Professor Daniel G. Brown will serve as interim dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment beginning June 1.
The Board of Regents approved his appointment for a 13-month term April 16. Provost Martha E. Pollack recommended Brown for the position to replace Dean Marie Lynn Miranda, who leaves the university to become provost at Rice University.
In making her recommendation, Pollack said of Brown, “He is one of the most distinguished scholars and educators in SNRE. With his years of experience as a faculty member and his knowledge of SNRE’s administration gained through service as associate dean for research, I am confident that SNRE will maintain its momentum during this interim period.”
In addition to his professorship, Brown is the director of SNRE’s environmental spatial analysis laboratory, director of the Rackham Graduate Certificate in Spatial Analysis, coordinator of SNRE’s environmental informatics program, and a research professor at the Survey Research Center in the Institute for Social Research.
“I am honored to have the opportunity to serve SNRE and the university in this capacity,” says Brown. “Dean Miranda’s leadership leaves SNRE in a strong position, and I look forward to working with Provost Pollack and the entire SNRE community during this period of transition.
“I will aim to sustain momentum in strengthening SNRE’s position as a national and international leader in the generation and transmission of knowledge that advances environmental stewardship and sustainability locally, nationally and globally.”
Brown earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in geoenvironmental studies from Shippensburg University, and Master of Arts and doctoral degrees in geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He joined the U-M faculty as a tenured associate professor in SNRE in 1999, after seven years on the faculty of the Department of Geography at Michigan State University, and was promoted to professor in 2006.
His research focuses on land-use change and its effects on ecosystems and on human communities.
By connecting computer-based simulation of land-use-change processes with geographic information systems and remote sensing-based data, Brown’s work evaluates consequences of change, the ways in which land-use decisions are made, and the effects of policy and institutional changes.
He has undertaken collaborative research to investigate the effects of spatial and social neighborhoods on the physical and social risks to human health and well-being. Brown has conducted his work in the United States and internationally, including in China, Mongolia and Africa.
A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Brown has co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and more than 50 peer-reviewed book chapters and proceedings papers, has co-edited two books, and was a convening lead author for the most recent National Climate Assessment.
His teaching focuses on conceptual and practical aspects of geographic information system, spatial analysis and modeling applied to ecological and environmental questions, especially landscape ecology and on the role of land use in global change.
He has supervised numerous postdoctoral scholars, and doctoral and master’s degree students.
