Achievement

Our IGERT has been institutionalized as the graduate Certificate on Humans and the Global Environment (CHANGE). The CHANGE capstone requires Trainees and Associates to produce useful, collaborative research for an outside or on-campus client. This year a diverse group of CHANGE scholars produced original analytical work for two clients: the Pan-American Health Organization, and the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative. CHANGE training allowed both groups to produce reports that went beyond simple disciplinary analysis. For PAHO, the students examined the public health impacts of oil exploration in the Amazon, expanding their analysis to incorporate both the life cycle of oil exploration and the unique health challenges faced by isolated peoples in the Amazon. For WBI, students revealed not only the technical opportunities for biogas expansion in Wisconsin, but also discussed the way that biogas development could affect issues as diverse as economic development and surface water protection.