PULLMAN, Wash. Collaboration, research, funding and education have made great strides in the six years since the founding of the Center for Environmental Research, Education and Outreach (CEREO) at Washington State University. To celebrate this success and upcoming initiatives, there will be a free, public re-dedication ceremony 4-5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2, in the Marriott Dining Room (Todd 268), sponsored by the WSU Division of Governmental Studies and Services (DGSS).
Howard Grimes, vice president of research and dean of the Graduate School, will welcome keynote speaker Regent Ron Sims, who served as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development May 2009-June 2011. Sims is nationally recognized for his efforts to integrate environmental, social equity and public health policies that produced groundbreaking work on climate change, smart growth programs and green space preservation in urban areas.
200 members in 11 colleges
CEREO is the largest research, education and outreach center at WSU. Since it was established in 2006, it has grown to more than 200 members in 11 colleges.
CEREO has made tremendous progress in developing collaboration among faculty interested in environmental and science issues. It has facilitated creation of teams to research issues, increase environmental education in the WSU curriculum, and reach out to stakeholders in areas of environmental concern.
Collaborations have resulted in large interdisciplinary projects and initiatives, including: a National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate education project about communicating nitrogen cycle science to policy makers; the BioEarth initiative; participation in the NSF’s National Ecology Observatory Network (NEON); and the Palouse Project series of “sustainability in the curriculum” workshops.
NSF and other collaborations
NEON was created to collect data from across the United States about the impact of climate change, land use change and invasive species on natural resources and biodiversity. It is included in the NSF Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction Budget for a full cost of $433.72 million.
The NSF Integrated Graduate Education Training (IGERT) grant program called NSPIRE (Nitrogen Systems: Policy-oriented Integrated Research and Education) provides multidisciplinary doctoral training on how to integrate nitrogen cycle science for effective communication with policy makers. Graduate students collaborate on team-focused dissertation research projects and enjoy internship opportunities with policy oriented agencies and organizations, both in the U.S. and internationally.
In the coming months CEREO plans to expand its interdisciplinary research activities with the Earth, Ecosystems and Society Fellows Program, which will develop interdisciplinary teams to work collaboratively across colleges on major environmental issues.