Thursday, March 3, 2011

BES Adds Four Co-Principal Investigators

To acknowledge the broad community that contributes to and manages the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, four persons have agreed to be added as official Co-Principal Investigators and to be recognized as such by the National Science Foundation:

Dr. Mary L. Cadenasso, Associate Professor of Ecology at the University of California, Davis has been added to promote synthesis and conceptual development in BES. Mary is a landscape ecologist, was one of the co-authors of the original BES proposal and led development of the HERCULES urban land classification system.

Dr. Peter M. Groffman, Senior Scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, has been added as Deputy Director, in recognition of his management of the budget. Peter is a microbial ecologist and also contributes to the management of stream sampling and analysis.

Dr. J. Morgan Grove, Research Forester with the USDA Forest Service, has been added to facilitate interaction between BES and the Northern Research Station, which is a major contributor of research and education staff and support for their work. Dr. Grove has been working as a social ecologist in Baltimore since 1989.

Dr. Claire Welty, Director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education, has been added to help formalize relationships with our host institution in Baltimore. UMBC provides lab and office space, meeting space, and intellectual partnership. Claire is a hydrologist with interest in ground water dynamics.

These new Co-PIs join the Lead Principal Investigator and Project Director, Steward T.A. Pickett of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, in being listed on the cover page of the BES III grant from NSF.

The new Co-PIs are ongoing members of the Project Management Committee (PMC) which meets monthly throughout the calendar year. The Project Management Committee administers BES, with yearly input from the Steering Committee, a meeting open to all members of the BES community. The PMC consists of representatives from several institutions that are central to the management of the project, including the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies as the main grantee organization, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County as the local host institution, the USDA Forest Service as a provider of significant numbers of research staff and associated material support, and the Parks & People Foundation which facilitates community and decision maker engagement. Other members of the committee bring specific expertise or perspectives to project management, including budgetary management, conceptual and empirical synthesis, social sciences, environmental economics, aquatic sciences, the graduate student community, education research, education programming, information management, and administration. There is a seat on the committee that is filled by a new member from BES each year. This rotating position is intended to increase the breadth of participation in the committee, familiarize a larger number of BES participants with project management, and to inject new perspectives into the deliberations of the committee.

Full membership in the PMC through November 2011 is as follows:

Dr. Alan Berkowitz, Head of Education, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook NY

Ms Holly Beyar, BES Project Facilitator, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

Dr. M.L. Cadneasso, University of California, Davis

Ms Bess Caplan, Ecology Education Program Leader, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies (office at Parks & People Foundation, Baltimore)

Ms Jacqueline Carrera, President and CEO, Parks & People Foundation, Baltimore

Dr. Peter M. Groffman, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

Dr. J. Morgan Grove, PMC Committee Chair, USDA Forest Service

Mr. Guy Hager, Senior Director of Great Parks, Clean Streams & Green Communities

Dr. Elena Irwin, Rotating Member 2010-2011, Ohio State University

Ms Tamara Newcomer, Graduate Student Representative, University of Maryland, College Park

Dr. Steward T.A. Pickett, BES Lead Principal Investigator and Project Director, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies,

Mr. Jonathan M. Walsh, Information Manager, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

Dr. Mary Washington, Associate Director of Great Parks, Clean Streams & Green Communities, Parks & People Foundation

Dr. Claire Welty, Director, Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education, UMBC

Over the years, the following persons have served on the PMC either as rotating or longer-term members: Dr. William R. Burch, Yale University; Dr. Larry E. Band, University of North Carolina; Dr. Robert Costanza, University of Vermont; Dr. Christopher M. Swan, UMBC; Dr. Andrew Miller, UMBC; Dr. Richard V. Pouyat, USDA Forest Service; Mr. Kenneth Belt, USDA Forest Service; Dr. Geoffrey Buckley, Ohio University; Kirsten Schwarz, then of Rutgers University.

Minutes of the PMC meetings are posted for BES members on the internal pages of the BES website.


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