Profiles / Features

When he was a student at F&ES, Gerald Bright decided that he wanted to do work that made a difference on the ground level. Five years later, he's doing just that in his native Philadelphia.

While most researchers spend their lives honing in on their academic niche, Gary Machlis ’79 Ph.D. has spent his working in an array of disparate fields.

After spending nearly two decades introducing travelers to some of the world’s most beautiful places, Robert Powell came to Yale to study how tourism and other informal educational experiences can inspire people to connect with — and protect — the natural world.

Frances Beinecke ’71 B.A. ’74 M.F.S., who returns to F&ES this semester as the 2015 McCluskey Fellow, has been at the forefront of many environmental fights. And if she has learned anything it's that the battle is never easy – and it’s never really over.

Heather Coleman '04 M.E.M., who will receive the inaugural “Prospect Street Award” during Reunion Weekend for contributions from a recent F&ES graduate, joined Oxfam America a decade ago to engage climate change from a human perspective. “Climate change is not an environmental issue,” she says. “It’s a social issue.”

During a recent trip to a research center in central Kenya, three F&ES faculty members — including Dean Indy Burke — discovered the potential for long-term collaboration that could re-shape the experience for the next generation of F&ES students and scholars.

For nearly two decades, former F&ES classmates Jennifer Greenfeld and Bram Gunther have worked to strengthen nature’s role in an unlikely setting: New York City, where restored salt marshes, healthy forests, and 1 million newly planted trees have given the Big Apple an ecological makeover.

Eleanor Stokes PhD ’18 has been named one of Geospatial World’s 50 Rising Stars for her work on Black Marble, NASA’s first nighttime light dataset, which provides insights on human settlements and the interactions between urban activities and the environment.

A decade ago, the Forests Dialogue, an F&ES-based initiative that promotes dialogue between stakeholders in forest regions, ventured into a region of northwest Russia. In the years since, the Komi Dialogue has developed into an ongoing, multi-stakeholder platform that has served as a powerful convening tool.

Edgar Hertwich, who helped transform the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) into a leading global institution in the study and teaching of industrial ecology, joins the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) this semester as professor of industrial sustainability.

Matthew Kotchen, a Professor of Economics at F&ES, has been appointed the School’s Associate Dean of Academic Affairs.

Ingrid C. “Indy” Burke, an accomplished ecosystem ecologist and director of the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming, has been appointed the 16th Dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

An “urban parklet” designed by an F&ES student in New Haven’s Fair Haven neighborhood has converted a series of parking spaces into a public “ecological classroom,” connecting the neighborhood with urban nature in a whole new way.

In another man’s biography, Spencer Beebe’s backcountry exploits might warrant some celebrity. For Beebe ’74 M.F.S., they warrant footnotes.

Marlyse Duguid ’10 M.F. ’16 Ph.D. has been appointed the first Thomas G. Siccama Lecturer in Environmental Field Studies, a new endowed position that emphasizes the teaching of field studies and ecology.