 |
This past summer, E-IPER students and alumni have accomplished a great deal, including conducting field research, publishing impactful findings, and gaining broad exposure for their work. And now we are well into another rewarding academic year.
In this issue:
|
News Features 
|
Dan and Rae Emmett Visit E-IPER
The 2017 Reunion Homecoming and Presidential Inauguration Weekend was particularly festive for the E-IPER community. On October 21, we were delighted to welcome Dan and Rae Emmett to the E-IPER suite for a small reception with students, alumni, staff, and faculty. The Emmetts later met with recent PhD/MS Collaboration Grant recipients to learn more about the outcomes of those projects.
|
|
|
| Dan and Rae Emmett chat with with Dean Pam Matson |
|
During the reception, School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences Dean Pamela Matson shared news of a major new commitment that the Emmetts have made to E-IPER. The Emmett family have pledged more than $7 million, nearly $5 million of which will launch a new Emmett Matching Program that will provide dollar-for-dollar matching for new gifts and pledges in support of a variety of E-IPER priorities. We were pleased that Dan and Rae could meet so many E-IPER students and talk with them about their research, and that students had the opportunity offer their thanks for the Emmett's continued support for interdisciplinary environmental education.
More information about the gift and the Emmett Matching Program can be found
here.
|
PhD and Joint MS Student Collaboration:
Dynamic Ocean Management in the Arctic
During the summer of 2016, two ships in the Arctic made headline news. The Crystal Serenity, a 1,000-person cruise ship, made the first Arctic tourist transit of the Northwest Passage along Canada's northern coast and through the Bering Strait. Along that same passage, the wreck of HMS Terror was discovered, 170 years after explorer Sir John Franklin and his crew abandoned their flagship and disappeared without a trace.
Given the often grisly fate of Arctic expeditions, Canadian and U.S. Coast Guard officials are understandably worried about an increased Arctic tourism industry. While much has changed in the past century, to date, less than 1% of navigationally significant Arctic waters have been surveyed to modern standards, and the nearest U.S. Coast Guard station is located in southern Alaska, more than 1,000 miles from the state's northern coast.
|
|
|
|
courtesy: US Coast Guard
|
|
Global climate change is rapidly warming the Arctic and opening new paths to previously inaccessible waters. As the region prepares for changes in tourism, shipping, oil and gas exploration, mineral extraction, and subsistence hunting and gathering practices, a new governance regime will be needed to ensure safety and environmental protection. The U.S. Coast Guard is currently working with Alaskan stakeholders to develop shipping routes and marine protected areas in the Bering Strait and along the Alaskan coast, but if these strategies are fixed in time and space, they may not be flexible enough to keep up with rapid changes in the region's environmental and economic conditions.
In this context of climate-driven environmental change, increased commerce, and lack of both data and infrastructure, Anne Siders (Phd 4th) and Rose Stanley (MS-JD 2016) were awarded a PhD/MS Collaboration grant to explore a new governance and structure for the region. Siders's research focuses on building adaptive governance systems that are able to prepare for and respond to the effects of climate change. Rose, focused on oceans law, is an Alaskan with experience in ocean and coastal policy.
Siders and Rose visited Anchorage, Alaska, to engage with stakeholders and conduct research on efforts to build dynamic and flexible elements into the emerging governance system. Along with Kate Lewis (PhD Earth System Science), they assessed the applicability of dynamic ocean management, an emerging concept in marine conservation, to the Arctic situation.
Dynamic management integrates real- or near-real-time data assessment to spatially and temporally target management strategies such as area closures
.
This allows managers to more efficiently balance economic and conservation goals. Dynamic management has been implemented in several areas, but never in such a multiple-use yet relatively data-poor region as the Arctic.
In their paper, "A dynamic ocean management proposal for the Bering Strait region," recently published in Marine Policy (
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X16305371), Siders, Rose, and Kate argue that the existence of multiple resource users and data constraints should not prevent application of dynamic governance principles in the Bering Strait region. In fact, implementation of a dynamic regime may spur data collection by providing incentives for private-public partnerships. Step-wise, incident-based management policies and regulations are also encouraged to promote short- and long-term adaptability of the governance system.
This past summer in Anchorage, Siders and Rose presented their work to stakeholders from the Arctic Domain Awareness Center; University of Alaska Anchorage Institute for Social and Economic Research; and Ocean Conservancy. Discussion included further governance challenges in the Arctic marine environment, and raised awareness about mechanisms available to create dynamic and adaptive governance in the Arctic.
Funding for this PhD/MS Collaboration grant was provided by the Anne and Reid Buckley fund.
|
Alumni Dinner in Washington, D.C.
On a beautiful October evening in Washington, DC, the District's E-IPER community gathered for dinner, storytelling and laughter. It was the fifth in what has become an annual reunion for the DC-area. This year the alumni were joined by three current PhD students who are in Washington for the year:
Chikara Onda (PhD 3
rd), on staff through 2016 with the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where he is working on climate policy;
Anne Siders (PhD 4th), working on her own dissertation in our nation's capital; and
Hajin Kim (PhD 4th; JD 2014), currently a clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
|
|
|
Kristen Honey and Tom Elson at DC Alumni Dinner
|
Andrew Longenecker (MS-MBA 2013) and Tom Elson (MS-MBA 2012) were once again in attendance
. Andrew is continuing his efforts to upgrade and develop hydroelectric power facilities with Cube Hydro; and Tom serves as the Associate Director for Strategic Partnerships at the Economic Development Administration, US Department
of Commerce.
Also in attendance were
Sarah Greer Grey (MS-JD 2011), regulatory counsel for POET, producer of biofuels and other biorefined products;
Andrew Perlstein (PhD 2012), now an Energy and Environment Legislative Fellow in the office of Pennsylvania Congressman Matt Cartwright; and Kristen Honey (PhD
2012), policy advisor for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
|
|
|
| Andrew Perlstein and Aiga Stokenberga at DC Alumni Dinner |
|
More recent E-IPER graduates in Washington are Greer Mackebee (MS-JD 2015), energy and infrastructure associate at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP; Rose Stanley (MS-JD 2016), who recently joined the NOAA Attorney Honors Program; and Aiga Stokenberga (PhD 2016) who has returned to the World Bank, this time in the Young Professionals Program, assigned to the Transport and ICT Global Practice.
Rounding out the gathering were special guests Lea
Rosenbohm, External Affairs Advisor (Washington, DC) for the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment,
Lia Heifetz, of the Juneau-based local foods NGO, Grow Southeast, and E-IPER associate director Susannah Barsom. The group will have many opportunities to catch up with one another at future Stanford Woods Institute programs in Washington, and at formal and informal E-IPER events.
|
Alumni Spotlight
|
Finding Musical Harmony in Collaboration
Lauren Oakes
(PhD 2015) and
Nik Sawe
(PhD 2016) started the E-IPER program with very different goals. Lauren had long held an interest in uncovering issues of environmental change through rigorous research, and communicating her discoveries in ways that are accessible to a broad public. Nik started his PhD with a clear goal of adapting neuroeconomic methods to the study of environmental decision-making, with the aim of going into academia. They were both able to reach these goals through completing their doctoral degrees in E-IPER.
|
|
|
Nik Sawe and Lauren Oakes. Courtesy: Justine DeSilva
|
Lauren studied the ecological impacts of climate change, and how people respond to those impacts in their local environment. Specifically, she conducted an interdisciplinary case study of yellow-cedar decline, a tree species dieback associated with climate change in Alaska; she finished her dissertation, "Forests in a Changing Climate: Social and Ecological Responses to Yellow-cedar Decline in the Alexander Archipelago, Alaska," in 2015. Nik combined neuroimaging, experimental behavioral economics, and econometrics to understand how and why people make decisions about environmental issues. He finished his dissertation, "The Neuroeconomics of Environmental Decision-Making: Individual Differences and Behavior," in 2016. How could these two interdisciplinary scholars, who focus on very different topics, come together for a new, cutting-edge, and widely-publicized collaboration?
With music, of course.
Nik has always tried to combine his interests in unique ways and to channel them through creative projects. He has been composing for fun in recent years, and liked the idea of turning different kinds of data into music, as a way of telling environmental narratives. He became interested in data sonification, and
shared this concept with a small group of scientists.
Lauren, with her passion for sharing scientific research using techniques to which the public can relate, was immediately on board. After several discussions about Lauren's data, Nik used R to reinterpret the data in a way that could be easily read by the ChucK audio programming language to create Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) files. In this work, every species plays an instrument; the pitch is controlled by the height of the tree, and constrained by the range of the instrument and the key of the piece. Velocity (in MIDI terminology, how hard the note is hit) corresponds to tree diameter. The final result of this conversion of data to music was a moving, artistic way to share years of scientific research with the public. Multiple media outlets have picked up the collaboration, and have coined it with phrases such as "
[d]ying forests make magnificently melancholy listening
" and "
The Haunting Sound Of Climate Change Over 100 Years
", and a most astute description, "
[c]all it the sound of science
".
With the success of this first collaboration under their belts, Nik is preparing to sonify other datasets in an effort to share the results of environmental research with a broader public, and Lauren is shifting her attention to writing a book about her work, while looking ahead to a new research project upon completion of the book.
This Fall, both scholars started new professional roles as well. Lauren was appointed as a Lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric where she is teaching a course she developed, "What are we trying to sustain? Rhetoric of nature's values and services." Nik is serving in two roles: L
ecturer in E-IPER, teaching courses on environmental decision-making and environmental governance, and Research Associate at the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center, where he's using a combination of behavioral economics experiments and neuroimaging to study how to optimize eco-labeling and promote more energy-efficient consumer choices. We are delighted to see the spirit of interdisciplinarity manifest in such a creative way, and look forward to hearing more about what our innovative alumni accomplish in this ever-changing world of interdisciplinary work.
|
Student News
|
Representing Stanford University,
Joann de Zegher
(PhD 4th) joined Smallholders Advancing with Innovation and Technology (SAWIT) in Indonesia to present her proposal to help Indonesia's smallholder farmers produce sustainable palm oil. More information on SAWIT and other collaborators may be found
here
.
During the summer,
Andrea Lund
(PhD 2nd) oversaw the collection of household survey data in 16 study villages in northern Senegal and conducted focus groups to explore patterns of human behavior that influence risk of schistosomiasis infection.
Becky Niemiec
(PhD 3rd) and E-IPER affiliated faculty member Nicole Ardoin received a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation's Decision, Risk, and Management Sciences Directorate. The dissertation improvement grant funded a field experiment focused on motivating resident engagement in control of the invasive little fire ant on private lands in Hawai'i.
Funded by a Collaboration Grant from National Geographic,
Shannon Swanson
(PhD 2nd) conducted interviews this summer in the Philippines and Indonesia to document the harvest and export of fish for the global aquarium fish trade. She was also in the Cook Islands and Tonga conducting interviews on the topic of marine protected areas and traditional coastal management.
|
Alumni News
|
Kate Brauman
(PhD 2010) was selected to serve as a Lead Author on the Global Assessment for the United Nation's Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Her work was also featured in an
article from the
Institute on the Environment.
Marilyn Cornelius
(PhD 2013), founder of Alchemus Prime, is partnering with
AZENTIVE
to bring integrated behavioral and technology solutions to the commercial building sector, targeting net-zero energy, water, and waste, as well as building system optimization, employee engagement, and wellness. More information on the partnership can be found
here
.
Christoph Frehsee
(Joint MS-MBA 2012), CEO of eco-fashion company,
Amour Vert
, recently opened a new store at the Stanford Shopping Center. E-IPER affiliates get a 20% discount in stores and online by mentioning the code "E-IPER".
Jason Funk
(PhD 2009) started working as the Associate Director for Land Use at the
Center for Carbon Removal
, an NGO based in Oakland, California, that works toward negative greenhouse gas emissions pathways. Jason leads the science and policy work related to land management. As a continued effort since his PhD, he aims to expand the terrestrial carbon sink, using domestic and international policy. E-IPER alumnus,
Danny Cullenward
(PhD-JD 2013) has also assisted with officially launching the Center.
- Fulbright Foundation NEXUS Regional Scholar Program, "Technology-based climate change impact mitigation in small coffee farms in Jamaica and Mexico" (2016-2017)
- Fulbright Foundation NEXUS Regional Scholar Program, "Mitigation of climate change effects in coffee crops: fighting fungal infections" (2016-2017)
- National Center for Socio-Environmental Synthesis (SESYNC), "Assessing the potential influence of zero-deforestation corporate supply chain commitments on tropical land cover" (2016-2018)
Beth Richards
(PhD 2008) and
Caroline Scruggs
(PhD 2012) have both been serving on the nine-member Water Protection Advisory Board (WPAB) for the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority in New Mexico. The WPAB is responsible for studying surface and groundwater protection concerns and advising the City of Albuquerque, the Water Utility Authority, and Bernalillo County.
Beth recently completed her second of two three-year terms as a City appointee, serving as Vice Chair and Chair of the board during her second term. Caroline is serving as a County appointee and is now in her second three-year term.
Topics addressed by the board in recent years include remediation by the Air Force of a large underground jet-fuel spill threatening key groundwater supply wells in the City of Albuquerque; the effect on local surface-water quality of burn scars remaining after large forest fires in upstream watersheds; regulation of storm water flows, underground septic systems, and mixed-waste landfills; and, most recently, the need for local regulation of oil and gas drilling and fracking to ensure regional water supplies are not adversely affected.
Nicola Ulibarri
(PhD 2015) was awarded first prize in the 9th Annual Collaboration Teaching Case and Simulation Competition held by the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (E-PARCC) at Syracuse University. She also started working as an Assistant Professor in environmental planning and policy at UC Irvine's School of Social Ecology.
|
Publications & Presentations
|
She also
presented a talk, "Marine Protected Areas: CCAMLR's commitment to biodiversity conservation and ecosystem based fisheries management in the Antarctic," at the Antarctic Marine Protected Areas Workshop in Seoul, South Korea. The workshop targeted the South Korean Antarctic community, including government officials, fishing industry representatives, and NGOs. Cassandra presented a separate talk, "Marine Protected Areas: Biodiversity conservation and fisheries management in the Antarctic and beyond," for the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement, the largest environmental NGO in South Korea.
- Science communication at the bottom of the world: Adventures in the Ross Sea, Antarctica
- Pleuragramma antarcticum distribution in the Ross Sea: Patterns of early life history and evidence of a new nursery ground
- Competing values and political complexity in the Southern Ocean: CCAMLR and the challenge of marine protected areas. She received the Early Career Award for 1st Place Oral Presentation North American Region for this presentation.
- One on "Determinants of crop-livestock integration in Brazil: Evidence from the household and regional levels" in Land Use Policy.
- A second on "Assessing the potential additionality of certification by the Round table on Responsible Soybeans and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil" in Environmental Research Letters.
- A third on "Land-use policies and corporate investments in agriculture in the Gran Chaco and Chiquitano" in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
For the past two years,
Michael Hooper
(PhD 2010) and colleagues have been working on a study of urban development in Mongolia. They have published a
paper
,
"Towers on the steppe: compact city plans and local perceptions of urban densification in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia," in the Journal of Urbanism. Michael is currently an
Associate Professor
for urban planning at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design.
Noa Lincoln
(PhD 2014) published two papers, both co-authored with affiliated faculty member
Nicole Ardoin
: one
paper
"Cultivating values: environmental values and sense of place as correlates of sustainable agricultural practices" in Agriculture and Human Values and another
paper
"Farmer Typology in South Kona, Hawai'i: Who
'
s Farming, How, and Why?" in Food, Culture & Society.
- One on "Relative impacts of mitigation, temperature, and precipitation on 21st Century megadrought risk in the American Southwest" in Science Advances.
- A second on "The challenge of accurately quantifying future megadrought risk in the American Southwest" in Geophysical Research Letters.
- A third on "Recent amplification of the North American winter temperature dipole" in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.
- Another paper on "A Review of Recent Advances in Research on Extreme Heat Events" in Current Climate Change Reports.
Becky Niemiec
(PhD 3rd) published a
paper
"Motivating residents to combat invasive species on private lands: social norms and community reciprocity" in Ecology and Society.
Carolyn Snyder
(PhD 2010) published a solo-
paper
"Evolution of global temperature over the past two million years" in Nature.
Charlotte Stanton
(PhD 2014) published a
working paper
"Cash for Carbon: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Payments for Ecosystem Services to Reduce Deforestation," co-authored with affiliated faculty member
Eric Lambin
for the National Bureau of Economic Research. Their research study was also featured in an
article
for The Washington Post.
Nicola Ulibarri
(PhD 2015) published a
paper
, "Linking Network Structure to Collaborative Governance," in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.
|
|
Thank you to our major contributors for this issue:
Susannah Barsom, Jennifer Mason, Anne Siders, and Rose Stanley
Edited by:
Susannah Barsom, Benjamin Ha,
Jennifer Mason, and Anjana Richards
Thank you to all for your continued
support of E-IPER!
http://eiper.stanford.edu
|
|
|
|
|
|
