Faculty

In an address held at YSE on Monday, January 23, Nyeema C. Harris, Knobloch Family Associate Professor of Wildlife and Land Conservation, paid tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of impactful systems change using the principals of ecology as an analogy.

How to balance shared stewardship, co-management, and tribal sovereignty to protect and sustain more than 100 million acres of Indigenous lands in the U.S.  is a fundamental question in conservation. Pat Gonzales-Rogers, a former director and current consultant for the Bears Ears Coalition, has brought his deep experience on these issues to the Yale School of the Environment this year. 

The world’s wildlife populations have declined by almost 70% in the last 50 years as their habitats have been cleared by humans and polluted. Yet, animals play a crucial role in reforestation, a new study published in The Royal Society journal Philosophical Transactions has found.

YSE faculty members Mark Bradford, Karen Seto, Peter Raymond and Anthony Leiserowitz were recognized by Clarivate Analytics for their published research papers being among the most cited in their field.

Paulo Brando, an internationally recognized expert of tropical ecosystems, joins the Yale School of the Environment. His research explores the causes of deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon and the associated consequences to climate, ecological stability, and the potential future pathways of forests.

A team of YSE-led researchers have now solved a 100-year-old paleontology mystery: How did ancient plants emerge from swamps and riverbanks to new habitats with limited access to water?

A YSE-led study details the severe degradation and deforestation caused by gold mining in tropical forests, as well as the biophysical challenges associated with effectively restoring these landscapes.

As the debate about healthy forests, logging, and climate change gets more heated, The Forest School's Mark Bradford and Joe Orefice explain why cutting trees, when done appropriately, can lead to more resilient forests while yielding renewable forest products.

A new YSE-led analysis identifying gaps in maps that help forecast range contractions for African species found that all species studied have a portion of their range at risk.

Dr. Sparkle Malone, whose research focuses on disturbance regimes and how they alter the structure and functions of ecosystems, has joined the YSE faculty as an assistant professor.

From clean electricity investment credit to funding to restore coastal ecosystems, YSE faculty offer insight into how the Inflation Reduction Act may help us meet urgent environmental challenges — and where there’s still work to be done.

To spur decarbonization, governments must move beyond the myths surrounding public investment in clean energy that discourage the use of public funds.

YSE’s Rob Klee, former Commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, examines the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision limiting the EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. 

YSE Associate Dean for International Engagement Gordon Geballe is retiring after a nearly 50-year affiliation with the School and Yale. He is known for always keeping students at the center, his ability to build community and befriend everyone in the room, and his dedication to New Haven.

The United States is among four nations projected to fall far short of the net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target established by the 2021 Glasgow Climate Pact — with over 50% of global emissions expected to come from the U.S., China, India, and Russia by 2050.