University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

A passionate speaker, author, poet, ecologist and cancer survivor, Steingraber received her doctorate degree in 1989. The internationally recognized biologist was on the Ann Arbor campus in April 2011 to receive the Athena Award from the U-M Alumnae Council, an affiliate of the Alumni Association. The award honors alumnae who have achieved outstanding recognition in their field. Professor John Vandermeer introduced his former student, who he describes as intense, serious, and concerned with questions of environmental justice as well as an incredible writer, poet and inspirational speaker. He's impressed with her focus on what she calls "cancer abolitionism" regarding the toxic chemicals we put into the environment that are strongly implicated in seriously damaging human health.

Steingraber's newest book, "Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis," is "at once a call to action and a poignant meditation on the simple joys of motherhood." Previous books include "Having Faith: An Ecologist's Journey to Motherhood" and "Living Downstream: An Ecologists' Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment," now the subject of an award-winning documentary film. Steingraber received the Rachel Carson Leadership Award from Chatham College, was named one of "25 visionaries who are changing your world" by the Utne Reader, and was named a Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year. She lectures on many college campuses and at medical schools, is a visiting scholar at New York's Ithaca College and is a columnist and contributing editor at Orion magazine. She and her husband, Jeff, have two children, Elijah and Faith, ages 9 and 12.

Steingraber reminisced about her days in what was then the Division of Biological Sciences and especially her time in the labs of Professors Beverly Rathcke and Vandermeer. "Beverly's lab was always such a warm and welcoming place," she said. "Not only did we do really good science, it was a lab where people cared for each other. I always thought of Beverly as a kind of gardener, she looked at all of her students and could figure out what soil was the best for each student. She gave us the conditions we needed to thrive."

"John's lab was just as welcoming, but different than Beverly's," she said. "It was run as almost a kind of collective or cooperative. Journals were exchanged, so I had access to a lot of literature. People were always coming and going to Central America, so they brought a global focus on ecology. It was more political in John's lab."

Both elements that Steingraber calls her "stock and trade," she said she learned as John's graduate assistant and teaching his classes.

"There are two challenges in presenting science to the general public and John's very adroit at overcoming both," Steingraber said. "Often, people are either indifferent to science or scared of it. Getting them past that is one art, by knowing how to bring not just plain spoken English to complex biology, but to tell a story where there's a mystery to understand and resolve." She learned how to start out with human drama and then move into the science from her former professor.

"The other challenge is that there's a grief we all feel about the destruction of the planetary ecosystem and it's so profound that we turn away from the evidence because nobody wants to feel despair." Vandermeer's optimism of focusing on the many research studies that show such promise for the world has colored Steingraber's world view rosier, helping her to see hope for the future.

If Steingraber had a solitary message to impart to graduate students today, it would be that it's not enough to do the research; they have to be the advocates and champions for their own research. "You might think that if you do the research that it's someone else's job to take that research to make policy out of it. There's nobody coming (she laughed), and so you can publish all you want but it's just going to sit in an electronic shelf somewhere. If your research is showing that owls are disappearing because we're cutting down the nut-bearing trees that the rodents depend on, you're the one who's going to have to give the congressional briefing on that.

"There's a real joy in advocating for what you care about. I don't think it's true that there's a conflict between being objective and being an advocate. Advocacy doesn't mean you can't objectively analyze statistical data. Advocacy comes after the analysis. That's just part of being a citizen."

What does Steingraber appreciate the most about her career? "I still get to analyze data and yet I also have this public voice. I have the opportunity to tape the "Living on Earth" show, or give a lecture before the Environmental Protection Agency, or brief Congress, or speak at the European Parliament and bring insights of science and ecology into the room where decisions are being made. I guess you would call that speaking truth to power, but there's something else that I do that is even more meaningful to me. I call it speaking truth to powerlessness, which is when I get an invitation on a Friday night to a church basement in a community that is on the tail pipe end of the toxic chemicals, on the front lines. I feel really lucky when I have the opportunity to give them the basic science that they might need to make their case for change."

Her main message overall is that "what we love, we must protect. Happily, that protection is doable. I have yet to be confronted with an environmental problem that is unthinkable. It's a matter of demanding that green solutions and ingenious innovations be brought forward into the mainstream. Environmentalism isn't about doom and gloom. It's the innovations, it's the way forward."

Find out more at www.steingraber.com

Pictured: Sandra Steingraber with her daughter, Faith.

Eickhoff received his bachelor's of science degree in biology and anthropology in 2003 and has just begun working as an advisor on climate and forestry with the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in Laos. Previously, he worked in Indonesia.

He describes his career as "one part highly technical forest ecology, one part economics and one part cultural anthropology. Combine those with negotiations within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change within developing countries and you've got my field in carbon forestry," he said.

Eickhoff works in an emerging field called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) -- a hot topic nationally and internationally. The premise is simple, he explained. Deforestation drives greenhouse gas emissions and reduces our global capacity to store atmospheric CO2 in our forests. Reducing deforestation will reduce potential CO2 emissions. By quantifying how much CO2 we avoid from being released, say in tons of atmospheric CO2, those reductions can become a commodity, called carbon credits, which can be purchased on an international carbon market by governments or companies looking to reduce emissions. Proceeds then fund the forest conservation activity and the development of rural villages in forest areas.

"For the first time we have at least one way of valuing standing forests and everything within them. A forest area, simply by existing and being actively protected, generates its own funding for sustainable conservation. If we do it right, meaning that we protect indigenous rights and biodiversity, it will be nothing short of revolutionary. If we can make this work, it will turn the conservation world on its head, but it's hard, very hard."

Globally, two things must happen with respect to the mitigation of climate change, he cautioned. We must reduce overall emissions at home, and reduce the rate of deforestation around the equator.

In Laos, the GTZ has partnered with the Laos Department of Forestry to help them design their national legal system for REDD and design and implement REDD projects in two national parks.

Eickhoff spends about half his time wearing nice clothes in the Department of Forestry advising on regulations and the other half out in forests with his machete measuring trees. "I find this to be a happy balance."

He is a partner and senior associate of Forest Carbon, Indonesia. Forest Carbon is a one-of-a-kind technical consulting firm in Asia. "We own a plane and fly aerial surveys of forest cover, measure carbon stocks, estimate emission levels from deforestation and help design, develop and implement projects.

Two personalities stand out from his days as a Wolverine. "Professor Michael Wynne was at first a professor, then a mentor, then became a close and long lasting friend who kept up to date on my progress and kept me in line." Professor Bill Fink launched Eickhoff's interests in phylogenetic systematics and gave him a job working in the U-M Museum of Zoology Fish Division.

Outside of work, he's trying to start the first Laos National Ultimate Frisbee Team and prepare them to compete against his old Indonesian team in the Southeast Asian Nusantara Cup.

By the way, when tying the logging machinery with vines didn't work, those local forest villagers stole the equipment overnight and parked it on a village soccer field. After that, the loggers decided to leave them alone.

Dr. Evans is working in Professor Don Scavia's lab in the School of Natural Resources and Environment. Her work, and that of much of the lab, focuses on the ecology of aquatic productivity. In addition to the examination of Great Lakes phytoplankton productivity in her current paper, she focuses on computer simulation modeling of hypoxia and anoxia (low or no oxygen, respectively) in coastal areas, estuaries, and the Great Lakes.

"Areas of hypoxia and anoxia, commonly known as 'dead zones' are harmful to animals that live near the bottom of these waterbodies," she wrote. "They also disrupt fishing and thus impact coastal economies. In addition to providing insight into the causes and mechanisms of hypoxia, our models are used to forecast the extent of hypoxia for both current conditions and various management scenarios, thus supporting informed decision making by managers and the public."

Andrews lives in Ada, Mich., near Grand Rapids, with his wife, Alice French Andrews. She has her M.D. from U-M, did her fellowship in neonatology at U-M and is now retired. Andrews attended the EEB's Early Career Scientists Symposium and found it interesting. "Experimental evolution appears to be a young field," he observed. They have two daughters, one is an emergency medicine physician in Grand Rapids and the other has a Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii in genetics and evolutionary biology, studying habitat and population genetics of the Hawaiian spinner dolphin. She is looking for a postdoctoral fellowship in genetics/ecology/evolution.

“I really enjoyed my GSI experience, especially the challenge to explain complex ideas in several different ways, in order to accommodate the different learning style of my students," Luzynski said. "I received positive feedback from students on this, and because I think science is exciting, I try to teach in an exciting way, and to try to make the excitement of learning new things contagious so students will want to continue their knowledge.”

At one time, Luzynski felt he had been at a disadvantage educationally, having gone to a small rural school district with a graduating class of 50 students, no AP courses, one foreign language option, and almost no diversity, compared to the educational experience of many of the students he met at U-M. So, he got involved with two groups on campus: the Michigan Education Reform Committee, and the Detroit Partnership. In MERC, a group of mostly School of Education students discussed the many facets of what makes an effective educator, and gave each other suggestions on how to improve their teaching. He volunteered three hours a week at a Detroit public elementary school with the Detroit Partnership, helping kids with technology and using interactive reading programs.

Luzynski felt his impact was making a difference and he realized how comparatively fortunate he was to have received the education he did. “And because that experience was challenging, rewarding, and fun all at the same time, I became more interested in the possibilities through Teach for America,” he said.

The award was given by the World Future Council, a group including eminent scholars and activists such as Frankie Lappé and Vandana Shiva. The Food Security Program is recognized as the world’s most comprehensive policy that tackles hunger immediately and secures a healthy and affordable food supply for all.

Chappell was interviewed during the consideration process for this award and Frances Moore Lappé, who is on the World Future Council, read his dissertation and wrote an article on Belo Horizonte prior to the award. Chappell helped connect the council with people on the ground in Belo Horizonte, including the video host who is the niece of Rodrigo Matta Machado, Chappell’s mentor in Brazil and a member of his Ph.D. committee.

Based in Hamburg, Germany, the World Future Council "aims to be an ethical voice for the needs and rights of future life." It proposes to provide decision-makers with effective policy solutions to some of the most pressing environmental, social, and economic global challenges of today.

The Future Policy Award celebrates policies that have proven to have a positive effect on the rights of future generations and that can be applied in other countries or regions around the world. The aim of the award is to raise global awareness for these exemplary policies and speed up policy action towards just, sustainable and peaceful societies. The Future Policy Award is the first award that celebrates policies rather than people on an international level. Future Policy Award YouTube video: Belo Horizonte / Award ceremony video

In other news, Chappell and an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) student re-wrote his paper "Food security and biodiversity: can we have both? An agroecological analysis." Originally Chappell’s preliminary paper, it became the first chapter of his dissertation. The paper has been published in Agriculture and Human Values.

And the very latest news is that Chappell has accepted a tenure-track position as assistant professor of Environmental Science and Justice, in the School of Earth and Environmental Science, at Washington State University, Vancouver, beginning July 1, 2010. He will be working with John Bishop (B.S., Biology, 1986) and another of his other new colleagues attended Bowdoin College with Shannon McCauley (Ph.D. EEB 2005) and has worked with Stacy Philpott (Ph.D. EEB 2004). Small world!

“We focus on the fluxes of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), carbon, and energy between the land, water, and atmosphere. In the field we sample water from the streams, lakes, and soils in the surrounding areas and analyze them to determine their chemical composition. This year (2009) we have additional projects including studying the recovery and chemical/energy fluxes of one of the largest known tundra fires, studying the potential effects from thermokarsts (areas of melting permafrost and slumping/subsidence of the land) on the ecosystem, and investigating the microbial diversity and distribution in lakes and streams across the North Slope. All in all, it's a busy summer,” she wrote.
  
She received her master’s degree from the University of Arizona in hydrology where she studied the biogeochemical cycling and catchment hydrology in the Valles Caldera National Preserve, N.M.

Photo: Kostrzewski touching an aufeis, which is different from a glacier because it melts completely over the summer.