The School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability congratulates our newest cohort of doctoral graduands.
We are pleased to announce that four new faculty have taken up positions in SERS in the past year. We welcomed Dr. Felicitas Egunyu (August 2022), Dr. Helena Shilomboleni (September 2022), Dr. Chantel Markle (January 2023) and Dr. Leah Jones-Crank (July 2023).
Dr. Kelsey Leonard's WAMPUM Lab partnered with the Collaboratory for Indigenous Data Governance to co-develop a report to the UN to prioritize Indigenous Peoples in the digital ecosystem. Their submission indicates principles and actions that can be taken to achieve the goal of an open, free and secure digital future for all. It employs the CARE principles, which are well-established in the open data movement.
Yesterday, the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability will celebrate the remarkable accomplishments of our 2023 graduates. Among this group of individuals are four doctoral (PhD) graduands, who have proven their extraordinary level of academic aptitude and become subject-matter experts in areas such as environmental policy, ecological restoration, and politics and practice of sustainability.
Kelsey Leonard, along with an international group of Indigenous researchers, has offered a definition of Water Back for Water research. Water Back means the return of Water and kin to Indigenous governance in a way that empowers the resurgent Indigenous Water relationships that are integral to Indigenous cultural, biological, spiritual and political sovereignty; this includes cosmogony, ceremony, access, law and policies.
With the end of the winter term and school year, recipients of special awards were announced. Sharah Gallego Meneses was awarded the academic excellence award among graduating undergraduate SERS students. Ishani Dasgupta and Kyle Schang were awarded the SERS Good Citizen Awards at the undergraduate and graduate levels respectively.
A special offering ERS graduate field school course is taking place August 12-19, 2023 in Chilika, India. ERS 675/ INDEV 617 is the code for the Field School course Blue Justice and Coastal Livelihoods to Transition from Vulnerability to Viability. University of Waterloo students receive course credits for their successful completion of the Field School course. All on-site Field School costs for registered UWaterloo students are covered.
Dr. Dustin Garrick, SERS Associate Professor and University Research Chair in Water and Development Policy, leads an international team that was recently awarded $500,000 in funding through a New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) Special Call for Research for Post-pandemic Recovery. The Beyond the Informal Water Paradox project team includes partners in Kenya.
A new project spearheaded by SERS PhD student Jim Jones and Dr. Steffanie Scott from the Departmentof Geography and Environmental Management will address the crisis in mental health at Canadian universities which is intimately interlinked with sustainability.
Two Waterloo students are among the top recipients of The Starfish Canada's environmentalist award. Congratulations to Michelle Angkasa and Sriranjini Raman for being awarded the Top 25 Under 25 Environmentalists. Both students have ties to SERS.