2006 Accomplishments
December 2006
- David M. Hassenzahl (Chair), Helen R. Neill (Assoc. Professor) and Dennis Bechtel (Doctoral Student) participated in the 2006 Annual meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis. Their contributions included two oral presentations and a poster. Hassenzahl organized pre-conference workshop, and led a meeting of the Education Committee, which he chairs.
- A number of ENV undergraduate and graduate students played a central role in organizing Renewin Las Vegas, a renewable energy fair on the UNLV Campus on December 7.
November 2006
- Bill Smith, Jr. (Assistant Professor), along with David M. Hassenzahl
(Assoc. Prof / Chair) submitted a grant proposal to the National
Science Foundation entitled "Water Conservation Rates to Sustain
Human and Natural Systems in Urbanizing Arid Regions: Linking Models
to Study Lower Colorado River Basin Scenarios." For this proposal,
Dr. Smith organized a group of collaborators from UNLV Civil and
Environmental Engineering (Tom Piechota), the Desert Research Institute,
the University of Iowa, the University of California, Los Angeles,
San Diego State University and the University of Delaware. The proposal
is for a three year research project, and requests $1.5 million
in funding.
- Shawn Goodchild, ENV Graduate Student and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-Ecological Services biologist, was awarded this year's Special Award for the Southern Nevada Interagency Volunteer Program. The award recognizes his intensive involvement in the development of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex Volunteer Program.
October 2006
- Tim Farnham (Assistant Professor), coauthored the paper "Protecting
Life's Foundation: A Proposal for Recognizing Rare and Threatened Soils" in
the Soil Science Society of America Journal.
- Timothy Farnham, Assistant Professor, gave a presentation entitled "Conflicting Visions of Nature: The Making of Quabbin Reservoir" at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in Mount Hadley, MA. This talk was associated with the Museum's exhibition "Looking Beneath the Surface: The Quabbin and Hetch Hetchy Canyon."
- Department Chair David M. Hassenzahl, senior Erin Jolley, and
junior Melissa Metzger attended the 1st Annual Conference of the
American Association for Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).
UNLV has recently joined as a member institution of the AASHE.
- Ph.D. candidate Ilene Ruhoy presented a conference paper on
Patient Compliance Statistics and Outcomes at the Nevada Public Health
Association Annual Meeting in Henderson, Nev.
- Ph.D. candidate Ilene Ruhoy gave an invited talk on Drug Disposal
Options, Effects of the Accumulation of Unused Pharmaceuticals, and
Patient Compliance at the Maine Benzodiazepine Study Group National
Conference on Drug Disposal in Portland, Maine.
- UNLV became an affiliate member of the National Council on Science and the Environment, and joined the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors.
September 2006
- In a visit organized by assistant professor Bill Smith, Iowa State
Professor of Geography R. Rajagopol visited the department of environmental
studies. Visit Co-sponsors include EPA-ORD and UNLV department of
chemistry.
- Chair David M. Hassenzahl named Risk Assessment Topic Editor
for the Encyclopedia of Earth, an earth and environmental science
Wiki.
- Associate professor Helen R. Neill interviewed in the Las Vegas
Sun about her efforts to develop a Sustainability Institute.
- Ph.D.
candidate Ilene Ruhoy gave an invited talk on Prescribing
for the Environment at the conference of Physicians for Social
Responsibility, Los Angeles, CA.
- Assistant professor Bill Smith Jr. presented at a refereed conference hosted by the Geological Society of America and 21 major governmental and research institutions that guide U.S. drought policy and science. At the conference, titled Managing Drought and Water Scarcity in Vulnerable Environments: Creating a Roadmap for Change in the United States, Smith presented on how conservation can form the most intelligent "new" source of water, and methods to achieve conservation. The conference was held in Longmont, Colo.
August 2006
- Assistant professor Bill Smith Jr. presented at the refereed conference of the International Small Islands Studies Association, Maui, Hawai'i on GIS and water resource capacity building.
July 2006
- Associate Professor Krystyna Stave received a $70,000 research
grant from the Clark County Department of Air Quality and Environmental
Management (DAQEM) to develop a system dynamics model air quality
protection in the Ivanpah valley. The South County Causal Relationship
Model will allow county managers examine potential air quality effects
of land development associated with the proposed new airport near
Primm and evaluate pollution mitigation alternatives.
- Associate Professor Krystyna Stave, Ph.D. Candidate Mike Dwyer, M.A. student Stephanie Fincher, and M.A. student Megan Hopper attended the 24th International Conference of the System Dynamics Society, Nijmegen, Netherlands, July 23-27, 2006.
June 2006
- Associate professor Helen Neill was granted a renewal of her Department
of Energy Grant in the amount of $ 433,292. Neill and her students
provide research support to the Nevada Test Site Citizen Advisory
Board on short and long term projects. They also provide feedback to
the DOE from the public on Environmental Management activities at the
Nevada Test Site. The DOE has now made a five-year commitment to this
project, which formerly operated on a year-to-year basis.
- Associate Professor
Krystyna Stave and five student research assistants funded by her
grants attended the System Dynamics in Education conference in Boston,
Massachusetts. In addition to
participating in the conference, the students conducted interviews
with leaders in the field attending the conference. Their research
will be the basis for a forthcoming journal article.
- Associate Professor Krystyna Stave completed a two-year model development project to examine the relationships between Land Use, Transportation and Air Quality (LUTAQ) in the Las Vegas Valley. Dr Stave and her students presented the results at the June meeting of the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition (SNRPC) Board.