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Research News

  • The University of California 2008 Excellence in Achievement award was presented to Ecologist and Geographer, Dr. Lee M. Talbot, "A World-Renowned Environmentalist" for, among other things, pioneering work in developing ecosystem science, establishing an ecosystem basis for conservation, conducting environmental work in 131 countries, and shaping national and international environmental policies and principles. They even mentioned his 60 years of successful auto racing around the world. The award was presented on April 5th at a black-tie Gala in San Francisco.

  • Congratulations to Dr. Carol Litchfield from American Association for the Advancement of Science(AAAS). Dr. Litchfield has been honored for her classic work on microbial ecology and biodegradation, especially halophilic bacteria and for service to industrial microbiology. She has been elected to the rank of AAAS Fellow. Her certificate and rosette were presented to her in Boston on Saturday, Feburary 16, 2008 during teh AAAS Fellows Forum, a part of the Association's Annual Meeting.

  • Congratulations to Nicole Darnall, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, who received the 2008 Academy of Management, Organization and Natural Environment's (ONE) Emerging Scholar Award in recognition for research excellence. Her research received particular recognition because it is published in premier scholarly outlets that span two disciplines - business strategy and public policy. This is the first year ONE has sought nominations for the honor of being named an "emerging scholar" - defined by the organization as being within the first 6 years since receiving their PhD - from colleagues who already are recognized as leaders in ONE-related research.

  • Nicole Darnall received the 2008 Best First Case Award (with Mark B. Milstein) from The Case Association for their teaching case, "Sustainability and environmental standards: seeking competitive distinction at Damai Lovina Villas".

  • Stephen Sides and Dr. Darnall show that corporate voluntary environmental programs don't perform as well as expected. Read more

  • Spreading Al Gore's Message, One Slide at a Time. Read More...

  • Nicole Darnall was awarded a grant from the IBM Center for The Business of Government for her project "Does it Pay to be Green?". The grant of $20,000 will investigate whether the stringency of environmental regulation reduces firm profitability and whether compliance costs can be offset - or eliminated - for firms that reduce their environmental impacts beyond that required by law. The research is intended to learn from the cutting edge practices of private industry with the goal of identifying new ideas and approaches to environmental management and governance that can be shared with the next Presidential Administration.

  • Nicole Darnall received the 2007 Distinguished Paper Award from the Decision Sciences Institute for her paper titled "Stakeholder influences and environmental audit choice". The research was presented in November at the 38th Annual Decision Sciences Institute National Meeting, Phoenix, AZ, and was co-authored with Inshik Seol and Joseph Sarkis.

  • Mason's Herbarium Is a Treasure Trove for Scholars. Snow covers the ground like an icy white veil while the wind howls on a grey February afternoon. But at the Ted R. Bradley Herbarium on the Fairfax Campus, Andrea Weeks has been processing plants she collected from a recent trip to Namibia - where the temperature was more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Read more...

  • In January, Dr Chris Parsons visited the University of Karachi, Pakistan to teach a week long course on marine mammal conservation to students, members of environmental groups and government scientists studying and researching in Pakistan. The course included a field trip into coastal mangroves to look for Indian humpback dolphins and finless porpoises.

  • Andrea Weeks was awarded "Best Paper" in the Biotechnology Section of the 25th Army Science Conference held November 27-30 in Orlando, Florida. The paper, "Discovery and characterization of novel signatures from the Ricinus communis (castor bean) genome" was derived from her post-doctoral research at the US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center during 2004 and was co-authored with Kevin P. O'Connell, Jon A. Leshin, and Evan W. Skowronski.

  • Andrea Weeks was awarded a research grant from the Thomas F. Jeffress and Kate Miller Jeffress Memorial Trust to expand her research in plant systematics. The project, "Evolutionary ecological bases of species diversification in the Cashew (Anacardiacaeae) and Frankincense and Myrrh (Burseraceae) Families" will investigate the correlation of morphological and physiological evolutionary innovations in these plant families with historical changes of global climate. The grant of $20,000 will fund DNA sequencing costs, a meeting of collaborators at the New York Botanical Garden, and a summer research assistantship for an ESP graduate student.

  • Environmental Scientist Quests to Save the Whales, Protect Human Health. Read more...

Grants

  • Nicole Darnallwas awarded a grant from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America, to assess the linkages between environmental sustainability and competitiveness in select North American sectors (with Paul Lanoie and Sephan Vachon).

  • Dr Chris Parsons and Dr Idelisa Bennelly di Calventi (Autonomous University of Santo Domingo and Fundemar) have managed to win two grants to support dolphin research, marine environmental education and ecotourism development in an impoverished region of the Dominican Republic. The project will be conducted primarily by Dominicans through the Amigos de los Delfines project, although several ESP students are assisiting with research aspects of the program. The two main grants were from the International Development Bank (US$105,000) and the White Water to Blue Water Initiative, National Marine Sanctuary Foundation ($26,000) together with supporting funding from Humane Society International and the World Society for Protection of Animals (US$19,000) that helped with the set up and initiation of the Amigos de los Delfines project.

  • Dr. Patrick Gillevet, Environmental Science and Policy, GMU with Jeff Shields at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, College of William and Mary received a $225,000 Sea Grant for "Etiological and Mortality Studies into Epizootic Shell Disease of the American Lobster (Homarus Americanus)". This is a multi-faceted study on the etiology and pathogenicity of epizootic shell disease in the American lobster. The primary objective is to determine if the microbial communities on lobsters with epizootic shell disease are different from those on healthy lobsters and to determine if the associated microbial community is responsible for lesion formation. The project is for two years and funding will support one GRA at GMU and one GRA at William and Mary.

  • Dr. Ahn and Dr. Jones are currently working to establish a permanent wetland mesocosm compound and ecological observatory area in the west campus of GMU. More background info can be found on this poster. The facility support teaching and research activities throughout the campus in the long term. In addition, the facility will open up  to the public on a regular basis throughout the study to present and share the knowledge being garnered from research work. The establishment of the outdoor field experimentation site like this would need support from all faculty members and students in ESP.

  • Dr. Mark Krekeler acquired a $50,000 contract to investigate clay mineral deposits in Florida. Funding is from Clear Springs. The work will center on mineral identification, aspects of chemical composition, and transmission electron microscopy. The goal of the project is to explain the variation of physical properties of the materials for long term managment. Cynthia Tselepis, Misha Samsonov, Julie Morton and Jill Lepp all GMU undergraduates will be working on the project.

Publications

  • Dr Chris Parsons (with Claire Howard, Edinburgh University) published a paper on "Attitudes of scottish city inhabitants to cetacean [whale and dolphin] conservation" in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation (Vol 15, pp 4335-56). The study interviewed members of the public in Scotland's largest cities and found that of the various threats to cetacean conservation, the public were most concerned with the impacts of oil spills, sewage and chemical pollution. Indeed, they were more concerned about these issues than an interviewed group of cetacean scientists and conservationists. It was also found that both women, and older members of the public, were more concerned about whale and dolphin conservation. Nearly eighty percent of the general public stated that they would like to see more marine envionmental education in Scottish schools, and a similar percentage stated they would like to see stronger protection for Scotlands whales and dolphins such as a Whale and Dolphin Conservation Act for Scotland. Forty percent even said that taking a strong, pro-whale and dolphin conservation stance would even make them more likely to vote for a politician in elections.

  • Dr Chris Parsons has published two articles on whalewatching in the journal Tourism in Marine Environments. The first article (with Claire Howard, Public awareness of whale-watching opportunities in Scotland. Tourism in Marine Environments 2: 103-109) describes the potential domestic whalewatching market in Scotland and determines there is great potential for growth in this already lucrative wildlife tourism activity. The second article, written with GMU graduate student Jill Lewandowski and Michael Luck, is a review of recent studies completed in the field of whalewatching research and research trends in this area (Recent advances in whalewatching research: 2004-2005. Tourism in Marine Environments 2: 119-132)