John Muir Institute of the Environment
Grants and Fellowships for Environmental Scholarship
Supporting a new generation of environmental scholars for a sustainable future
Grants and fellowships are awarded to outstanding graduate students and UC Davis scholars in recognition of their potential to carry out research projects that improve the scientific basis for environmental policy and decision making. Our fellowship and grant recipients are dedicated to facilitating communication between policy makers, resource agencies, academic scientists and the public.
Since 2003, the John Muir Institute of the Environment has supported 36 scholars in more than 14 disciplines. Many of the recipients have produced exceptional research with far reaching implications.
- Geography graduate student, Sarah Null, analyzed water supplies and proposed ways to meet water demands without the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, in Yosemite National Park. The results of Null's research inspired a series of Pulitzer Prize-winning editorials urging policy makers to consider removal of the O'Shaghnessay Dam to enable restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley.
- Emi Uchida, Agricultural and Resource Economics, is investigating possible deregulation strategies and alternatives for the logging ban in China. Uchida's timely research not only provides the ecologic and economic framework for a sustainable logging strategy but also compares the cost-effectiveness of alternative strategies, such as the adoption of technology to reduce sedimentation due to logging operations or establishing reserves in sensitive areas.
- Incorporating river flow conditions and existing channel morphology into her research, Hydrologic Sciences graduate student, Marisa Escobar, is working to educate river managers on better techniques to improve the spawning habitats of endangered salmon and steelhead. By studying the natural channel structure, Escobar aims to create a predictive model of in-stream flows which can be used to improve habitat restoration efforts.
Assisting students and researchers by sponsoring fellowships, grants or funding research allows donors to have a personal impact on individual lives and the world in which we live. We invite donors to consider contributing to the Muir Fellowship in Environmental Scholarship or to supplement fellowships and grants in a research area of their interest.
For information about making a gift of scholar support, please contact Barbara Celli at (530) 754-8499 or .