News

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.

Jennifer Clapp, University Professor in SERS and Canada Research Chair, was inducted into the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry as a new international fellow on January 28, 2023.

Nathanael Bergbusch, a SERS PhD Candidate, has been awarded the prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship for his innovative research proposal titled “Towards Sustainable Watershed Management: Meaningful Inclusion of Communities and Ecosystems in Environmental Assessment.”

SERS participated in the Sustainability Office's 2022 Eco-Summit. SERS achieved a gold ranking in the Green Office program and two SERS undergraduate students participated in panel sessions.