use, industrial ecology, and sustainable economic development. For more information about Dr. Ai, visit her web page Welcome, Dr. Ai! |
IESP awards three Predoctoral FellowshipsAugust 8, 2011 Three graduate students were selected to receive the Instiute for Environmental Science and Policy Predoctoral Fellowship awards: Kelly Granberg from the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering, Basil Iannone from the Department of Biological Sciences, and Ryan Lugalia-Hollon from the Department of Urban Planning and Policy. The mission of the IESP Predoctoral Fellowship program is to span traditional boundaries among disciplines while helping students develop knowledge and skills for independent research that contributes to advances in environmental scholarship. Award winnters were selected for their interdisciplinary approach to solving problems and research congruency with the mission of IESP. Each Fellow will receive a $10,000 award for the 2011-2012 academic year. Kelly’s environmental engineering research interests center on identifying contamination sources and quantifying their contribution to specific sites with the goal of minimizing environmental contamination risk and supporting sustainable natural resource use. Her research advisor is Prof. Karl Rockne. Basil’s research focuses on understanding the many ways that individual species, community composition, and ecosystem processes interact to influence one another and community change over time, particularly in the context of biological invasions and ecological restorations. His research advisor is Prof. David Wise. Ryan, through his research, aims to show how fundamental safety issues (i.e. crime, responses to crime, and fear of crime) shape residents’ engagement with the built and natural environments, and thus influence their patterns of energy consumption. His research advisor is Prof. Nik Theodore. Visit Kelly, Basil and Ryan’s profile pages for more details on their research projects. Congratulations, Kelly, Basil and Ryan! |
IESP joins the green office challengeJuly 27, 2011 The Green Office Challenge is UIC Office of Sustainability's new program aimed at promoting green and sustainable practices on the UIC campus. The Green Office Challenge encourages individual departments to implement sustainability initiatives within their everyday work environments. It is a ground-up approach to sustainability on campus that seeks to make green office practices the standard way of doing business at this institution. The program has six areas of focus:
IESP is excited to join the program to improve its many green office practices! Visit the Green Office Challenge webpage to learn more about this program and how to sign up |
IESP hires two researchers to work on the ULTRA-Ex projectJune 30, 2011 Amélie Davis and Jinha Jung are the newest members of IESP. They were hired as Postdoctoral Research Associates to conduct research for the NSF funded two-year ULTRA-Ex project directed by David Wise. Amélie will examine the connections between the biodiversity-recovery goals of the region-wide Green Infrastructure Vision of Chicago Wilderness and the delivery of critical ecosystem services to human communities throughout the Chicago region. Jinha will research options for a multi-faceted Chicago ULTRA-Hub. The Hub will include an interactive web-based platform for managing data, communicating research findings to planners and the public, and collaborating and interacting with scientists and practitioners. The ULTRA Hub will also be an umbrella center for urban ecosystem research and policy, and will partner with regional education and outreach programs. They both will develop the integrated theoretical and empirical framework for a long-term socio-ecological research program in the Chicago metropolitan region. Welcome, Amélie and Jinha! |
Emily Minor receives NSF funding to study the effects of urbanization on pollination servicesJune 22, 2011 Emily Minor, IESP and Biological Sciences joint faculty, with Co-Investigator Kevin Matteson (Biological Sciences), received $150,000 from the National Science Foundation for a two year project to study pollination services across urban landscapes. Click here for more information about this project and to acces the project's webiste http://www.uic.edu/labs/minor/urban_pollination.html |
Moira Zellner receives Chancellor's Discovery Fund for Multidisciplinary Pilot Research
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2011-2012 IESP Predoctoral Fellowship Competition
March 14, 2011
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NSF issues a Dear Colleague Letter for the Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability NSF-Wide Investment Area
January 5, 2011
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Shelie Miller, former IESP and CME student, receives the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and EngineersNovember 15, 2010Shelie Miller was among only 85 recipients of this prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. This award is the highest award bestowed by the U.S. Government upon scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. Click here for more details |