SEAS News

Transforming an undergraduate honors thesis into a published paper is a praiseworthy—but seldom realized—ambition in academia, but that’s exactly what incoming master’s student Julie Carter (BS ’19) accomplished. The Program in the Environment grad is the lead author of “Assessing perceptions and priorities for health impacts of climate,” published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences in April 2021.

Recent graduate Eva Roos (MS/MLA ’21) collaborated with the Cheboiganing Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians for her master’s practicum, “Izhi-Minoging Mashkikiwan // Place Where Medicines Grow Well.” She credits this collaboration to her time as a teaching assistant with Great Lakes Arts, Cultures, and Environments, the U-M Biological Station humanities program.

Through an unexpected moment of shared inspiration, Jannice Newson (MS ’20) is now co-founder of Lillian Augusta, a company that is developing a plant-based, 100 percent biodegradable braided hair product for Black women. And if the start-up’s success in receiving $100,000 in funding is any indication, it’s an idea whose time has come.

For nearly three decades, SEAS has been at the forefront of environmental justice education and research. Today, SEAS is at the nexus of environmental justice thought leadership, and is recognized as a trusted resource for expertise on both state and national levels.

Designed as rallying points for collaborations around research, teaching, and civic engagement, the school’s new sustainability themes provide a framework for students, faculty, and staff across campus to be involved in a wide range of interdisciplinary activities in partnership with SEAS.

More than half of the world’s population currently lives in urban areas, with this percentage projected to increase dramatically in coming decades. The health of our planet and its inhabitants depends on developing new strategies for human settlement and activity that foster sustainable outcomes. The SEAS community responds by working to build infrastructure to foster human connectivity.

Climate change, one of the greatest challenges facing society, requires large-scale implementation of both mitigation and adaptation strategies. Transforming the energy system through supply and demand changes is critical to address this challenge. The SEAS community responds by working to provide energy solutions for stable climate systems.

Nearly everything humans eat, drink, and breathe is the product of a living organism that inhabits a natural or human-dominated ecosystem. Protecting biological diversity and ecosystem function through conservation and restoration is necessary to produce the goods and services that allow people to prosper. The SEAS community responds by working to protect the Earth’s biodiversity and ecosystem services.