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news and events

What's New?

Waterborne disease risk upped in Great Lakes. An Oct. 7, 2008, publication by Patz et al. in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reports that extreme weather such as the monsoon-like rainfall events that occurred this spring will likely aggravate the risk for outbreaks of waterborne disease in the Great Lakes region. (read the UW press release)


Jonathan Patz keynote speakerSAGE students and faculty participated in a key regional meeting Sept. 29-Oct. 2, on climate change and health in the Amazon. The workshop was co-organized by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, along with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Professor Patz delivered the opening keynote presentation, and PhD candidate Sarah Olson presented her finding on climate variability and malaria in Amazonia. (view more photos of the meeting)


Prof. Emily Stanley from the Center for Limnology has begun her semester-long sabbatical here at SAGE. We're very happy to have her here as an in-house expert on nutrient dynamics, riverine systems, river management, and carbon cycling. 


Congratulations to Dr. Holly Gibbs on her Ph.D.! Holly's work focuses on tropical deforestation and the drivers of expanding agricultural land in the tropics. Following up on this work, Holly will be starting a post-doc at Stanford, supported by a prestigious Smith Fellowship. Fortunately, we'll have Holly here at SAGE for another couple of months before she heads to the West.


Tracey Holloway, DirectorNew SAGE Director Appointed -- Prof Tracey Holloway. August 20, 2008. Prof. Tracey Holloway will serve as the new Director of the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), leading the Center into its next phase of development and productivity. "This is an exciting opportunity," says Holloway, "SAGE has built a reputation for excellent research, teaching, and public outreach -- I am enthusiastic to continue this legacy and help the Center grow in new directions."  Holloway has been with SAGE since 2003, when she arrived at the University of Wisconsin--Madison as an Assistant Professor in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies (she is also serves on the faculty of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the La Follette School of Public Affairs). Holloway earned her Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2001, and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow with the Earth Institute of Columbia University from 2001-2003.


New gift for Research on Sustainable Public Health. SAGE has received a $240,000 gift from an anonymous donor directed towards research on environmental public health, the area of focus of Professor Jonathan Patz. Patz plans to leverage these funds to further build  a major initiative on Sustainable Public Health – Patz describes this as, "Health for today's populations without compromising natural resources needed for the health of future generations.(read more)


Foley now at University of Minnesota. Prof. Jon Foley, the founder and Director of the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), has left the University of Wisconsin and is now the Director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota (August 2008) 


A 'red flag' for expanding biofuels in the tropics. Holly Gibbs et al. report that biofuels, by recycling atmospheric carbon, are a potential boon to the world's ailing climate. But efforts in the tropics to significantly expand biofuel production by replacing tropical forests with oil palm, sugarcane and other agricultural biofuels could, in fact, accelerate climate change. UW News. Press coverage: ScienceNOW; The Capital Times; ClimateArk.org; EcoEarth; physorg.com; wisbusiness.org
Listen to Holly's real media interview "The Dark Cloud of Debate Surrounding Biofuels" with CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Radio Show "As it Happens" (7/11/08). The interview starts after a brief description of other topics on the show.


Patz and Pachuari (IPCC)Patz and Mayor R. DaleyJonathan Patz participates in meeting with Dr. Rajendra K. Pachuari, Chair, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley along with other civic and business leaders to discuss the importance of mitigating climate change. The meeting was arranged by the Enviornmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC), July 2008.


Can Climate Change Make Us Sicker? – TIME Magazine. More than just the oceans or the wildlife, Dr. Jonathan Patz says that global warming can have a profound impact on human health read the article



Events

Weston Sustainability LecturesRoy F Weston Distinguished Global Sustainability Lectures

read more and listen to prior Weston Lectures



SAGE Noon Seminar Series
12-1 Wednesdays
1710 University Ave., Rm 272
All are welcome

Oct 14 (Tues) - Greg Nemet, Prof. SAGE & Public Affairs, will present the CPEP Seminar, 1039 AOSS Building

Oct 15 - NO SAGE SEMINAR

Oct 21 (Tues) - Mutlu Ozdogan, Prof. SAGE & Forest Ecology, will present the CPEP Seminar, 1039 AOSS Building

Oct 22 - NO SAGE SEMINAR

Oct 29 Burton Singer, Prof. Emeritus, Princeton

Nov 5 Tim Donogue, Prof. UW-Genetics

Nov 12 Murray Clayton, Prof. UW-Statistics

Nov 19 Jonathan Patz, Prof. SAGE & Population Health Sciences

Dec 3 Steve Vavrus, Director, CCR

Dec 10 Holly Gibbs, SAGE



Recent Awards

PhD Student Sarah Olson received a full award to travel and attend the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in New Orleans this winter to present her cutting-edge work on malaria in the Amazon


PhD Student Maggie Grabow has been awarded a full scholarship to attend the International EcoHealth Forum 2008 in December. 


CHANGE Fellow Micah Hahn has been awarded a full scholarship to attend the International EcoHealth Forum 2008 in December. 



Job Opportunities

None at this time


News Archive

SAGE student David Zaks, car divorcee, is featured as Community Car celebrates motorists 'divorcing' their cars. read the story


SAGE PhD student Scott Spak accepts post-doctoral position with the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research (CGRER) at the University of Iowa. Beginning in October, Scott will work with world-famous atmospheric chemist and modeler, Prof. Greg Carmichael.


SAGE post-doc Meiyun Lin awarded competitive support to attend the upcoming "Preparing for a Faculty Career" Workshop at the University of Oklahoma and to attend the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) meeting in France.


MS student Claus Moberg returns from American Meteorological Science Policy Colloquium in DC, and will be attending the NSF-sponsored "Debating Science" program and the Wisconsin Entrepreneurial Bootcamp (WEB) 2008 program later this year.


Chris Dresser completes MS degree in Environment & Resources, ARM, and TMP. Chris built and analyzed a GIS-based emissions model for evaluation of heavy-duty diesel vehicles on major Midwest freight routes. 


SAGE PhD student Sarah Olson wins Best Student Paper Award at the International Association of Landscape Ecology meeting in Madison, WI.


SAGE Partners with MG&E to Examine Climate Policies for Wisconsin.
SAGE professor Greg Nemet and graduate student Andy Mendyk are working with Madison Gas and Electric to model and evaluate the implications of emerging climate policies for Wisconsin residents. Their work will focus on evaluating the impacts of a broad set of possible implementation configurations – the likelihoods of which are currently highly uncertain.


Two SAGE Alumni Join University of Minnesota Climate Change Team. Tracey Twine and Peter Snyder are new faculty members in the Dept of Soil, Water and Climate. read more


Jill Baumgartner, PhD student, receives UW Graduate Student Mentor Award through the Graduate School Collaborative and the Multicultural Graduate Network. This award recognizes Jill as someone who has demonstrated outstanding mentorship qualities while in graduate school.


Caitlin Littlefield wins a Nelson Institute sponsored scholarship to attend a series of innovative Journal of Facilitation and Collaboration workshops.


David Zaks, SAGE PhD student, wins Laurel Clark Memorial Graduate Fellowship. This fellowship is named in honor of astronaut Dr. Laurel Clark, a Wisconsin native, who perished in the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster.The fellowship recognizes exceptional graduate students from Wisconsin in the field of environmental or life sciences, who show strong leadership qualities, intellectual balance and commitment to improving the human condition.


SAGE student worker Isabella Lau and a friend win an Isthmus Green Day Challenge. They proposed an environmental community center ("Earth Center") that would be a place to re-establish our relationship to the earth and to each other through the discovery of common ground, the empowerment of individuals, and the sharing of stories. Jon Foley is a featured speaker at the Isthmus Green Day event to be held on April 26 at the Monona Terrace.


SAGE student Jill Baumgartner wins Fulbright Award, a highly competitive international study and exchange program that seeks to build intellectual and cultural relationships between the U.S. and other countries. Jill will be conducting epidemiology research on indoor air pollution and health in rural Yunnan, China.

Jonathan Patz Recognized in Madison Magazine as one of Madison's "Green Heroes" – 25 of the area's savviest, smartest, boldest, well-intentioned and hardest-working stewards of justice, humanity and the environment. read the article

SAGE-TNC-IBM Partnership Highlighted on World Water Day read the article

Increased ethanol production to worsen Gulf of Mexico ‘dead zone’. The rush in the United States to produce corn-based ethanol as an alternative fuel will likely worsen pollution in the Gulf of Mexico and expand the annual "dead zone" that kills fish and other aquatic life, according to new research by Chris Kucharik and former SAGE graduate student Simon Donner (now at the University of British Columbia). read the UW Press Release
Press coverage: UW News; CBC News; TIME; WPR - search for "Ethanol Boom May Be Harming Major Waterways Down South" to listen to real media interview; NPR net radio - real media clip; The Capital Times, Journal-Sentinel online

SAGE grad students serve as "climate change advisors" for the latest issue of Yes! Magazine that focuses on climate change solutions. Current student David Zaks, and former SAGE grad students Chad Monfreda, Julie Vano, and Simon Donner participated. view the online magazine

SAGE PhD candidate Matt Johnston's paper on international biodiesel production wins Editor's Choice Award. read more

Earlier plantings underlie yield gains in northern corn belt. U.S. farmers plant corn much earlier today than ever before and it seems to be paying off, at least in the north. A new study by SAGE Scientist Chris Kucharik finds that earlier plantings could account for up to half of the yield gains seen in some parts of the northern Corn Belt since the late 1970s. read the UW Press Release

Holly Gibbs' paper, "Monitoring and estimating tropical forest carbon stocks: making REDD a reality" selected as part of Environmental Research Letters Best of 2007. ERL Best of 2007 bannerThe "Best of 2007" is a mixture of Perspectives and Letters that best represent the high quality and breadth of the contributions that were published last year in ERL, as chosen by the Editorial Board, guest editors and publishing team. read more

Decades of Neglect in Energy Research Will Be Hard to Reverse. In the report, “Big Oil U.,” the Center for Science in the Public Interest describes some striking trends in overall spending for such studies. The Report relied on Greg Nemet's data reported last year in the journal Energy Policy (Nemet, G.F. and D.M. Kammen (2007) “U.S. energy R&D: declining investment, increasing need, and the feasibility of expansion” Energy Policy 35(1): 746-755. Available through Science Direct.. read more in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

UW-Madison joins largest climate change teach-in in U.S. history. The focus is on global warming solutions with the aim of preparing millions of students to become leaders in responding to the challenge. Jon Foley and Jonathan Patz presented talks. read more

Patz participates in Washington Post on-line chat "Science: How Climate Change Impacts Your Health". read the questions and comments

Foreign ozone emissions lower U.S. air quality. Study led by Tracey Holloway finds that up to 15% of U.S. air pollution comes from Asian and European sources. read the UW-Madison press release, Listen to a Radio interview on Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Buisiness.com

SAGE team members participate in United Nations-sponsored climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia. Jonathan Patz and Holly Gibbs gave presentations. Over 180 nations participated in this event (Dec 2007) conference website

Experts promote the global warming diet. America's obesity epidemic and global warming might not seem to have much in common. But public health experts suggest people can attack them both by cutting calories and carbon dioxide at the same time. read the CNN article

Health toll of climate change seen as ethical crisis. The public health costs of global climate change are likely to be the greatest in those parts of the world that have contributed least to the problem, posing a significant ethical dilemma for the developed world, according to a study in EcoHealth by SAGE researchers Patz, Gibbs, and Foley.
Coverage: UW news article, New York Times Dot Earth, UPI, Mother Jones News, Wisconsin State Journal
Listen to the Scientific American "Ethics of Climate Change" Nov 07: Science Talk Podcast

Our Changing PlanetSAGE faculty contribute to "Our Changing Planet" book.  Jon Foley, Annemarie Schneider and Mutlu Ozdogan have all contributed chapters to a new book, Our Changing Planet, which illustrates how our global environment is changing, based on views from satellites.  





Jonathan Patz Interviewed by ABC News.
SAGE's Jonathan Patz weighs in on whether White House officials 'muzzled' important scientific research on the links between climate change and human health. Read the Article, Watch the video; Press coverage: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

SAGE Researchers Examine World’s Potential to Produce Biodiesel. Seeking to understand which nations are best positioned today to enter the burgeoning biodiesel market, Matt Johnston and Dr. Tracey Holloway ranked 226 countries according to their potential to make large volumes of biodiesel at low cost. Their article "A Global Comparison of National Biodiesel Production Potentials " appeared in the Oct. 24 issue of Environmental Science and Technology. Read more on the SAGE Energy page and the UW News article.
More coverage: UPI, Wired

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore Awarded 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. SAGE's Jonathan Patz served on the panel. Read more

SAGE's Jonathan Patz featured in UW Medical School Magazine. “As Temperatures Rise, Jonathan PatzGlobal Health Declines” declares the cover of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health’s latest Quarterly magazine, which profiles the work of Associate Professor Jonathan Patz in a feature article on ecology and public health. Read the article






SAGE Welcomes 3 New Faculty Members Dr. Annemarie Schneider, Dr. Mutlu Ozdogan, and Dr. Gregory Nemet. Read more

SAGE Scientist Chris Kucharik participates in the Wisconsin Farmers Union (WFU) conference. Wisconsin state legislators, environmental experts, policy experts, National Farmers Union (NFU) staff, WFU members, and the public gathered for in-depth discussions on environmental and health care issues.
Read the news release (August 2007).

SAGE Teams with IBM and The Nature Conservancy on Global Rivers Project to conserve some of the world's great rivers by meshing extraordinary computing power and science-driven conservation. read the press release; Madison.com

Governor Doyle + Jon FoleyGovernor Announces Global Warming Task Force and Office of Energy Independence. The global warming task force will be comprised of businesses, industry, environmental organizations, local governments, and private citizens. This new effort will be charged with developing a state plan of action to explore state and local solutions to global warming.Jon Foley will be on the Task Force. The Office on Energy Independence will coordinate the state’s efforts to grow Wisconsin’s bio and renewable economies and advise the Governor and cabinet agencies on ways to meet the goals of Wisconsin’s “Declaration of Energy Independence” . read the press release

State Senate Testimony, Committee on Environment and Natural Resources
Jon Foley, presented "News from a Warming Planet: Recent science and policy issues from Wisconsin" April 2007

Jonathan Patz, participated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The second part of its Four Assessment Report series, "Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability" was issued April 6, 2007. Patz is a lead author of one of the report’s chapters. The international team of authors warned that human-generated warming is already making oceans more acidic and parched regions even drier. 20-30% of the world's species may disappear if the world warms another 2.7 to 4.5° F. Such warming could intensity ozone air pollution in the US and cause many diseases to increase around the globe. Read some of the press articles: Washington Post; Boston.com; Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; Rocky Mountain News; USA Today; Daily Camera; Salt Lake Tribune; nature.com; Chronicle of Higher Education; The Times-Picayune; SFGate

SAGE Featured in U.S. News and World Report April 2007 issue – America's Best Graduate Schools. read the article


Abrupt Climate Changes Much More Common Than Previously Believed UW news release; newscientist.com, highlighted as one of Science's "Editor's Pick of the Week - 20 April 2007"

Foley, Liu: UW leads in climate change research. The Wisconsin State Journal's Feb. 25 editorial, "Respond to global warming," wisely called for more state action to counter the growing challenge of climate change. Among its recommendations is for UW- Madison "to conduct more research on global warming." We couldn't agree more... read the article

U.S. needs to invest in clean energy. Rob Zaleski of the Capital Times interviewed Jon Foley about nuclear power and other alternative energies. read the article

Climate Change: Global Warming and Wisconsin - Our insatiable appetite for coal. The state's greenhouse gas emissions are rising at a rate far faster than the rest of the nation's. read the article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal

Foley et al. paper "Amazonian revealed: forest degradation and loss of ecosystem goods and services in the Amazon Basin" featured on cover of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment and highlighted as the Feb 2007 Ecological Society of America's "Article of the Month".

Study: New evidence for a relationship between Atlantic tropical cyclone activity and African dust outbreaks. read more about this study erekalert.org, CNN, BBC, NYT, UW news release

Study: Earlier crop plantings may curb future yields. In an ongoing bid to grow more corn, farmers in the U.S. Corn Belt are planting seeds much earlier today than they did 30 years ago, a new study has found. read the UW news article on Chris Kucharik's recent research

Foley and Gore featured speakers at climate change forum. SAGE's own Jon Foley joined former Vice President Al Gore for a week-long series of presentations on global climate change and environmental sustainability at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York in July. Other featured speakers included Steven Koonin (Chief Scientist, BP) and Paul Gorman (Executive Director, National Religious Partnership for the Environment). The Chautauqua Institution has a long history of bringing together leaders from government, business, science and the religious community to explore complex issues of pressing societal concern. For more information, visit the Chautauqua Institute website.  

SAGE students contribute to WorldChanging.com weblog. David Zaks and Chad Monfreda recently became contributors to WorldChanging.com, a weblog that discusses “tools, models and ideas for building a bright green future.”  Worldchanging has featured the research at SAGE in the past (Atlas of the Biosphere, agriculture's global footprint, The Earth Collaboratory, deforestation and malaria, and global health) and reports on many topics of interest to the SAGE community such as alternative energy, green design, global environmental politics, pollution monitoring, and general issues of sustainability. Chad and David are responsible for covering the topics of sustainability science and the intersection of policy and science. Some of their posts: The Nano Café; Science and Sustainable Rebuilding; Protecting the Environment, Protecting Our Health; Nanotechnology for Clean Water; Setting the Ecological Agenda; Green Water and Sustainable Agriculture; Ecology for Transformation; The Access Praxis; ATEAM: Mr.T takes on ecosystems services; Interview with Jeff Christian; Interview with Kerry Emanuel

SAGE Awarded $3.4 Million NSF Graduate Training Grant. The Nelson Institute's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program will involve 10 faculty members in diverse departments ranging from atmospheric and oceanic sciences to sociology. The program will seek to interweave natural and social sciences to better understand the vulnerabilities and resilience of human communities facing complex environmental hazards such as global climate change. read the UW press release describing the two recently-awarded IGERT grants on campus

New Energy Institute takes shape on campus. SAGE is a key player in the development of The UW Energy Institute, an initiative on campus to collaborate in educational and research activities, build synergism and increase the national recognition of the energy research accomplished at this university. Started as informal discussions in Summer, 2005, the UW Energy Institute now coordinates a weekly seminar series, provides updates on energy research discoveries on campus, and is active in building the Nelson Institute's Energy Analysis and Policy Certificate Program. Tracey Holloway, hired under the Energy Science and Policy Cluster Initiative, serves on the Energy Institute Governance Committee.

The First Biennial EcoHealth Conference: Forging Collaboration Between Health and Ecology was held October 7th-10th 2006 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Meeting Theme: Promoting Global Health - Sustaining Natural Resources read more at the conference website
Press coverage: Wisconsin State Journal; Wisconsin Public Radio

Why Files features SAGE Science.  The award-winning "Why Files" on-line science magazine (whyfiles.org) features work from SAGE in their special 2006 Earth Day posting.  In their report, the Why Files discuss the potential for "tipping points" in the global environment with Prof. Jon Foley, and other scientists at the 2006 AAAS Meeting.

As Amazon's Tree Line Recedes, Malaria-Wielding Mosquitoes Buzz In "By dramatically changing the landscape, we are tipping the balance in a way that is increasing the risk of malaria transmission," says senior author Jonathan Patz. "This is one of the most detailed quantitative field studies in the Amazon that directly addresses the potential link between deforestation and malaria." UW Press release
Press coverage: Washington Post, NPR, World Changing

SAGE Maps Reveal Human Footprint on Earth. SAGE researchers, Navin Ramankutty, Amato Evan, and Chad Monfreda are tracking the changing patterns of agricultural land use around the world, including a look at related factors such as global crop yields and fertilizer use. Distilling that information into computer-generated maps, the scientists will present their early findings during the fall meeting (Dec. 5-9, 2005) of the American Geophysical Union. UW News release; audio interview with Navin Ramankutty on Wisconsin Public Radio (Real Player required); video segment of Navin Ramankutty on WISC-TV Channel 3, Madison; additional press coverage: UPI, National Geographic, The Guardian

Impact of Regional Climate Change on Human Health. Ironically, regions of Earth that contribute least to global warming are the most vulnerable to death and disease that higher temperatures can bring, says Jonathan Patz in the 17 Nov 2005 issue of Nature. (Patz will chair a related international conference – EcoHealth ONE – at UW–Madison in Oct 2006). Abtract; full article (subscription required); Nature podcast; UW news release and images; Additional press coverage: Washington Post; Reuters; UPI

Signs of Tipping Points in the Arctic Tundra. Environmental changes in the Arctic may be an early warning system for global climate change, and recent reports from the region are alarming.  Writing in the 28 Oct 2005 edition of Science magazine, Jon Foley considers the results of the latest study. abstract or full text (subscription).

Foley and colleagues author article "Global Consequences of Landuse" in 22 July 2005 issue of Science The article synthesizes and reflects on decades of research on human impacts on the environment, including changes in atmospheric composition, land cover, the hydrologic cycle and biological diversity. abstract or full text (subscription); UW news release; EarthWatch Radio interview with Jon Foley

SAGE Global Land Use Data Website Now Online Scientists at SAGE have developed global databases of land cover and land use. These data sets are now available from a new website. They describe the geographic patterns of the world’s croplands, grazing lands, urban areas, and natural vegetation. The website also includes other popular data such as human population density. The new website, developed by Navin Ramankutty and Seth Price, provides easy access to the land use data in both tabular format (for countries, states, etc. of the world) as well as in map form. The site allows the user to manipulate the data to suit their own specific requirements, and download them in several different formats.

SAGE River Discharge Database Website offers monthly mean river discharge data for over 3500 sites worldwide. The data sources are RivDis2.0, the United States Geological Survey, Brazilian National Department of Water and Electrical Energy, and HYDAT-Environment Canada. The period of record for each station is variable, from 3 years to greater than 100. All data is in m3/s.

SAGE Soil Carbon & Nitrogen Data Website Scientists at SAGE have initiated long-term soil sampling and monitoring of agricultural land across southcentral Wisconsin. Soil carbon, nitrogen, bulk density and other assorted data on land-use history are available via this database.

•SAGE Scientists Featured in HBO Documentary.  SAGE faculty members Jonathan Patz and Jon Foley were featured in an HBO documentary "Too Hot Not To Handle" that aired on April 22nd, 2006.

Nature Conservancy Researcher Highlights Benefits of Great River Systems at International Conference. Nature Conservancy researcher and SAGE grad student Paul West showed how six of the world’s great river systems benefit people by putting food on the table, moderating the weather, slowing down climate change and regulating flooding during a presentation at the International Conference on Rivers and Civilization in La Crosse, WI. (June 2006)

Rate of African Forest Loss Underestimated: scientist - SAGE PhD candidate Holly Gibbs was interviewed at a Conservation International conference in Madagascar. (Reuters, June 2006)

New Maps Reveal Human Footprint on Earth - UW News release of Navin Ramkutty's work on global land use and land cover (UW News, 5 Dec 2005) (additional press coverage: UPI, National Geographic, The Guardian, WebIndia, EurekAlert, Innovations Report, Sydney Morning Herald, World Changing, The Repubblica, The Hindu, Taipei Times, Common Dreams, Mongabay, Biology News, NewKerala, Newswise, Minjok, Farmers Weekly Interactive, Science Daily, WBAY-TV, Live Science, Truth Out, Channel3000

Climate Shift Tied To 150,000 Fatalities - Piece in the Washington Post about Patz et al. 17 Nov Nature article "Impact of Regional Climate Change on Human Health". Earth's warming climate is estimated to contribute to more than 150,000 deaths and 5 million illnesses each year, according to the World Health Organization, a toll that could double by 2030... (Washington Post, Nov 17, 2005) (additional press coverage: Washington Post, Reuters, UPI, UW news release, The Independent; Guardian Unlimited, AllAfrica, Belfast Telegraph, Beloit Daily News, Common Dreams News Center, Grist Magazine, DrKoop, HealthCentral, Journal Sentinal Online, Planet Ark, SciDev Net, Monsters and Critics)

Listen to an Earthwatch Radio story featuring Jon Foley discussing landuse decisions (Earthwatch Radio, Sept 2005)

World Land Use Seen as Top Environmental Issue - UW News release of Foley et al. Science article "Global Consequences of Landuse" (July 21,2005)

Hazy Health Hazards - Jonathan Patz is an environmental health physician at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He studies the impacts of climate change on human health, and he says people are likely to have more problems with smog as the Earth grows warmer. (Earth Watch Radio, July 2005)

Climate Change to Bring a Wave of New Health Risks - Jonathan Patz Feb 2005 presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Additional press coverage: MSNBC, The Capital Times, Madison, WI, The Independent Online Edition, Scripps Howard News Service

Five Future Eco-leaders under 40 - Jonathan Foley is featured in the March 2005 issue of Plenty Magazine

SAGE Contributed to WWF's 2004 Living Planet Report which is the WWF's periodic update on the state of the world's ecosystems. View some animations put together by SAGE Graduate Student, Chad Monfreda, showing the changes in the world's ecological footprints over time.

SAGE's Atlas of the Biosphere Featured by WorldChanging.Org, (Oct 30, 2004)

As Humans Alter Land, Infectious Diseases Follow. As people remake the world's landscapes, cutting forests, draining wetlands, building roads and dams, and pushing the margins of cities ever outward, infectious diseases are gaining new toeholds, cropping up in new places and new hosts, and posing an ever-increasing risk to human and animal health. (UW-Madison News, July 2004)

Field of Dreams. Carbon farming could help solve golbal warming and provide profits for farmers - cover story article appeared in Wisconsin Agriculturist magazine, Feb 2004 (and our own Kim Nicholas Cahill was featured on the cover with field equipment)

Sustain Dane put the Spotlight on Chris Kucharik's prairie research. Sustain Dane is a Madison, WI based non-profit organization dedicated to creating a community that deeply enjoys, cares for and is sustained by its unique environment.

Prairie research at the roots of environmental health - Emily Carlson interviewed Chris Kucharik about his prairie restoration research at the UW Arboretum (UW-Madison News, Oct 2003). A variation of this article appeared in UW-Madison's Alumni Magazine, On Wisconsin, Fall 2003 (pdf 1.4 MB)

National Geographic's Map Drawn from UW-Madison Work (UW-Madison News Sept 2002). Visit the UW-Madison News site to download a 300dpi eps version of this map

What's Up with US Gluttany? Rob Zaleski interviews Jon Foley (Capital Times, Madison Sept 2003)

Should We Buy Biomass? Dr. Chris Kucharik talks about biomass, switchgrass, and Carbon cycling (The Why Files Science Behind the News, UW-Madison, Aug 2002)

Switchgrass: Is this simple prairie grass a panacea for the world? One of Dr. Chris Kucharik's research projects was featured in the Wisconsin State Journal (Aug 2002) 11.4 MB pdf

Amazon Basin Can Be a Carbon Source - Recent study by Drs. Aurélie Botta, Navin Ramankutty, and Jon Foley was highlighted (Environmental Data Interactive Exchange, Edie)

Practicing What He Teaches - an update on the Foley family (UW Alumni News)

Forest Management May Mitigate Global Warming - Dr. Carol Barford's research (UW-Madison News)

Computer Lab on Wheels - SAGE was one of the first two departments on campus to deploy a wireless computer classroom (DOIT Technology Newsletter)

Change Courts Ecosystem Catastrophe - Subjected to decades of gradual change by humans, many of the world's natural ecosystems - from coral reefs and tropical forests to northern lakes and forests - appear susceptible to sudden catastrophic ecological change (UW-Madison News)

World Land Database Charts Troubling Course - Over the past 300 years, in an ever-accelerating process, humans have reshaped the terrestrial surface of the Earth. In doing so, humanity has scripted a scenario of global environmental change whose impacts promise to be at least as severe as global climate change... (NASA Earth Observatory)

Africa's Lake Chad is Disappearing - Africa's Lake Chad, once one of the continent's largest bodies of fresh water, has shriveled to a ghost of a great lake (CNN)

Great Lakes 'Seasons' May Reflect A Warming Trend - Scrutinizing a 139-year record of Great Lakes water levels, a UW-Madison scientist has discovered a dramatic shift in the seasonal changes in water levels on the Great Lakes...

Green House - For many of us, the keys to turning down the earth's thermostat can seem as hazy as a distant cloud. But not the Foley family, for whom the battle against global warming starts at home... (Audubon Magazine)

The Brothers Foley Develop A Sense Of Humus - Jon and David Foley work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (The Global Citizen)

A Cimate Scientist Takes His Computer Model Seriously - Jon Foley makes computer models to study what might happen if the human economy continues to emit greenhouse gases. Like hundreds of other climate scientists, he is deeply worried about global warming. Unlike most scientists, he carries that worry into his personal life... (The Global Citizen)

Global Warming: Desperately Seeking Stability (UW-Madison's Why Files)

Landscape Changes May Alter Cimate (CNN)

Forecasting the Ebb and Flow of a Rogue Mosquito (UW-Madison's Wisconsin Week)


Awards Archive

Chad Monfreda, SAGE alumnus, won a SSRC Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship. Chad will be using this fellowship over the summer to connect to several of the sub-global sites of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (perhaps in South Africa, India, and Papua New Guinea), looking at the potential pitfalls and opportunities in bridging global and local knowledge. (April 2008)

Chris Uejio awarded Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Dissertation Grant. Chris will study geographic and temporal environmental influences on competing dengue vectors along the US-Mexico border. Public health officials previously thought that socioeconomic and behavioral differences would continue to prevent dengue expansion from Mexico into the US. Dengue is established and continuously circulates in southern Texas under a poorly understood set of host, agent, or environmental interactions. Congratulations, Chris! (2007)

Holly Gibbs won the D.H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship. This highly-regarded fellowship is run in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and the Society of Conservation BIology and is awarded to a handful of the best ecological scientists in the country each year. Holly will be finishing her PhD in Environment & Resources with SAGE this year, and plans to use this fellowship to be a postdoc at Stanford University this coming fall. Congratulations, Holly! (2007

Susanna Ehlers won the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship, to cover the first three years of her Ph.D. (April 2007)

Heather Woods won the award for Best Student Poster in the Atmospheric Chemistry division of the American Meteorological Society Meeting San Antonio, TX. The award carries high prestige and a $200 check. (March 2007)

Sarah Olson and Chad Monfreda received International Exchange Program grants to study in Montpellier, France over the 2007 spring semester. They are participating in the 2nd year of the UW-Madison-Montpellier Graduate Study Exchange program funded by the French Foreign Ministry's Franco-American Cultural Exchange (FACE) program and the U.S. National Science Foundation. Sarah is working with the Ecosystems, Biological Diversity and Health research group at the Institut of Recherche for Development (IRD) to investigate the effects of deforestation on malaria in the Amazon. Chad, also at the IRD, is working on the Consultative Process Towards an International Mechanism of Scientific Expertise on Biodiversity (IMoSEB), which is looking into the creation of a permanent IPCC-like body to link biodiversity science with decision-makers.

Erica Howard, SAGE PhD candidate, was awarded the UW-Madison TA Exceptional Service Award for her work with the online course "Humans and the Changing Biosphere" and her work to jump-start the diversity group at the Nelson Institute.

Kate Flick was awarded a DAAD graduate fellowship to do a masters in Forest Ecology and Management at the University of Freiburg in Germany (April 2006)

Kate Flick CALS Honors Thesis Fellowship (April 2006)

Kate Flick, SAGE undergraduate student hourly, has been awarded the "Holstrom Environmental Scholarship" to conduct her undergraduate honor thesis research. This award provides a grant of $4,000 to the student and $1,000 to the faculty/staff supervisor to help defray the costs of the research (April 2006)

Bill Sacks "Early Career Scientist Best Poster Award" at the international IGBP-iLEAPS (Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Process Study) meeting in Boulder, for his presentation on analyzing eddy covariance flux tower observations of carbon cycling between ecosystems and the atmosphere (Jan 2006)

Jon Foley Gaylord Nelson Distinguished Professorship (2006)

Julie Vano Fellowship at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC (2005)

Kate Flick Trewartha Undergraduate Honors Research Grant. Kate will conduct her undergraduate honors thesis on "Narratives of Empowerment: American Indians, Corporations, and the Environment in Crandon, Wisconsin" (Nov 2005)

Nina Trautmann won the research presentation competition sponsored by Graduate Women in Science (Madison chapter), talking about her undergraduate research in paleoclimate geochemistry (Nov 2005)

Susanna Ehlers NOAA Hollings Undergraduate Fellowship (2005)

Nick Jelinski Roy F. Weston Graduate Fellowship (2005)

Holly Gibbs The U.S. Department of Energy's Global Change Education Program Graduate Research Environmental Fellowship (GREF) for 3 years. Holly will be using this 3-year fellowship to continue her PhD in Land Resources and her research on tropical deforestation patterns and changes in the global carbon cycle (2005)

Jonathan Patz Aldo Leopold Fellow (March 2005) View the news release

Sarah Olson Roy F. Weston Graduate Fellowship (2004)

Julie Vano Outstanding Student Paper Award, American Geosphysical Union annual meeting (2004)

Holly Gibbs Outstanding Student Paper Award for "Challenges in Estimating Global Tropical Deforestation in the 1980s and 1990s", American Geosphysical Union annual meeting (2004)

Jon Foley (with Marten Scheffer, Carl Folke, Steve Carpenter, and Brian Walker) Ecological Society of America's Sustainability Science Award (2004)

Chad Monfreda Roy F. Weston Graduate Fellowship (2003)

Jeff Cardille Outstanding Student Paper Award, American Geosphysical Union annual meeting (2001)

Kim Nicholas Cahill Graduate Fellowship (2001)

Simon Donner NASA Earth System Science Graduate Fellowship (2001)

Jon Foley Samual C. Johnson Distinguished Fellowship Award (2001)

Congratulations to all!