Weekly Update (03/31/2025)
ESPP News
If you missed our Fate of the Earth: Our Water Symposium on March 20, 2025, click the picture above to see a recap of what happened during the day.
Key Moments
- MSU President Guskiewicz kicked off day one with opening remarks and a stage selfie.
- Day one featured Panel 1 on Michigan’s coastal resilience and Great Lakes challenges, and Panel 2 on MSU Professor Irene Xagoraraki’s partnership with the Tri-County Detroit Area.
- Day two’s panel focused on the importance of water resources, global access challenges and policy impacts.
- Scientists, students and community members delivered water-related oral and poster presentations.
Standout Speakers
- Keynote speaker Dr. Annalise Blum discussed her journey from academia to government.
- Lansing area poets Ruelaine Stokes and Zoë Johnson captivated the audience with their water-related works.
Professor Irene Xagoraraki and the Tri-County Detroit Area (TCDA) partnership won the 2025 Distinguished Partnership Award for Community-Engaged Research on March 20, the same day when they discussed their collaboration at the Fate of the Earth: Our Waters Symposium.
Since 2017, they have tested TCDA wastewater for communicable diseases.
Xagoraraki and the partnership will receive MSU’s 2025 Community Engagement Scholarship Award on April 7.
This 3-min video summarizes their collaboration.
Seminars, Workshops, and Other Events
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Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture: Steward T.A. Pickett | 10 AM, April 10, 2025 | Online
Dr. Steward T.A. Pickett at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York will deliver a Rachel Carson Distinguished Lecture via Zoom at 10:00 am (ET) on Thursday, April 10, 2025. Dr. Pickett is Distinguished Senior Scientist, Emeritus, at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York. He is a pioneer in many areas such as urban ecology, social-ecological systems theory, and the study of natural disturbance. His pathbreaking research has greatly influenced practices, ranging from conservation to urban design and planning. He has also made enormous contributions to the scientific community through visionary leadership including service as President of the Ecological Society of America. Dr. Pickett’s outstanding accomplishments have been recognized by many prestigious honors and awards. For example, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a recipient of the Eminent Ecologist Award of the Ecological Society of America & the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation. His lecture is titled “Urban Ecology Beyond the City”. Please do a very simple registration to receive the Zoom link for the lecture.
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Allison Pugh is Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University. Her book The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World (Princeton 2024) is based on a study of the standardization of work that relies on relationships. She is also the author of The Tumbleweed Society: Working and Caring in an Age of Insecurity (2015), a study of the effects of job precariousness on intimate life, and the editor of Beyond the Cubicle: Job Insecurity, Intimacy and the Flexible Self (2016). Her first book, Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture (2009), won multiple best book awards and was widely reviewed.
Scholarships, Fellowships, and Funding Opportunities
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2025-26 CIRCLE Graduate Fellowship | Deadline: April 4, 2025
The Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Collaboration, Learning, and Engagement (CIRCLE) will support three doctoral graduate students in the CIRCLE Graduate Fellowship (CGFP). The CGFP is a guided fellowship focused on interdisciplinary research and practice. Fellows in the program will develop skills and knowledge related to the practice of interdisciplinary inquiry and collaboration, including qualitative and arts-based methods, team building, facilitation, and critical engagement with the concept of interdisciplinarity.
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Great Lakes Philanthropy Fellow | Deadline April 4, 2025
The Council of Michigan Foundations seeks a dynamic and engaged individual to help advance their mission to lead, strengthen and support Michigan’s community. The fellowship is a two-year, paid position in Southeast Michigan. The Philanthropy Fellowship offers an emerging professional a unique opportunity to make meaningful contributions to Michigan philanthropy and the larger philanthropic community. The Fellow will support the Fred and Barbara Erb Family Foundation. Fellows are exposed to philanthropy through meetings with grant partners, participating in internal meetings at their host foundation, assisting with grantmaking, and networking with foundation partners.
Jobs and Training Opportunities
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Assistant Professor - Water Quality and Climate, Michigan State University
The Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University (MSU) invites applications for a full‐time, 9-month tenure system Assistant Professor with a 50% research, 30% teaching, 10% extension, and 10% service assignment. The position start date is anticipated to be August 16, 2025. The individual selected for this position will be expected to develop a regionally, nationally, and internationally recognized program centered on water quality and freshwater ecosystems in the context of climate change addressing adaptation, mitigation, management, sustainability, or conservation.