Our Environment at Berkeley: Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management
UC Berkeley | College of Natural Resources
Big Ideas@Berkeley is an annual innovation contest which aims to provide support, funds, and encouragement to interdisciplinary teams of students on campus. A team led by ESPM graduate and undergraduate students took first place in the category of Improving Student Life and third place in the … [Read more...]
Conservation and Resource Studies major Nathan Bickart is one of seven graduating seniors selected as recipients of the 2013 Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize, it was announced this week. Bickart, a music minor, was given an award to partner with local residents of Richmond and San Pablo … [Read more...]
The 2013 ESPM Graduate Student Association's (GSA) Faculty Mentor Award was given to Professor John Battles for his commitment to mentoring and helping graduate and undergraduate students succeed. In announcing the award during the GradFest Symposium in early May, GSA president Lauren Hallet gave … [Read more...]
The ESPM Graduate Student Association honored graduating PhD student Brad Balukjian with the newly created ESPM Distinguished Service Award. This award officially recognizes a member of the ESPM community who has worked hard to improve the department. Brad was nominated for the award with the … [Read more...]
The Department's annual Graduate Research Symposium, also known as The ESPM GradFest Symposium, celebrates and showcases graduate student research. This year's day-long GradFest took place on Friday May 3, at the David Brower Center and included finishing talks from graduating PhD students. Talks … [Read more...]
Dr. David Montgomery of the University of Washington will be delivering the annual Hans Jenny Memorial Lecture on Friday, May 10. Dr. Montgomery is a Professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he leads the Geomorphological Research Group and is a … [Read more...]
By Mark Matthews, ABC Local Station KGO BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) -- A soil scientist at U.C. Berkeley says the deadly Texas explosion is another example of a troubling pattern; a lack of proper oversight to ensure public safety. Professor Garrison Sposito is not the only scientist or engineer … [Read more...]
The Grant A. Harris Research Instruments Fellowship provides $5000 worth of Decagon research instruments to students studying any aspect of environmental or geotechnical science. PhD student Lauren Hallet was one of six students who received this year's fellowship for her study on predicting the … [Read more...]
A symposium being held on April 5 - 6, and co-sponsored by the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management invites scholars to reflect on the dynamics of science, technology and expertise in international development, domestic development practices, and how these two … [Read more...]
A recent study in Science magazine co-authored by Claire Kremen, highlights the importance of wild insects and bees in pollination and agriculture. As reported on NPR: A huge collaboration of bee researchers, from more than a dozen countries, looked at how pollination happens in dozens of … [Read more...]
By Stephanie M. Lee, San Francisco Chronicle Mothers who breathe the kind of pollution emitted by vehicles, coal power plants and factories are significantly likelier to give birth to underweight children than mothers living in less polluted areas, according to international findings … [Read more...]
The increasingly couples-focused public-health policy for AIDS prevention in sub-Saharan Africa underestimates the role that cheating spouses play in transmitting the virus, according to a new study from the University of California, Berkeley. While cheating spouses are a known avenue for HIV … [Read more...]
So you want to lose weight. You could try Weight Watchers, or you could take the unconventional route and create a prediction model for weight loss that factors in calorie reduction and your metabolism in order to reach your desired weight. That is just one way researchers might make use … [Read more...]
What is the role of logging in tropical forests? How is biodiversity affected by this logging? The answers differ and are controversial among ecologists, environmentalists, and policymakers, and these disagreements have implications for the conservation of biodiversity. A new paper by … [Read more...]
Mark Bittman, cookbook author and New York Times food writer, used the occasion of New Year’s Day to throw down the gauntlet for real and permanent change to the U.S. agricultural system. “We must figure out a way to un-invent this food system,” he says in a Times opinion column. He likens the … [Read more...]
Professor Garrison Sposito delivered the prestigious Langbein Lecture, the named lecture of the hydrology section of the annual Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The Walter B. Langbein Lecture is awarded and presented annually. Professor Sposito received the Lectureship for his … [Read more...]
PhD student Kendra Klein, named a Switzer Fellow in 2011, sat down with the Switzer Network News to talk about her work in bringing healthy food and sustainable food production systems into hospitals. Read the interview on the Switzer Network website … [Read more...]
BERKELEY — To Rosemary Gillespie, the Hawaiian Islands are a unique and ongoing series of evolutionary and ecological experiments. As each volcano rises above the waves, it is colonized by life from neighboring volcanoes and develops its own flora and fauna. … [Read more...]
BERKELEY — Eating certain veggies not only supplies key nutrients, it may also influence hormone levels and behaviors such as aggression and sexual activity, says a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, that could shed light on the role of diet in human … [Read more...]
President Obama has announced that he will appoint Professor Inez Fung to the National Science Board, the governing body of the National Science Foundation. Members of this board are also policy advisors to the President and Congress. Congratulations Professor Fung! Read the press release … [Read more...]
Written by Peng Gong for Nature This is a big month for the world’s superpowers. The United States elects its next president this week, and the following week brings the first change in China’s leadership for ten years. Since 1989, the political bureau (politburo) of the Communist Party of … [Read more...]
Written by Virgie Hoban for The Daily Cal UC Berkeley researchers are teaming up with local organizations to plant thousands of ferns in a South Berkeley lot in an effort to extricate toxic chemicals and eventually create a new haven of green gardens. The project, spearheaded by the campus … [Read more...]
The Williamson Act of 1965 protected 15 million acres of open space by offering tax relief to ranch and farm owners who preserve their land. According to a new study by UC Davis researchers, recent cuts to state funding are putting 20 percent of California's rangeland at risk for … [Read more...]
Dr. Helen Caldicott, renowned anti-nuclear advocate, recently featured Wayne Getz on her weekly audio program, If You Love This Planet. Though the interview was recorded in June, they touched on important points relevant to the recent Hurricane Sandy, which caused unprecedented destruction in the … [Read more...]
Students in Professor Miguel Altieri’s Urban Agriculture class showed off their class-community partnership this Saturday (Oct. 27) at an “Open Field Day” event for students and affiliated community members, touring verdant, bountiful gardens where empty lots, many laden with trash and toxic … [Read more...]
A new report co-authored by ESPM graduate student Ellen Kersten, professor Rachel Morello-Frosch, and collaborators at USC and Columbia documents case studies that highlight the work of community-based organizations in California dealing with the “climate gap” – the disproportionate burden of … [Read more...]
ESPM professors Rosemary Gillespie, John Harte, and Patrick O'Grady were recently awarded a large grant by the National Science Foundation. The grant is part of a multi-faceted NSF program known as Dimensions of Biodiversity, a program which will investigate lesser-known aspects of Earth's … [Read more...]
Written by Kendra Klein for The Nation At dawn, at the loading dock behind the kitchen at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital of Ann Arbor, Michigan, small lift loaders and handcarts trundle boxes from food trucks to storage rooms. The perishables go straight to immense walk-in refrigerators packed with … [Read more...]
PhD student Esther Conrad was among twenty environmental scholars to receive the prestigious Switzer Environmental Fellowship for her work on water resources issues. The fellowship is awarded annually by the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation to recognize achievements of environmental leaders … [Read more...]
A recent UC Berkeley graduate has won a sustainability research award from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) for her senior thesis calculating the campus’s greenhouse gas emissions based on its entire supply chain of goods and services. Kelley … [Read more...]
BERKELEY — Are gasoline-fueled cars or large diesel trucks the bigger source of secondary organic aerosol (SOA), a major component of smog? UC Berkeley researchers have stepped into this debate with a new study that says diesel exhaust contributes 15 times more than gas emissions per liter of fuel … [Read more...]
BERKELEY — On Tuesday night (Sept. 18), Keith Gilless, dean of the College of Natural Resources, presented the Albany City Council with a progress report on new academic programs related to diversified farming, and their potential impact on the Gill Tract growing grounds. This open letter was … [Read more...]
Written by Aaraon Reuben and Gabriel Isaacman for The Atlantic In the flat lands of California's Central Valley, oil pumps obscured by waving lines of fuel-richened air dip and rise on the horizon. Two hundred miles to the north and west, aging eighteen-wheelers pound through an urban … [Read more...]
Pregnant women exposed to wildfire smoke during Southern California’s epic 2003 fire season had babies with lower birth weights, UC Berkeley researchers have found. The scientists examined birth records in areas affected by smoke from seven fires — including the Old Fire that burned across … [Read more...]
Grad students encouraged to apply for funding. The Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry was awarded $3.4 million to train Ph.D. students in the principles of green chemistry and the design of clean-energy technologies, UC Berkeley's College of Chemistry announced today (August 29). The grant … [Read more...]
Professor Neil Tsutsui is a guest expert on the public radio show Radiolab, in an episode uncovering the warlike, marauding Argentine ants. "Argentine ants are not good neighbors. When they meet ants from another colony, any other colony, they fight to the death, and tear the other ants to … [Read more...]
Preventing Chronic Disease is an online peer-reviewed journal published by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They recently recognized PhD student Ellen Kersten's research as outstanding and published … [Read more...]
This post was originally published on the Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative blog by Joanna Hsu, graduate student in the Suding Lab. VIP For an Hour by Joanna Hsu As a graduate student in the sciences, my typical work day might include analyzing data, reading a published paper, … [Read more...]
Dr. Michael Wasserman received his PhD in 2011 from Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, where he began his research on soy diets and primate evolution in Professor Katherine Milton's lab. Dr. Wasserman is now a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at McGill University. Listen to the … [Read more...]
BERKELEY — Climate change is widely expected to disrupt future fire patterns around the world, with some regions, such as the western United States, seeing more frequent fires within the next 30 years, according to a new analysis led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, in … [Read more...]
BERKELEY — Fighting fire with fire has been given the green light by a new study of techniques used to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. And with a rise in wildfires predicted in many parts of the country, researchers say controlled burns and other treatments to manage this risk should be … [Read more...]
Professor Louise Fortmann has been honored with the 2012 Distinguished Rural Sociologist Award by the Rural Sociological Society, the highest award the Society bestows on its members. The Society honored her commitment to scholarship aimed at improving rural livelihoods, mentoring students, and … [Read more...]
Carolyn Merchant, a professor of environmental history, philosophy, and ethics, will join the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., as a member for the fall 2012 semester. She will be working on the project “Ideas of Nature in the Scientific Revolution,” a study for which she also … [Read more...]
The Syngenta Award is given by Syngenta Crop Protection to an APS member for an outstanding recent contribution to teaching, research, or extension in plant pathology. Priority for this award is given to members of APS who are in the first decade of a career in plant pathology. The recipient … [Read more...]
Eric Olliff, who is earning a B.S. in conservation and resource studies and a B.A. in Chinese language and literature, is the University Medalist, the annual award bestowed on Berkeley’s top graduating senior for the last 150 years. The prestigious award comes with a $2,500 prize and the chance to … [Read more...]
The Center for Diversified Farming Systems received its first research grant from the National Academy-Keck Future’s Initiative. The award of $100,000 goes to PI Claire Kremen and an interdisciplinary international team of scientists, to compare and contrast how how smallholder agricultural … [Read more...]
Six new carved redwood benches, weighing 1,500-2,000 pounds each, made the journey from UC Russell Reservation, a research facility in the hills of Contra Costa County, to their new home adjacent to Mulford Hall today (May 7) to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the UC Berkeley Forestry Club. … [Read more...]
BERKELEY — The competition between farmers and fish for precious water in California is intensifying in wine country, suggests a new study by biologists at the University of California, Berkeley. … [Read more...]
The current controversy at the Gill Tract has led to the Center for Diversified Farming Systems at the University of California at Berkeley, or “DFS,” surfacing in campus and newspaper communications. Many refer to the potential role of the center in developing activities on sustainable … [Read more...]
When a 20-minute lecture about the economic supply chain goes viral, spawning a stunning 12 million views, a non-profit organization with a slate of multimedia offerings, and a vibrant online community of hundreds of thousands of citizens eager to make the world a better place, one has to wonder: … [Read more...]
Sudden oak death has become a major concern for the East Bay Regional Park District, other public agencies, and private landowners who are responsible for open space land management in the greater Bay Area. The disease has caused extensive tree mortality in Marin County, and seems to be spreading … [Read more...]
A one-day extravaganza celebrating the graduate program of UC Berkeley’s top-ranked Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. Featuring graduate student talks and posters, keynote address from Annie Leonard founder of the Story of Stuff Project and creator of the Story of … [Read more...]
The Chancellor's Awards for Public Service Each year, the Chancellor recognizes students, staff, faculty and community partnerships that embody UC Berkeley's proud tradition of public service and commitment to improving our local and global community. Two recipients of this year's Chancellor's … [Read more...]
Nancy Peluso, a professor in the Department of Environment Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM), has won the Graduate Division’s 2012 Sarlo Graduate Student Mentoring Award for Senior Faculty. Alastair Iles, also of ESPM, has won the Graduate Assembly’s Distinguished Faculty Mentor … [Read more...]
This year's Hans Jenny Memorial Lecture will be given by Dr. Pedro Sanchez, Director of the Tropical Agriculture and the the Rural Environment Program, Senior Research Scholar, and Director of the Millennium Villages Project at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. … [Read more...]
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management professor Lynn Huntsinger won a $25,000 research grant from the Li Ka Shing Foundation for Women in Science. The award was announced February 15, 2012, and must be spent during the 2012 calendar year. The program is funded by the Chau Hoi Shuen … [Read more...]
BERKELEY — A graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources, deeply influenced by the Deepwater Horizon disaster, is helping to restore the Gulf’s blackened marshes with a project that could also aid threatened ecosystems nationwide, including in … [Read more...]
The Berkeley Initiative in Global Change Biology (BiGCB) has been awarded $1.5 million by the W.M. Keck Foundation to develop a Predictive Biosystems Informatics Engine (PBIE), the informatics infrastructure needed to access, visualize, and analyze rich data, and provide the foundation for building … [Read more...]
A University of California wildlife research team working in the Sierra Nevada near Oakhurst, Calif., is asking the public to donate clean, gently used socks for research on a rare weasel called the Pacific fisher. … [Read more...]
Professor Carolyn Merchanthas been named a 2011 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. Professor Merchant was named for her distinguished contributions to the field of history … [Read more...]
BERKELEY — Trees are dying in the Sahel, a region in Africa south of the Sahara Desert, and human-caused climate change is to blame, according to a new study led by a scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. … [Read more...]
Professors Whendee Silver and Dennis Baldocchi speak with NPR correspondent Christopher Joyce about 'carbon ranching'. … [Read more...]
Runoff from the Sierra Nevada, a critical source of California’s water supply, could be enhanced by thinning forests to historical conditions, according to a report from a team of scientists with the University of California, Merced, UC Berkeley and Environmental Defense. The team proposes to … [Read more...]
BERKELEY — A new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, finds that consuming bushmeat had a positive effect on children’s nutrition, raising complex questions about the trade-offs between human health and environmental conservation. They further estimated that a … [Read more...]
BERKELEY - The University of California will add 4,584 acres of Northern California mixed-conifer forest to its research lands, doubling the size of UC’s research forests, as a result of a land donation approved yesterday (November 16) in Sacramento. The transfer is the largest single acquisition … [Read more...]
An alarming 93 percent of San Francisco Bay’s tidal marsh could be lost in the next 50 to 100 years with 5.4 feet (1.65 meters) of sea-level rise and low sediment availability, according to a new study led by PRBO Conservation Science (PRBO). These figures represent the high-end sea-level rise … [Read more...]
When American families sit down to dinner, often the concern is to avoid eating too much. Yet in 2010, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that more than 900 million people around the world were undernourished. By 2050, the world's population is projected to rise to … [Read more...]
By Mike Taugher, Contra Costa Times The tiny culprit behind a deadly oak disease has spread in the East Bay and appears to have crept closer to residential areas in parts of Oakland and Berkeley, according to the latest survey. "It may be an early warning sign," said Matteo Garbelotto, who … [Read more...]
By Joe Eaton and Ron Sullivan, Special to The Chronicle A garden of mouthings. Purple, scarlet-speckled, black The great corollas dilate, peeling back their silks." Sylvia Plath's poem "The Beekeeper's Daughter" is about as cheerful as most of what she wrote concerning her (or her … [Read more...]
The Berkeley Initiative in Global Change Biology (BiGCB) was recently awarded a $2.5 million dollar grant by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The grant funds seven major projects and involves the participation of faculty members in eight departments including ESPM faculty George Roderick, … [Read more...]
Conservation and resource studies senior Devin Richards is one of four UC Berkeley students to place among the top students in an international competition for undergraduates. This year, for the first time, the Undergraduate Awards of Ireland, historically an all-Ireland awards competition, was … [Read more...]
If you buy fresh fish with any regularity you’ve likely come across tilapia as an offering. A relative newcomer to American fish markets, the mild, flakey white fish originated in Africa and was introduced to American markets about 10 years ago, sometimes accompanied by favorable sustainability … [Read more...]
Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle The deadly pathogen known as sudden oak death is spreading throughout the Bay Area, infecting more trees in more places than have ever been seen before, according to scientists tracking the disease. … [Read more...]
Bob Van Steenwyk, a Cooperative Extension Specialist, has been appointed by the US Secretary of the Interior to serve on the Invasive Species Advisory Committee (ISAC). As a member of the committee, he will provide advice to the National Invasive Species Council (NISC) on a broad array of issues, … [Read more...]
Care2.com's Trailblazers for Good, a Q&A series of interviews "with the most world shaking individuals leading the movement to align impact, profit and purpose", interviewed professor Dara O'Rourke about his company GoodGuide. Read the full interview … [Read more...]
BERKELEY — Orchid bees aren’t so dependent on orchids after all, according to a new study that challenges the prevailing view of how plants and their insect pollinators evolve together. A long-standing belief among biologists holds that species in highly specialized relationships engage … [Read more...]
Congratulations to ESPM students Dan Sarna-Wojcicki, Freyja Knapp, Kauaoa Fraiola, and Ellen Kersten, 2011 recipients of the EPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Fellowships. Jeremy Andersen and Gabriel Isaacman were awarded STAR Fellowships in 2010. Learn more about the EPA STAR Fellowship … [Read more...]
This year the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science awarded a research fellowship to Dr. Adam Retchless, who has joined ESPM this fall to study bacterial population genomics alongside Professor Rodrigo Almeida. The prestigious three-year fellowship is awarded to young scientists of great … [Read more...]
Kendra Klein of the Winickoff Research Group has been named a Switzer Environmental Fellow by the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation. Kendra works at the nexus of public health and sustainable agri-food systems. In collaboration with Health Care Without Harm’s “Healthy Food in Health … [Read more...]
A new paper co-authored by Professor Damian Elias and published in the recent edition of Science magazine identifies the cause of sounds made by some hummingbird species during courtship. While courting, a male hummingbird will typically climb into the air five to 40 meters and then quickly dives … [Read more...]
Professor Allen Goldstein will be sharing an award of $860,000 over three years with colleague Evan Variano of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. This award is part of a research consortium formed after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil spill. Teams will investigate the fate of … [Read more...]
BERKELEY — A new study by UC Berkeley and Italian researchers spotlights the hazards of planting trees and other vegetation in regions where they are not native. … [Read more...]
Hillary Sardiñas, graduate student with the Kremen Lab, recently received $25,000 for her project, "Ecosystem Services in Hedgerow Restorations: Pollination Function and Nesting Habitat." … [Read more...]
UC scientists built and worked in towers as part of the largest single atmospheric research effort in the state. The data they've collected will guide policymakers dealing with air pollution. … [Read more...]
BERKELEY — Rebecca Wenk, a research associate in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM), died after a brief battle with thyroid cancer on Thursday, July 14. She was 31. … [Read more...]
A paper reviewing the impact of the loss of large predators and herbivores high in the food chain confirms that their decline has had cascading effects in marine, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems throughout the world. … [Read more...]
Frequently Captured Birds Found to be at Less Risk of Injury Compared to Birds Captured Once … [Read more...]
San Joaquin Valley communities with large Latino populations are exposed to disproportionately high levels of the agricultural chemical nitrate through their drinking water, … [Read more...]
California agriculture reaps $937 million to $2.4 billion per year in economic value from wild, free-living bee species that serve the critical function of pollinating crops, according to a new study by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, published this week in the June issue of … [Read more...]
Graduate student Kathryn Fiorella of the Brashares Lab spent the summer of 2011 exploring links between human health and the environment in Western Kenya. Kathryn was one of eight students from four University of California campuses to receive a $5000 One Health Student Summer fellowship to … [Read more...]
Three faculty members recently earned notable awards and honors. … [Read more...]
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