Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability

Jie Gong joined CSIS and the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife as a visiting scholar. Gong is associate professor at Lanzhou University, China. His research interests are landscape pattern and ecological processes, land use change and its driving forces, land degradation and its control, ecological restoration in arid and semiarid area of China.

The paper "Coupled Human and Natural Systems" was ranked as one of the most read articles in Ambio.

Jack Liu was interviewed by Nature in December.

The 2005 Nature paper "China's environment in a globalizing world" by Jack Liu and Jared Diamond was ranked by the National Science Library of China as one of the top three most highly cited papers in environmental sciences. The National Science Library invited Liu to write an article on the background of the Nature paper.

Vanessa Hull published "Delayed implantation in giant pandas: the first comprehensive empirical evidence" in Reproduction.

Tom Dietz published "Household actions can provide a behavioral wedge to rapidly reduce US carbon emissions" in PNAS.

Human Dimensions of Wildlife published "Evaluating Hunter Support for Black Bear Restoration in East Texas" in November.

CSIS welcomed the following individuals:

• Abigail (Abby) Lynch joined CSIS and the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife as a Ph.D. candidate with a 2009 MSU University Distinguished Fellowship. Lynch also received a 2009 Janice Lee Fenske Excellence in Fisheries Management Fellowship from the American Fisheries Society Michigan Chapter. She is studying fisheries and climate change for her dissertation and also helping the Michigan DNR director’s office implement recommendations from the Governor’s Climate Change Action Council.
  
  
• Mark Rey, former USDA undersecretary for natural resources and environment, to teach a course on environmental advocacy (ANR491). As part of the course, Rey invited a large number of current and former high-level government officials and other distinguished guest speakers from a variety of agencies and organizations to interact with the students and faculty and staff members.
  
  
• Yi Xiao joined CSIS and the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife as a visiting scholar. Xiao is associate professor of the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research interest is GIS and its application in wildlife habitat assessment. She has developed nature reserve information management systems.
  
  
• Chiara Zuccarino-Crowe joined CSIS and the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife as a Ph.D. student with an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and a MSU University Distinguished Fellowship. Zuccarino-Crowe received her bachelor's degree in biology from Boston College. She spent the last several years as a research fellow in the Great Lakes National Program Office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through a program administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. She is focusing on the effectiveness of marine protected areas in fisheries sustainability and an analysis of alternative governance approaches within the Great Lakes fisheries ecosystem as compared to other large marine systems.

PNAS published "Linking social norms to efficent conservation investment in payments for ecosystem services."

"Spatial and temporal patterns of fuelwood collection in Wolong Nature Reserve: Implications for panda conservation" was published in Lanscape and Urban Planning.

Wei Liu and Mao-Ning TuanMu received a US-IALE Student Travel Award to attend US-IALE 2009 in Snowbird, Utah.

Nick Reo received a NASA-MSU Professional Enhancement Award to attend the US-IALE 2009 in Snowbird, Utah.

Vanessa Hull received a William and Evelyn Taylor Scholarship on International Engagement on Coupled Human and Natural Systems.

Neil Carter received a NASA Fellowship.

Ken Frank received a Fulbright Specialist grant to visit the University of Turku in Finland. Frank shared his expertise on social network analysis with the University of Turku in March by teaching a course and providing guidance to graduate students and faculty members.

Wei Liu received the CANR Alumni Association Scholarship and MSU's first place in the first Graduate Academic Conference Showcase Session 2.