Environmental Studies

Brant Touchette, professor of biology and environmental studies, served as a National Panelist for the College Board in Newtown, Pa.

Many people don’t think twice about water, or how new roads, parking lots and buildings to accommodate a growing population can harm water quality. As Elon University senior Samuel Shoge discovered in Alamance County, more asphalt and concrete means more pollution in local streams and lakes, and his work is the latest to be featured in a series of E-net profiles on undergraduate research to be presented during CELEBRATE! 2011.

Millions of people on April 22 celebrated Earth Day, a program started in 1970 to raise awareness of the environment and the impact of human activity on the planet. Jeffrey Coker, an associate professor of biology, shares the history of Earth Day while offering ideas to consider in the latest in a series of videos where Elon University faculty members share their research and classroom expertise.

David Vandermast, assistant professor of Biology and Environmental Studies, chaired the Southeast Chapter of the Ecological Society of America business meeting in Huntsville, AL last Friday.

About 300 middle and high school students are expected to come to Elon University Thursday, March 24 to participate in this year’s annual Envirothon competition.

Two Elon University students have been named finalists for a 2011 Truman Scholarship, a prestigious national fellowship awarded each year to college juniors with goals of working in education, government, the nonprofit or advocacy sectors, or elsewhere in public service.

Elon University senior environmental studies major Sam Shoge received a statewide award for innovative undergraduate research using Geographic Information Systems at the 2011 North Carolina GIS conference held this month at the Raleigh Convention Center.

Janet MacFall, of the Dept. of Environmental Studies, has been elected to the National Board for Professional Certification of the Ecological Society of America.

Elon University has been included in the National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology 2010 campus sustainability case studies, the only database of its kind in the United States to highlight campus climate and sustainability efforts ranging from recycling and energy efficiency to alternative transportation systems and green jobs training programs.