News and Events Featured News Planetary Health from the Ground Up: Co-creating a Wellbeing Economy in Vermont and Beyond UVM's Walter Poleman to Join U.N. Biodiversity Conference What is Planetary Health? Dr. Marie C. Vea Receives Award for Inclusive Excellence Introducing UVM's First Presidential Doctoral Fellows Events The Rubenstein School community hosts and participates in many in-person, virtual, and hybrid events throughout the year. Rubenstein School Event Calendar Rubenstein School Newsletters ecoNEWS Vermont More News 09/23/2024 UVM Awarded $2.7M for National Climate Measurements Center of Excellence Temperature, precipitation, wind speed—the U.S. government has plenty of ways to measure our climate. But how do we measure the impacts of climate on our communities, economies, and ecosystems? The new Climate Measurements Center of... 09/20/2024 How to Love a Forest Ethan Tapper '12, an alumnus of the Rubenstein School's forestry program and a current graduate student, released his book How to Love a Forest, earlier this month. In his book, Ethan asks readers what it means to live in a time when... 09/19/2024 A Man for All Seasons On Friday September 13, 2024, the Rubenstein School hosted an intimate gathering at the George D. Aiken Center to honor Jarlath O’Neil-Dunne, who passed away on January 6, 2024. The gathering was a ceremonial unveiling of two stands of Paper birch trees that frame the first... 09/12/2024 Saving "Bills": A Summer Spent with Loons Rubenstein School students spend their summers in countless ways: some take courses, some conduct research, other travel, work, or simply relax and recharge between semesters. Not many students spend the summer living in almost complete solitude down a dirt road in a house with no service or... 09/05/2024 A Warm Welcome from Peter We’ve just completed the second week of classes here at UVM! We are so glad to have students, faculty, and staff back on campus, and I’m excited to get to know everyone as the semester continues. As you may know, I’m new in this position—I started my work as dean in July... 08/20/2024 When the Ice is Gone: What a Greenland Ice Core Reveals About Earth’s Tumultuous History and Perilous Future In his new book, When the Ice is Gone: What a Greenland Ice Core Reveals About Earth’s Tumultuous History and Perilous Future, Paul Bierman, geoscientist and Professor in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont (UVM), drills into the... 08/19/2024 The Captain and Crew of the R/V Marcelle Melosira If you were to walk along the path at Waterfront Park on an August morning in Burlington, VT, you would no doubt see a flurry of early-rising exercisers, visitors enjoying coffee and crepes, and bike/scooter/rollerblade commuters on their way to work. But you might overlook the quiet bustle of... 07/25/2024 Burlington’s Riverside Avenue Faces Ongoing Landslide Risk: UVM Study At least 20 times in the past 70 years, part of the hill by Burlington’s Riverside Avenue has tumbled into the Winooski River, according to new UVM research. With structures atop the unstable slope, it’s just a matter of time before the next landslide, with the potential for property and... 06/06/2024 Taking Flight Two weeks ago, we concluded the Spring semester by celebrating the nearly 200 seniors who graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. We were thrilled to welcome back two-time alumna... 06/05/2024 Setting the Table: Alumna Dr. Rebecca Stanfield McCown Encourages Graduates to Build Diverse Support Networks Alumna Dr. Rebecca Stanfield McCown MS ’06 and PhD ’11, returned to the University of Vermont (UVM) campus on May 19 to share advice with the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources graduating class of 2024 at UVM Commencement Weekend. Rebecca is a two-time alumna,... 06/05/2024 Gone Fishin’: Ellen Marsden Retires after 26 Years with the Rubenstein School Dr. J. Ellen Marsden, Professor of Fisheries Biology, retired from the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont (UVM) in May 2024. She was celebrated for her countless contributions to UVM and the state of Vermont at a ceremony during the spring... 06/03/2024 Clare Ginger Retires After 30 Years of Leadership and Teaching in the Rubenstein School Dr. Clare Ginger, Associate Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, received the distinction of Emerita from the University of Vermont (UVM) in May 2024. After 30 years of dedicated teaching and leadership in the Rubenstein... 05/31/2024 Adrian Ivakhiv Retires, Leaving a Legacy of Interdisciplinary Scholarship Dr. Adrian Ivakhiv, Professor of Environmental Thought and Culture in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and Fellow in the Gund Institute for Environment, retired from the University of Vermont (UVM) in May 2024. During his 21 years at UVM Adrian had a great impact on his... 05/24/2024 UVM Researchers Help Shape First National Nature Assessment Taylor Ricketts, Director of UVM’s Gund Institute for Environment, and Rachelle Gould, a professor in UVM’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, have been selected to serve as chapter author and chapter lead, respectively, for the first-ever U.S.... 05/20/2024 UVM Student Creates Roadmap For a Bee-Friendly Campus Erin Camire ’24 picked up their diploma last week as a newly minted forestry graduate from the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. They will leave behind a legacy that positions UVM to have more pollinator-friendly landscaping, a specific goal laid out in the university’s... 05/19/2024 The F.T. Kidder Medal: Soham Mehta The F.T. Kidder Medal is presented to the senior student who best exemplifies the qualities of character, leadership, and scholarship. It is named in honor of Fred T. Kidder, a graduate of the class of 1880 and the College of Medicine in 1883, who later served on the University of... 05/16/2024 Saying Yes to Opportunities, at Home and Abroad Cole ZuWallack ’24, a Parks, Recreation and Tourism (PRT) major, was travelling to Auckland, New Zealand for his semester abroad when the unthinkable happened: the pilot came over the loudspeaker and told the passengers that... 05/15/2024 Senior Spotlights: Class of 2024 The entire Rubenstein School community is so proud of the Class of 2024. Over 150 seniors will earn their diplomas on Sunday May 19th, and while the journey hasn't been easy (this class started their first year in the fall of 2020, after all), these students have made the most of their... 05/10/2024 Trusting the Process: How Gus Lunde '24 Leaned into his Passions for Biking and Birding to Design an Honors College Thesis On April 30, a group of students, faculty, staff, and community members gathered in the Aiken Center to watch Gus Lunde ’24 present his Honors College thesis seminar. Gus has been working toward this culminating event for nearly two years, and his thesis is the result of many early mornings of... 04/25/2024 Introducing the Planetary Health Initiative Consider your breath. In that inrush of air you bring oxygen to your lungs, keeping you alive. It’s the same air that covers the whole planet—oxygen produced by green life. The intricate interplay that we call the environment is not scenery; it’s the fundamental health care system. ... 04/24/2024 Community Building In and Out of the Classroom Juliana Ward ’24, an Environmental Studies (ENVS) major and economics minor, is a member of the second to last cohort of students to earn their B.S. degrees in Environmental Studies from the Rubenstein School. The program migrated to the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) in the fall of 2022.... 04/19/2024 Mieder, Rubenstein to Receive Honorary Degrees at UVM’s 2024 Commencement At the 2024 University of Vermont Commencement Ceremony on Sunday, May 19, philanthropist Beverly Rubenstein and Wolfgang Mieder, UVM distinguished professor emeritus of German and Folklore, will receive honorary degrees. Mieder and Rubenstein embody the values of UVM’s Our Common... 04/17/2024 UVM PhD Students Lead International Team in Carbon Flux Research Amelia (Mia) McReynolds is a third-year PhD student in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont (UVM). As an ecologist studying fish population dynamics in the Great Lakes, McReynolds didn’t imagine research abroad would be a part of her graduate... 04/17/2024 Scientists Discover Forests That May Resist Climate Change While it’s common knowledge that mountaintops are colder than the valleys below, a new University of Vermont (UVM) study is flipping the script on what we know about forests and climate. The study, published in Ecology... 04/11/2024 Americans More Willing to Pay for Climate Action After Extreme Weather People who personally experience extreme climate events, especially wildfires and hurricanes, are willing to pay significantly more for climate action, even if they report skepticism about human-caused climate change, finds new research from the University of Vermont. Trump voters who...