The 2011 Graham Graduate Fellows, an exclusive group of six doctoral candidates, each will receive $50,000 over two years to support their interdisciplinary research related to environmental sustainability, the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute has announced.
Now in its sixth year, the Graham Graduate Fellowship Program provides financial support and academic collaboration for U-M doctoral candidates pursuing interdisciplinary research concentrating on environmental sustainability. Issues of particular focus to the Institute and the Fellowship Program include: energy; freshwater and marine resources; human health and environment; biodiversity and global change; sustainable infrastructure, built environment and manufacturing; environmental policymaking; and human behavior. To date, 36 U-M doctoral students have been awarded this prestigious fellowship.
U-M faculty nominated 46 doctoral candidates this year, according to members the Graham Institute Executive Committee, who were charged with making fellowship selection decisions. Committee members applied the following criteria to determine fellowship recipients: 1) potential for scholarly and practical impact, 2) degree of cross-disciplinary focus, 3) demonstrated scientific merit and 4) quality of prior research.
2011 Graham Graduate Fellowships have been awarded to the following doctoral candidates, whose academic units, research topics and faculty advisors also are highlighted:
• Tara Clancy, College of Engineering: “Biological drinking water treatment for arsenic removal: Spanning regulatory frameworks and borders” (Lutgarde Raskin, professor of civil and environmental engineering, College of Engineering)
• Irem Daloglu, School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE): “Diffusion of Innovations, an application to agriculture with an emphasis on comparing policy alternatives” (Don Scavia, director, Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute; Graham Family Professor of Environmental Sustainability; professor of civil and environmental engineering, and of natural resources and environment; and special counsel to the U-M president for sustainability)
• Amanda Logan, Rackham Graduate School-anthropology: “Long-term perspectives on food security and change: a case study from west central Ghana, AD 1000-present” (Carla Sinopoli, professor of anthropology, and curator and director, Museum of Anthropology, LSA)
• Daniel Miller, SNRE: “Coping with Conservation: The legacy of biodiversity aid on a West African frontier” (Arun Agrawal, professor and research associate dean, SNRE)
• Baruani Mshale, SNRE: “Community based forest management (CBFM) in a changing world: The case of Kilwa District, Tanzania” (Rebecca Hardin, associate professor of natural resources, SNRE)
• Nicholas Rajkovich, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning: “Adding adaptive capacity through resilient residences: a case study of Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio” (Larissa Larsen, associate professor of urban planning, A Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, and associate professor of landscape architecture, SNRE; and Dick Norton, associate professor, Program in the Environment, and chair and associate professor, Urban and Regional Planning Program)
“We really are supporting some of the best and brightest Ph.D. students who are dedicated to making advances in environmental sustainability,” Scavia says. “And the fact that these emerging scholars represent such a diverse cross-section of disciplines and research approaches is key for successfully addressing this complex and critical issue from all sides.”
As part of a broader goal to cultivate a “Community of Scholars” through the program, Graham Fellows are given multiple opportunities to engage with one another through monthly seminars, annual retreats, research workshops and other activities.
For more information about the Graham Graduate Fellowship Program, go to www.graham.umich.edu.
