Voss Environmental Fellows

Voss leader joins blog carnival on engagement

Heather Leslie — Thu, 02 May 2013 09:45:28 +0000

Voss co director Heather Leslie shared her story of engaged scholarship as part of a blog carnival orchestrated by COMPASS. Read more at the COMPASS blog and Heather’s website. We invite you to join the conversation and comment here or on the COMPASS site or with a blog post of your own!

Congratulations to the Class of 2013!

Heather Leslie — Thu, 02 May 2013 09:42:06 +0000

Voss fellows and affiliates presented their final projects at the UEL in Wednesday, May 1 and welcomed the 2013-2014 fellows to the Voss program. Meet the graduating Voss group and stay connected through our Facebook site, Voss Environmental Fellows at https://www.facebook.com/groups/VossFellows/.

Student op ed on coastal resilience and re building

Heather Leslie — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:21:58 +0000

Congratulations to Lucy Zipf, who published an op ed in New Jersey’s Ashberry Park Press today! Lucy is a member of the Engaged Scholarship and Communication seminar (ENVS 1965) this spring and a Voss Fellows affiliate.

Matson on sustainability science and practice

Heather Leslie — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:20:16 +0000

We were very fortunate to have Dr. Pamela Matson of Stanford University visit with the Voss fellows and other members of Brown’s environmental research community earlier this week. Dr. Matson, who is the Chester Naramore Dean of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, gave a public talk on her decades of research on sustainable agriculture while on campus, and also engaged in an exciting series of conversations with the Voss Fellows and others about the science and practice of sustainability.

Dr. Matson investigates the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and other elements between soil, water, and atmosphere, focusing primarily on the effects of land use and climate change in tropical forest and agricultural systems.

Her recently published book, Seeds of Sustainability, synthesizes much of the science and lessons learned through the placed-based interdisciplinary environmental scholarship she led over the last 15+ years Sonora, Mexico. In addition to conveying the excitement of the scientific discoveries related to biogeochemistry and coupled human-agricultural systems, the edited volume offers invaluable reflections on the opportunities researchers have to engage in use inspired research, and the challenges of working in a context where the goals include not only scientific discovery but also linking knowledge with action.

Learn more…

Information Session 10/18/12 at noon

Downs — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:11:42 +0000

Join us to learn more about Summer 2013 research funding through Voss Environmental Fellows and other undergraduate fellowships on Thurs., October 18 at 12 noon in Room 106 of the Urban Environmental Lab (135 Angell Street, Providence, RI).

Voss Environmental Fellows funds Brown students (rising seniors) to undertake use-inspired research projects during the summer between their junior and senior years. Students receive a $3500 stipend and a research fund to support a project addressing a research question that informs environmental policy or practice. Fellows are co-advised by Brown or Brown-MBL faculty member and the end user of the research, with the goal of producing new knowledge that is both scientifically valid and useful in improving environmental policy or practice.

The program is open to students and faculty from all departments. The application (which is due in February) requires a well-developed project concept, so we encourage applicants to start finding mentors and developing a project early.

OP-ED success

Downs — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:01:37 +0000

Long revisions can be a frustrating process, but Voss Fellow (’12) Kara Kaufman noted the value of pre-writing and re-writing when she alerted us to the publication of the op-ed she began as a class project in ENVS 1965. Her op-ed, Sukkot offers small huts but grand lesson, in which she argues that the modest outdoor sukkah constructed for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot serves as a reminder to limit our reach. Kara’s article appeared this fall in the Jewish Voice and Herald.

Summer Research Symposium

Downs — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 16:26:51 +0000

New info on poster design

Announcing the 2012-2013 Voss Fellows

Heather Leslie — Wed, 09 May 2012 02:29:13 +0000

The Voss Environmental Fellows Program is delighted to announce the seven 2012-2013 fellowship recipients: Natividad Chen, Emma Dixon, Hannah Miles, Rebecca Rast, Mary Alice Reilly, Elizabeth Ryan, and Katherine Siegel. These seven young women, rising seniors at Brown University, will be conducting engaged environmental research projects in collaboration with Brown faculty and community partners in the coming months, with the support of the Voss program.

Additional support for their work will be provided by Brown’s Environmental Change Initiative and Center for Environmental Studies, as well as the Henry David Thoreau Foundation, and Brown’s Dean of the College’s Undergraduate Research & Teaching Awards and the Beckman Scholar Programs.

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Please join us for a celebration of these new fellows and the current cohort on Wednesday, May 9 at 4 pm at the UEL: 135 Angell St., Providence.

Learn more now about the current fellows’ projects

New Video from Voss Fellows

Downs — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:41:25 +0000

In 2012, the fellows tried their hands at video production – a sometimes challenging, but effective medium for communicating with many audiences. Three teams of students developed 90-second videos to capture a message related to their projects, their passions, and their roles as scientist-translators. Take a few minutes to enjoy their products and let us know what you think.

I am a Scientist
Produced by Voss Fellows Carmen Tubbesing, Lee Stevens, Morgan Ivens-Duran, and Veronica Clarkson

Why Do You Care about the Environment?
Produced by Voss Fellows Kara Kaufman, Shae Selix, and Spencer Fields

Save a Shark
Produced by Voss Fellows Marcy Cockrell, Caitlin Brisson, Bridgette Black, and Kara Woo

Voss Fellow publishes op ed on the

Heather Leslie — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 03:12:04 +0000

Voss Fellow Veronica Clarkson (Class of 2012: A.B., Environmental Studies & Economics) published an opinion piece in The Brown Daily Herald on the opportunities to support local agriculture through the Farm Bill.

Working with Prof. Kathy DeMaster, Clarkson has investigated how small-scale agriculture can contribute to ecologically and economically resilient working landscapes.

“Shifting the focus of some of our agriculture subsidies away from mass production to reintegrate small-scale production would demonstrate our country’s commitment to preserving rural livelihoods and environmental protection. The three-pronged or “triple-bottom-line” set of objectives for the Farm Bill that I propose — quality of economy, society and environment — are currently being addressed by small-scale producers. Research like ours is starting to document the factors that help create these triple-bottom-line outcomes. Our work suggests that comparable concentrations of small-scale production could be replicated throughout the country with a modest amount of direct state and government support to groups of producers who demonstrate the potential to produce high quality products on smaller scales.”

- Veronica Clarkson