ESPP Purpose

1. ESPP Purpose Develop University-wide graduate education programs (initially doctoral specialization) Articulate and coordinate research activities Identify gaps and opportunities and deploy faculty hires and strategic investments to move areas forward Communicate MSU excellence to broader community

2. Faculty 130+ faculty members to date 11 Colleges Agriculture and Natural Resources Arts & Letters Business Communication Arts and Sciences Engineering Human Ecology Law Natural Science Osteopathic Medicine Social Science Veterinary Medicine

3. Governance “Board” Deans Armstrong, Baba, Klomparens, Leroi, VPRGS Gray, Acting Director Baker Dean of SSC is lead dean Program Advisory Group (PAG) 10 faculty elected to two-year terms 2 faculty appointed by each College Dean to 1-year term

4. environment.msu.edu Website launch February 10, 2004, to coincide with “State of the University” address Portal to ESPP and environmental work at MSU for the world Materials distributed to National Council of Environmental Deans and Directors Materials distributed at AAAS Environment ad ongoing Radio spots on WUOM (May/June 2004) Launch of search engine of faculty expertise at Society of Environmental Journalists meeting in October 2004 Feature story in Graduate Post, Fall 2004

5. environment.msu.edu

6. environment.msu.edu We need your help Focus group with graduate students indicates that website is best mechanism for informing students of our programs Please Get your department to link to environment.msu.edu Distribute our “sticky notes” and magnetic clips at professional meetings Review and update your bio sketch and your entry in the database Suggest other Web resources to which we can link (we will do major update of this section over the summer)

7. Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs Doctoral specialization in ESPP 4-course sequence supporting existing doctoral programs 12 students enrolled in ESP 802 Four 2-year doctoral fellowships awarded per year (2-year match by doctoral program required)

8. Master’s level specialization in ESP (2-3 courses) • Possibly two tracks for those with and those without natural science background • Certificate in Ecosystems Services • ~2 courses, Web-based • Plan to link strongly with Millennium Assessment • Coordination of courses in economics, law, policy • Develop repertoire of courses • Possible certificate in environmental law for scientists and engineers • Environmental economics faculty to offer two sections of intro graduate environmental economics, one for economics graduate students, one for others • M.S. in ES? ES&P? • Certificate in environmental monitoring? Other Graduate Program Possibilities

9. New Faculty--Interdisciplinary First priority is for policy, articulating with substantive areas of strength in ESPP and with at least one line focusing on risk 2 lines this year, search underway Assistant/ Associate level Initial appointment 25% in department, 75% in ESPP and other University wide units (e.g., MAES, MSUE) Migrating out of ESPP over ~5 years All departments willing to participate are eligible - no prior commitment to specific department Next two priorities to be developed by PAG with open call for ideas

10. New Faculty—Helping Departments Grow Most colleges now use position management at the college level ESPP can be an advocate for departmental requests that serve the overall mission of enhancing environmental graduate research and education at MSU Process this spring Workshop to identify priorities for new environmental faculty Link these creatively with existing departmental priorities Articulate these priorities to Deans, etc.

11. Signature Areas Call for signature area white papers in Spring 2004 All proposals to articulate with national and international priorities list of such priorities from NRC, etc.; documents at environment.msu.edu Review by PAG Board and “Board” Developed strategic plans for investments during Fall 2004 Initial priorities for new faculty emerged and are input to priority setting Environmental Research Initiative to provide targeted funding

12. An Image of Current Structure Signature Areas and their constituents Participant groups listed in alphabetical order with faculty leaders in parentheses. Italics indicate formal ESPP White Paper proposing signature program. Ecosystems and Human Well-Being Biogeochemistry Faculty Group Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability Center for Global Change & Earth Observations Center for Microbial Ecology Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior Program Invasive Species Faculty Group Kellogg Biological Station Kellogg Long Term Ecological Research Site Sustainable Michigan Endowed Project

13. Signature Areas and their constituents, continued Environment and Human Health Environmental Toxicology Faculty Group (Center for Integrative Toxicology) Environmental Transport of Pollutants and PathogensFaculty Group Environmental Health Subtheme in Biomedical Sciences/ Health initiative Environmental Monitoring and Analysis Environmental Statistics and ModelingFaculty Group (Note: Most other groups and many centers/ projects have expertise in this area.) Climate Change Assessment Biogeochemistry Faculty Group Center for Global Change & Earth Observations Climate Land Interaction Project Integrated Risk and Impact Assessment Associated with Climate Variability and Change Faculty Group

14. Signature Areas and their constituents, continued Land Use Center for Global Change & Earth Observations Climate Land Interaction Project Land Policy Program Risk, Values and Decision Making Environmental and Resource Economics Faculty Group Food Safety Policy REF Center Public participation working group Risk initiative Social and Ethical Research and Education in Agrifood Nanotechnology Project

15. Signature Areas and their constituents, continued Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Water Institute of Water Research Center For Water Sciences Water and Aquatic Sciences Faculty Group

16. National Ecological Observation Network (NEON) • Continental scale instrument based on geographically distributed networked infrastructure • Fully interdisciplinary (physical, biological, social sciences and engineering) • Responsive to Grand Challenges in the Environmental Sciences • NSF proposes Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction funds • NEON Design Consortium 6 months into 2-year planning effort (www.neoninc.org) with NSF funding

17. National Ecological Observation Network (NEON) • MSU proactive: • Gross co-chairs Biodiversity Subcommittee • Tiedje serves on Biodiversity Subcomitttee • Robertson serves on Research Infrastructure Subcommittee • Dietz serves on Advisory Board • Robertson et al. leading internal MSU planning effort

18. Grand Challenges • Biodiversity—“The challenge is to improve understanding of the factors affecting biological diversity and ecosystem structure and functioning, including the role of human activity.” • Biogeochemical cycles—“The challenge is to further our understanding of the Earth’s major biogeochemical cycles, evaluate how they are being perturbed by human activities, and determine how they might better be stabilized.” • Climate change —“The challenge is to increase our ability to predict climate variations, from extreme events to decadal time scales; to understand how this variability may change in the future; and to assess realistically the resulting impacts.” • Hydroecology —“The challenge is to develop an improved understanding of and ability to predict changes in freshwater resources and the environment caused by floods, droughts, sedimentation, and contamination.” • Infectious disease—“The challenge is to understand ecological and evolutionary aspects of infectious diseases; develop an understanding of the interactions among pathogens, hosts/receptors, and the environment; and thus make it possible to prevent changes in the infectivity and virulence of organisms that threaten plant, animal, and human health at the population level.” • Invasive species—The challenges are to understand species invasion “as an ecological process sufficiently to allow forecasting of the invasiveness of species and prediction of which potential biological agents would both be effective in controlling an exotic species and have the fewest detrimental effects on natural and managed ecosystems.” • Land use—“The challenge is to develop a systematic understanding of changes in land uses and land covers that are critical to ecosystem functioning and services and human welfare.”

19. Technology for sustainability • Designing sustainable socio-technical systems • The history of nuclear power and the ongoing saga of biotechnology demonstrated the need to think of technologies and the social, economic and environmental systems in which they are embedded together rather than separately • The nano-, bio-, info revolution offer both immense promise and substantial difficulties • Our best strategy is for truly integrated systems design from the start • How can we deploy the wonderful possibilities so that they: • Are socially acceptable? • Enhance sustainability? • This is an exciting challenge on which we can work together, melding engineering and the environmental and social sciences

20. Environmental monitoring • Environmental monitoring and analysis as integrated activities • Immense prospects for better monitoring of key environmental parameters and processes and full integration with modeling • This immensely enhances the ability to “govern the commons” • The move from stationary to networked and mobile sensing • Matching the spatial and temporal density of measurements to the problem • Autos ands cell phones as environmental monitors?

21. Environmental genomics/ “metagenomics” • New technology developed around the human and other genome projects offer a prospect for a new way of doing environmental science • Much enhanced capabilities for sequencing, annotation and analysis • Need to strategize about MSU’s opportunities and challenges in working in this area • Possible links to Biogeochemistry, Invasive species, Health, etc. • Link to NEON, environmental monitoring initiatives

22. Building on MSU’s International Strengths • MSU is one of the leading Universities in the U.S. with regard to international research and teaching. • Special opportunity to better meld our expertise in environmental science and policy with our international expertise. • MSU may be unique in its ability to pursue the idea of “sustainability science” • Also will benefit from global partnerships as many nations and regions develop much stronger scientific capabilities

23. Next Steps? More aggressive student recruitment Primarily Web- and listserv-based Upgrade links to resources Strongly encourage links to environment.msu.edu Text announcement for faculty to forward to their target lists Michigan Environmental Science Day? Other ideas? New curriculum areas? New research signature areas?