the monitoring plan. Scheduled for production in summer 2010, Part 2 will document rain garden installation, which will entail a frenzied pace of design, excavation and planting. Mark Pedelty, an IonE resident fellow and an associate professor in the U of M’s College of Liberal Arts, has received a grant from the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District to support Part 2, in addition to funding from the IonE.
Inspiration to Application In fiscal 2009, the IonE’s Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment invested nearly $6.3 million in 28 research projects. Close to $900,000 in additional matching funds are earmarked for projects that could bring another $13.6 million to the U of M and its partners. Check out IREE’s 2009 Annual Report to see how we’re advancing the development of economically and environmentally beneficial renewable energy systems. environment.umn.edu/iree
Big Questions How do we feed the world without destroying it? That’s the first topic we tackle in the IonE’s new Big Question video series. Watch “Feast or Famine,” share with other inquiring minds—and look for our next installment: Have we pushed Earth past the tipping point?
recipients of the McKnight Land-Grant Professorships for his research on “Googling the Planet: Robotic Sensor Networks for Environmental Monitoring.” Congrats!
Feast or Famine received more than 7,000 views in its first two months on YouTube.
Academic Accolades
With the help of some high-status awards, two IonE resident fellows are taking their research to the next level. Regents Professor Peter Reich (pictured) won this year’s BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge award in ecology and conservation biology. Reich, of the U of M’s Department of Forest Resources, was honored for his work in global metabolic plant ecology. And Ibrahim Volkan Isler, an assistant professor in the U of M’s Department of Computer Science & Engineering, is among the 2010-12
“Throughout North America, there are many examples of colonial and fish-eating birds having reproductive problems or developmental problems as a result of exposure to toxic chemicals.”
“Agricultural expansion from land clearing, an increase from meat and livestock emissions, and from heavier nitrogen fertilization, will all contribute greatly to global greenhouse gas release in a way that, right now, is barely part of the discussion.” DAVID TILMAN Food, Energy and Global Climate: Solving the Trilemma (10.14.09)
DEBORAH SWACKHAMER Fixing our Toxics Problem: Ivory Tower or White Castle? (10.21.09)
“After 35 days, we had nine meters of mud to our name—and the possibility of a complete and utter failure.” TOM JOHNSON Mud in the Eye of the Beholder: Unraveling Climate Past and Future in the African Tropics (11.11.09)
MOMENTUM
WINTER 10
3