“Live not for Battles Won.
Live not for The-End-of-the-Song.
Live in the along.”
― Gwendolyn Brooks
2014 was a great year for the Gund Community. New programs were launched, climate change became an official research theme, and we received new grants and gifts to support our work. Our research continued to expand with over 70 peer-reviewed articles, one book, and the launch of the Vermont Climate Assessment. Outreach to policy-makers, media, communities, peers, and the general public has interwoven our research into the world. We welcomed new Fellows and Graduate Fellows while saying goodbye to colleagues and our accomplished graduates. Below are a few highlights from the year with links to in-depth news stories, and some exciting things we are looking forward to in 2015.
Hub for transdisciplinary research
2014 was a productive year at the Gund, over 70 peer reviewed articles were published. Taylor, Brendan and Robin released their book, "A Field Guide to Economics for Conservationists," hoping to provide an understanding of economics in a way that will help conservationists safeguard biodiversity. A few publication highlights include: Ernesto’s long standing research on coffee and human well-being which looked at land use, rural livelihoods, and hunger; Bill’s investigation of the impact of forest management on carbon fluxes and carbon market access; Gillian’s look at the impacts of soy markets on land use in Brazil; Joe’s work on whales as nutrient cyclers, invasives, and discovering two new turtles; and Chris’ research on governance and accountability in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Long standing collaborative research resulted in a publication by Jon, Brian, and Ferdinando on ecosystem services and environmental security, and a joint research project with Juan Alvez, Abdon Schmitt, Jon, Josh, and Ernesto on farmers’ perception of the impacts of managed intensive grazing on production and ecosystem services in Brazil.
Those are just a few examples of the work we do at the Gund. While we orbit around four main themes, the research is diverse and broad.
Expanding our understanding and reach
One of our largest announcements of the year was that the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council awarded McGill University, UVM and York University a six-year, $2.5 million grant for the Economics for the Anthropocene. Together with 25 partners and 60 collaborators we will train future leaders in solving transnational problems in policy relevant and community embedded ways. We welcomed the first cohort of PhD students to Gund: Courtney Hammond Wagner, Phoebe Spencer, and Michael Wironen.
Connecting the world to Gund and Gund to the world is an important aspect of our work. We believe in bringing cutting edge researchers to UVM to share their work in ecological economics and sustainability science. This year we co-hosted: Dr. Christopher Golden, who discussed the impacts of environmental change on human health. Dr. David Wilcove braved a massive snowstorm to join us as a UVM Burack Distinguished Lecturer to discuss logging, palm oil and biodiversity. David Bollier presented his latest thoughts on managing the commons and Fernando Funes Aguilar, and Helda Morales and Bruce Ferguson discussed their pioneering work in Agroecology. Eric was instrumental in coordinating Gund’s involvement in the New Economy Week, which had events throughout the week that focused on what it would take to build the economy that works for people, place, and planet. We closed out the fall hosting Dr. Stephen Polasky for his second visit as a UVM James Marsh Professor-at-large. Steve gave a Marsh lecture, a Gund Tea, and completed a collaborative research project with Taylor, Brendan and Insu on ecosystem services in coffee landscapes.
We also sent Gundiees out of Vermont to take courses, attend conferences and conduct research. Joe and Margarita led students from UVM, Duke University and the University of Havana on a week-long atelier in Cuba to learn about coastal-zone policy and tradeoffs in ecosystem services. Jon, Josh, Christopher, Mairi-Jane, Julie and Eduardo presented their research at the 2014 International Society for Ecological Economics conference in Iceland. New Economics for the Anthropocene student, Courtney Hammond Wagner, jumped in with both feet and presented with Asim at the Borders in Globalization Conference in Toronto.
Policy Relevant Work
Gund is committed to developing creative and practical policy relevant solutions that can be implemented for a more sustainable future. National and global reach is critical, but Vermont is part of our DNA and a lot of our policy work this year happened on our home turf. Gillian’s work with her class to create a Vermont Climate Assessment came to fruition and has led to numerous presentations, collaborations, and ideas for future research. Our continued work on the Vermont Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) resulted in a new website, and the announcement that GPI will now be included in the “Vermont Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy”. Chris, Asim and the RACC team found that Vermont residents are willing to pay at least $40 per year to help Lake Champlain, which could raise over $15M per year for water quality efforts. Jon, Joe, and Mairi-Jane completed work with Vermont Fish & Wildlife, and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources on the economics of conservation, which cumulated in a jointly hosted training workshop. Gund joined with the Energy Independent Vermont coalition to call for a carbon tax in Vermont. Finally, Jon and Christopher worked with their undergrad course and Sen. Bernie Sanders to host the first Vermont Youth Climate Summit bringing more than 150 Vermont high school students to UVM to create climate action plans for their high schools.
Accolades
Many of our Fellows and Graduate Fellows won well-deserved recognition for their research, service, and impact this year. Taylor was recognized as one of 137 international Environmental/Ecology researchers on Thomson Reuters’ “Highly Cited Researchers 2014” list. Donna won the 2014 George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award. Chris was awarded a Fulbright to go to the Zoology Department at Colombo University in Sri Lanka in January 2015. Asim was chosen as the 2014 Outstanding Alumnus from the School of Public Policy at Georgia Institute of Technology. Jon was nominated for a New England Emmy for his documentary, "Lake Defenders". Joe was awarded a Sarah and Daniel Hrdy Fellowship in Conservation Biology from Harvard. Gund Graduate Fellows Joan White, Monika Derrien, and Sarah Pears won awards from RSENR for the best MS Research and Scholarship, best PhD Research and Scholarship, and Outstanding Service and Community Engagement respectively.
It’s such a privilege to witness members of our community receiving recognition for their on-going work.
Growth and Goodbyes
At the end of the day, the Gund is about the people. We are fortunate that we have a stellar group of Fellows, Affiliates, Graduate Fellows and Alumni who are committed to transdisciplinary research that matters. In 2014 we've welcomed the following new colleagues to the Gund.
Nancy Mathews joined UVM as the Dean of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. We’re excited to work under the leadership of such a warm, intelligent and thoughtful Dean. Brendan made his triumphant return to Gund as our new Research Associate Professor in human behavior and sustainability. Jill Cunningham became the new Assistant to the Director at Gund, and we love her bubbly competence and awesome Halloween costumes.
New Fellows: Cecilia Danks, Stephanie Seguino, Jennie Stephens, and Christine Vatovek are our latest Gund Fellows, bringing a range of expertise in economics, climate change, community-based management and health.
New Gund Graduate Fellows: Alison Adams, Sarah Coleman, Courtney Hammond Wagner, Alex Helling, Laura Mattison, Elizabeth Palchak, Phoebe Spencer, and Michael Wironen got folded into the mix.
We hosted three visiting scholars, Fei Shen from China, Ihor Soloviy from Ukraine, and David Loew-Beer from Germany.
We also welcomed four new family members this year – they are definitely the cutest folks at Gund. Congratulations to Martha, Joan, Alicia, and Rachel on the births of the next generation.
We were sad to say goodbye to our outstanding Gund Graduate Fellows who are now out in the world striving to build a sustainable future. We wish them well on their next steps and thank them for all they did for Gund: Matt Burke, Sebas Castro, Chester Harvey, Ann Hoogenboom, Gary Johnson, Pooja Kanwar, Jean Lee, Julie Nash, Jennifer Swain, and Joan White.
Looking Ahead
The exercise of looking back is an important one. We can see the seeds we’ve planted for transdisciplinary collaboration, policy-relevant research, and the training of future leaders coming to bear. We are proud of what Gund has accomplished over the past year. We are looking forward to 2015 and seeing all of this great work continue and expand. Some exciting areas include:
Gund PhD Students – We were fortunate this year to receive a gift to support four PhD students, we’re bringing in the first two next year. Students are major catalysts of transdisciplinary research at Gund and we have great expectations for these new community members.
Gund hires a Communications Officer – We are in the process of recruiting a communications officer to help us expand our reach and increase the impact of our work.
2015 will be just as jam-packed as 2014. Our spring atelier will take students to the Atlantic Forest in Brazil and continue to build on the collaboration between Josh and Abdon around Agroecology – work recently supported with a grant from the government of Brazil. We expect exciting outcomes from Brendan’s projects in Behavioral Economics; Brian’s work with the Lake Champlain Basin Program; Gillian’s research to map the impact of climate change on smallholder farmers in Asia; Chris and Asim’s Social Ecological Gaming and Simulation Lab; Ernesto’s passion to assess Agroecology in the Americas; Jon’s push for a carbon tax; Taylor’s continued research on ecosystem services and human health; and Lini’s critical research around agricultural climate change mitigation for smallholders. Not to mention, Gund’s work to make the Johnson House Climate Neutral with support from the UVM Clean Energy Fund. Gund is privileged to be connected with and connecting such an impressive array of people out working to make the world more sustainable.
From all of us at Gund, best wishes for a happy and healthy 2015.
“We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond.” ― Gwendolyn Brooks