Skip to main content

Utility

  • Admissions
  • Exploring Grad School
  • Current Students
  • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
  • Faculty + Staff
  • Alumni
Give
COVID-19 UPDATES
Report Sexual Misconduct
Home

Main navigation

Search is currently disabled
  • Academics
    • Master of Science
    • Master of Landscape Architecture
    • Doctoral (PhD)
    • Dual-Degree Programs
    • Graduate Certificate Programs
    • Undergraduate Program
    • Courses
    • Digital Learning Hub
  • Research + Impact
    • Sustainability Themes
    • PhD Profiles
    • Student Research
    • The Centers, Institutes + Initiatives
    • Faculty Profiles
    • Labs
  • Admissions
    • Exploring Graduate School
    • Why Michigan?
    • How to Apply
    • Funding
    • Online Games
    • Visit Campus
    • International Students
    • For Admitted Students
    • Admissions FAQs
    • Rackham Graduate School Resources
  • Student Services
    • SEAS Student Center
    • Career Services
    • Financial Aid
    • Academic Advising
    • Student Organizations
    • Student Development
    • Forms, Handbooks + Policies
    • Quick Links
  • News
    • Community Highlights
    • In the Media
    • Stewards Magazine
  • Events
    • Co-Sponsorship Form
    • Submit Event
    • Admissions Webinars
    • Gallery
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Leadership
    • Demographics
    • Faculty Profiles
    • Administrative Departments + Staff
    • Facilities + Locations
    • Diversity, Equity + Inclusion
    • Art & Environment Gallery
    • Land Acknowledgement
    • History

Utility

  • Admissions
  • Exploring Grad School
  • Current Students
  • Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
  • Faculty + Staff
  • Alumni
Give
COVID-19 UPDATES
Report Sexual Misconduct
search icon Search
  • Academics
  • Research + Impact
  • Admissions
  • Student Services
  • News
    • Community Highlights
    • In the Media
    • Stewards Magazine
  • Events
  • About

Main navigation

  • Academics
  • Research + Impact
  • Admissions
  • Student Services
  • News
    • Community Highlights
    • In the Media
    • Stewards Magazine
  • Events
  • About

Fall 2019

1881-2019 The Big Ten+2+2
1903-1926 Department of Forestry
1927-1949 The School of Forestry and Conservation
1950-1991 The School of Natural Resources
1992-2017 The School of Natural Resources and Environment
2017-Present: The School for Environment and Sustainability
Class Notes
In Memoriam - Jonathan W. Bulkley (1938 - 2019)
Meeting the Future
Meeting the Future: Cities+Mobility+Built Environment
Meeting the Future: Climate+Energy
Meeting the Future: Conservation+Restoration
Meeting the Future: Food Systems
Meeting the Future: Water
The Properties
Visible from outer space, Detroit's unofficial pathways could play important role in land redevelopment
Dear Friends

Share your news!

Send us updates and photos about your new job or personal achievements. Visit seas.umich.edu/alumni and fill out an online update form or write to us. We look forward to hearing from you and sharing your news.

Are you connected?

SEAS Connect is a monthly e-newsletter that brings alumni, students, faculty, and friends even closer together. In every issue, you’ll read about what your classmates are up to, hear from your favorite professors, find out what’s going on in the Dana Building, and learn how to get involved.

 
back to Stewards

1992-2017 The School of Natural Resources and Environment

Image
Students in the field with the institute of fisheries research, 2004
Caption
Students in the field with the institute of fisheries research, 2004

The rise of the modern environmental movement in the late 1960s had awakened public awareness in the intervening decades. Despite resistance from those opposed to government regulation, there was now a global movement concerned with the issues of increasing population, the health effects from industrial pollution—and the alarming loss of old-growth forests, clean drinking water, fertile top soil, and wildlife. New studies, including Bill McKibben’s 1989 release of his landmark book, The End of Nature, warned of yet another emerging phenomenon: climate change.

Upon this stage, the School of Natural Resources proved itself to be a leader in the U.S. educational community when, in 1992, U-M officially changed the name to the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE). The new identity recognized the interconnected ecosystems of human society within the physical world—and signaled the school’s intention to pursue deeper exploration in the natural and social sciences.

The Samuel Trask Dana Building underwent a five-year green renovation and received  Gold LEED Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The Dana Building became the first major academic renovation to receive such a high rating in the state of Michigan, and was among the first in the country.

Environmental Justice

SNRE was the first school in the U.S. to launch an Environmental Justice program that offered undergraduate and graduate degree specializations. Established by Bunyan Bryant and Paul Mohai in the 1990s, the program would gain the expertise of Dorceta E. Taylor, professor, author, and historian, in 2002.

New Cross-Campus Partnerships

It was integral to Dean Samuel Dana’s original vision for the school to create well-rounded professionals by giving students a holistic and interdisciplinary education. In the 1990s, SNRE made bold strides toward achieving that vision through cross-campus environmental initiatives, grant-funded projects, and newly founded institutes.

Erb Institute (1996)
Michigan alumni Frederick and Barbara Erb gifted $5 million to launch the Erb Institute, providing students the opportunity to pursue an MS degree and MBA simultaneously. After the institute was established, the Erbs continued to support this joint venture with gifts that totaled $20 million, representing the largest known commitment to a university for interdisciplinary teaching and research in the area of global sustainability.

Center for Sustainable Systems (CSS) (1999)
CSS provided a space for life cycle design and assessment with more than 100 research projects. Supported by the Peter M. Wege Foundation, CSS is globally recognized as a leading academic institution for this research.

Engineering Sustainable Systems (2007)
The College of Engineering welcomed the opportunity to bring sustainability and engineering together with the creation of the dual degree program with SNRE: Engineering Sustainable Systems.

Sustainable Food Systems Initiative (2007)
This forward-thinking initiative was created to engage an interdisciplinary mix of students, faculty, and communities at local and global levels to learn from and build food systems that are health-promoting, economically viable, equitable, and ecologically sound.

Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute (2007)
Launched as a campus-wide organization accessible to all students and faculty, the institute’s mission was to “encourage synergy and facilitate multidisciplinary research and teaching on sustainability.”

Sustainability Without Borders (SWB) (2011)
SNRE students were leading the charge to engage with the global community. SWB, founded by Jose Alfaro (PhD ’14)—a student at the time, and now a SEAS faculty member—has partnered with communities, governments, and aid organizations to successfully develop and implement projects to address resource scarcity in the areas of water, energy, food and waste. Their work has impacted communities from Liberia to Detroit.

Rosina Bierbaum

Rosina Bierbaum served as dean of SNRE from 2001 to 2011. She is the chair of the Science and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility, and served on President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. As an Adaptation Fellow at the World Bank, she  led the Adaptation chapter for the congressionally mandated U.S. National Climate assessment, and was a review editor for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Coping With Climate Change National Summit
In 2007, U-M held the first national summit that addressed climate change adaptation. The summit, organized by then SNRE Dean Rosina Bierbaum, along with other SNRE faculty, students, and staff, focused on helping the citizens of the U.S. prepare for the future impacts of climate-based changes in temperature, precipitation, sea level rise, and species range.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of which current Dean Jonathan Overpeck and Rosina Bierbaum are members, received a Nobel Prize for its work in this area.

seas logo
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability
Dana Building
440 Church Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
(734) 764-6453
Email us
facebook
twitter
instagram
linkedin
youtube
flickr
planet blue global impact logo

Footer

  • Contact us
  • Intranet
  • Contact Web Team

© 2023 The Regents of the University of Michigan | Privacy Policy | Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Produced by Michigan Creative