Profiles / Features

With roots in fieldwork and policy, Olivia Brinks brings a place-based lens to global environmental challenges.

From rural China to New Haven, Keer Zhang draws on lived experience to investigate how urbanization fuels climate risks in a warming world.

Coleman P. Burke Distinguished Visiting Professor Katharine Mach is leading interdisciplinary research efforts to translate climate data and knowledge into tangible action and policy.

William "Bill" R. Burch Jr., a scientist of international renown for his pioneering work in social and community forestry who taught at the Yale School of the Environment for more than four decades, died July 16, 2024. Burch was the founder of the Tropical Resources Institute (TRI) and the Urban Resources Initiative (URI) at YSE, where he brought innovative approaches

Nataliia Lisitcyna and her partner, Dmitry Lisitsyn, have spent decades protecting natural ecosystems and biodiversity on Sakhalin Island off Russia's far eastern shore by pressing for legal restraints on harmful commercial activities including mining and oil, gas extraction. The two are now bringing their formidable experience in conservation work to the Yale School of the Environment.

For the past 18 months, Simon Bunyan '22 MEM has crisscrossed the country, talking with community groups about what they need to implement clean energy solutions. These conversations are part of his work with the Department of Energy’s Justice40 Initiative, which directs 40% of overall federal investments in clean energy, energy efficiency, sustainable housing, and clean water infrastructure into disadvantaged

The divisive nature of U.S. politics often stymies efforts to address the climate crisis. George Gemelas ’18, '21 MEM, however, is working to make climate change a bipartisan issue and foster consensus around market-based policy solutions.

“In my experience, there's a lot of interest by the average citizen, who may happen to be conservative, for pragmatic solutions. That's why I

Lav Kanoi grew up in Kolkata, India, where the Hugli River, a tributary of the Ganges, empties into the Bay of Bengal. The Ganges is widely revered in Indian society, but development and the impacts of climate change are putting pressure on the health of the river at a time when supply and demand for water is at a critical

YSE Class of '24: Sangam Paudel '24 MEM seeks to expand sustainable agricultural systems while conserving biodiversity.

Class of '24: Aishwarya Iyer's focus on the life cycle assessment of energy use in building stock in India led her to a unique discovery — informal and low-income housing units were not represented in the data. She devised a study to test energy-use scenarios in those units, helping to improve representation of building stocks and energy demand projections in

Jane Jacoby grew up in New York City spending a ton of time climbing trees in Central Park and enjoying the nature within the cityscape. Now Jacoby ’24 MF/JD will be using her combined degree in law and forestry to protect natural resources with a goal of putting climate justice front and center in her efforts.

Using computational methods, including causal inference, spatial analysis, sensing, mapping, and related historical work, Arianna Salazar-Miranda studies how policies that shape the built environment affect social and environmental outcomes.

Four college students from New Haven interned this summer in YSE labs through the New Haven Promise program. They contributed research on several projects including a study on accelerating the natural weathering process that sequesters carbon and an examination of the impacts of invasive jumping worms.

After 25 years leading the novel initiative they co-founded, the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology’s Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim will be retiring from teaching this spring, but the field of study they created continues to grow worldwide.

YSE Class of ’23: From drawing to exploring trees, doctoral student Megan Sullivan focuses on logging impacts on tropical forest ecology in Africa.