Public Research Presentation
Charise Lee Parker
Documenting the Delta: Lessons Learned From Film
MS Thesis Defense
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Guadulupe Room of the SJSU Student Union
Fall Lunchtime Talk Series:
Hugh Gillis Hall, Rm 116
Mondays Noon-1:15
September 19th
Dr. Will Russell - Research presentation:
Preservation and Restoration of Coast Redwood Forests
October 3rd
Dr. Lynne Trulio - Research Presentation:
Conservation of Burrowing Owls in the San Francisco Bay Area
October 10th
Dr. Dustin Mulaney - Research Presentation:
Innovation and Environmental Justice in Solar Energy Commodity Chains
October 24th
Rachel Wilken - MS Thesis Defense:
Feral Cat Management: Public Opinion and Best Management Practices
October 31st
Chandana Rao - MS Thesis Work in Progress:
Tourism and ecological degradation in Developing Countries
November 14th
Dr. Rachel O'Malley - Research presentation:
Topic to be announced
November 21st
Dr. Alex Gershenson - Research presentation:
Soil Carbon in Science and Policy
November 28th
Jennifer Gorospe - MS Thesis Defense:
Soiled Soil: A Case Study of Heavy Metals in San Francisco Gardens
Job Opening
The Department is pleased to announce an opening for an Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy and Science. Click here for a complete description of the requirements for the position and application procedures. Application deadline: December 1, 2011.
ENVS grad student wins Charles Burdick Scholarship
ENVS graduate student Jessica Murphey was awarded the 2011 Charles Burdick Scholarship. Congratulations, Jessica!
Master Thesis Defense:
Vagelis Vossos
Optimizing Energy Savings with Direct DC in U.S. Residential Buildings
Tuesday, May 10, 2011, 12:00-1:15 p.m. in BBC 225 Download flyer
Sustainability Week was a great success
Thanks to all students and faculty who helped with planting of native plants, the Bay to Brakes race and BBQ, the Environmental Club BBQ, and the campus Earth Day celebration! For more details, visit http://erc.thinkhost.net/.
SJSU Wins Water Conservation Award
Thanks to the hard work of ENVS Professor Katherine Cushing, SJSU has significantly reduced its water use and is being awarded a 2011 Silicon Valley Water Conservation Award. For more information, seet http://www.waterawards.org/ or download the award announcement flyer.
SJSU Chicano and Native American Organization Headed by ENVS Grad Student Wins Award
The SACANS, San Jose State University Chapter (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) has won a Chapter of the Year Award. The SJSU chapter is headed by ENVS Grad Student Gizelle Hurtado. Congratulations, Gizelle and SACNAS SJSU! Read more here
ENVS Graduate Program Informational Brochure
ENVS graduate students and Graduate Program Coordinator have produced an informational brochure for prospective graduate students. Download it here.
ENVS Grad Student wins grant, honors
The California Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Justice Small Grants Program has awarded ENVS graduate student Jennifer Gorospe a grant to fund her research proposal "Race, Ethnicity, and Exposure to Heavy Metals by Urban Gardeners." ( Click here to download pdf of the poster )
Ms. Gorospe also received an award as one of the best posters at the California Botanical Society 22nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium which was held at SJSU on February 13th. In addition, she was recently awarded a Douglas
Dockery Thomas Fellowship through the Landscape Architecture Foundation.
New Research by Environmental Studies Faculty
Rachel O'Malley, ES Associate Professor announces the publication of A Picky Palate: The host plant selection of an endangered June beetle. Professor O'Malley's research sheds light on the resource requirements of the endangered Mount Hermon June Beetle (Polyphylla barbata) found only within Zayante soils region of Santa Cruz County, California. O'Malley and her fellow researcher, Kristen. E. Hill Department of Environmental Science & Policy Management, University of California, Berkeley) invesigated the beetle’s host plant selection, habitat association and mating behavior between June 2004 and September 2005.
»Click here to read the article.
Veggielution Groundbreaking
Environment al Studies Grads Break Ground on Veggielution Community Garden
Robin Putney’s Master’s Thesis Chosen as 2009 SJSU Outstanding Thesis!
Robin Putney's Master's thesis, "Customary Marine Tenure and Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Palau," is one of two master’s theses chosen for the Outstanding Thesis of the Year Award at San Jose State University in 2009. This project documented the value of traditional systems of fisheries management to Palauans, and discussed how these systems can be incorporated into Western natural resource management policies. The research is exemplary in its detailed description of previously undocumented natural resource management techniques practiced by the indigenous people of Palau. Additionally, Robin's rigorous application of ethnographic methods to capture information that is rapidly being lost due to the influence of globalization paints a vivid picture of a small island nation’s struggle to preserve two of its most precious assets: its marine resources and its unique ethnic heritage.
[click here to read more]
Anna Le wins Student Organization Presidents Award— Honorable Mention!
Anna Le, an ES undergraduate, was awarded Student Involvement’s Presidents Award—Honorable Mention at the April 29th Student Organization Recognition Banquet for her leadership of the Environmental Resource Center in 2008-2009. Anna has taken the ERC to new levels of activism and effectiveness on campus and we applaud her leadership. Anna also gave the Opening Remarks at the Banquet on Sustainability. Go Anna and congratulations!
ENVS Grad's Project Featured in SJ Mercury
Veggielution, an urban farming project headed by SJSU environmental studies grad Amie Frisch, was recently featured on the cover of the SJ Mercury's Home and Garden section:
Amie Frisch, a recent San Jose State grad who is the project director for Veggielution, calls it a "perfect storm."
"People are afraid of their food," says Frisch, 25, citing food safety issues fueled by tainted spinach and suspect tomatoes in the nation's food supply.
Health-conscious consumers are increasingly wary of commercially grown produce and weary of paying high prices for foods that are grown far away and trucked to market in gas-guzzling semi trucks. And the country's obesity epidemic is causing people to be more conscious of eating fresh, healthy foods.
For Frisch and Medeiros, the Veggielution project is about more than just the joy of harvesting fresh produce to consume and share with others.
Read "Young people cultivate a community through food" at mercurynews.com
ENVS Alumna's Research to be featured in "Environmental Science & Policy"
Congratulations to Davinna Ohlson (MS Graduate 2007) and her coauthors Katherine Cushing, Lynne Trulio, and Alan Levanthal (College of Social Sciences) for succeeding in their publication of Davinna's thesis research on the role of the Nez Perce Tribe in Idaho wolf recovery efforts. The paper, Advancing indigenous self-determination through endangered species protection: Idaho gray wolf recovery, will appear in the August 2008 volume of /Environmental Science & Policy/. Check it out to see the great work our students are doing!
ENVS Grad Student Dipti Vaghela, wins 2008 Switzer Environmental Fellowship
Please join me in congratulating Dipti Vaghela, Master of Science Candidate in the Department of Environmental Studies at San Jose State University, on winning the prestigious 2008 Switzer Environmental Fellowship for her work on grassroots sustainable energy development in India.
"The Fellowship provides a one-year $15,000 cash award for graduate study as well as networking and leadership support to awardees. Switzer Fellows are highly talented professionals who have the ability, determination and integrity to effect positive change as environmental leaders in the 21st century. Only the most active, committed and focused individuals will compete successfully to join the network of over 400 Fellows selected since 1986."
Ms. Vaghela is the second Master of Science student from the Department of Environmental Studies at SJSU to have been awarded this honor since this nationwide Environmental program was founded. Her research focus is on appropriate energy technology in India. For more informatiion vistit Dipti's blog.
Study focuses on visitor's impact on Natural Bridges' tide pools
If you visited Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz at low tide between September 2006 and March of this year, you might have seen a lone park volunteer, clad from head to toe in yellow Gore-tex, purposefully stamping up and down on the rocky flats at the edge of the beach.
Nicole Rucker, an environmental studies graduate student at San Jose State University and volunteer docent at Natural Bridges, tramples the area because she cares. The 65 acre park attracts nearly 1 million visitors yearly, many dedicated tide pool explorers. Rucker wanted to know how all those feet are affecting the tide pool plants and animals.
Read the full article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel
"Veggielution" project brings locally-grown produce to campus eateries
This article in the Spartan Daily details Environmental Studies students' ongoing campaign to bring organic, locally-grown produce to campus eateries. Find out more on the Veggielution web site.