A Note from the Chair

Welcome to the webpage of the Department of Environmental Sciences. As you may know, the Department was created in 1969 by the merger of the departments of geology and geography and was named by its first chairman, Robert Dolan. It was the first graduate-degree-granting program in the country in the broad interdisciplinary study of environmental science. The annual report of 1970-71 noted that 2,000 students had enrolled in courses taught by 15 faculty including George Hornberger, Alan Howard, and Bruce Hayden, who, along with Bob Dolan, are still active teachers and scientists in our Department. Our newest members are Greg Okin who joined us in September 2002, and Todd Scanlon in September 2004 bringing the number of teaching and research faculty to 36. We continue to offer between 70 and 90 courses each year in four distinct areas (ecology, hydrology, atmospheric sciences, geosciences)as well as our course offerings that span several areas. We currently have 140 undergraduate majors and 80 graduate students, and in 2004 awarded 59 undergraduate degrees and 18 graduate degrees.

An external review of the Department in 1994 found us, "doing very well by all the conventional measures of success; enrollment,...student career success, research volume and outside sponsorship.... Uniquely, the Department has made the elusive goal of truly interdisciplinary scientific research a reality." The reviewers pointed to the NSF-supported Long-Term Ecological Research program, based on Virginia's Eastern Shore, as an "exemplary case" of interdisciplinary research in which the Department's faculty are providing "strong scientific leadership." Likewise, the Department's "leadership role" in its other major research programs (in watershed hydrology, global forest dynamics, and contaminant hydrogeology) was praised by the reviewers. A more recent review in 1998 confirmed the findings of the first, and stated, "There is no doubt that the Department ranks in the uppermost level with four or five other institutions."

Most recently, our previous chair, Bruce Hayden, headed a team that won the National Science Foundation competition for design and implement the National Ecological Laboratory System. NEON is designed to be a "continental scale research instrument consisting of geographically distributed infrastructure, networked via state-of-the-art communications." When implemented, "NEON will transform ecological research by enabling studies on major environmental challenges at regional to continental scales." While NEON promises to be our newest large-scale program, this past fall one of our oldest regional scale programs, the Shenandoah Watershed Acidification Study (SWAS)celebrated its 25th year of research and monitoring.

Both of the earlier reviews spotlighted the inadequacy of our physical home. Clark Hall was originally the site of the University's law school and was not designed to house the many specialized facilities required to teach and perform research. It is a great tribute to our students, staff, and faculty that we have grown to be one of the top environmental science programs in the United States despite those cramped quarters. With $ 25 million in state funds for the renovation of Clark Hall and the generous donation of $ 10 million by Paul Tudor Jones II for a research laboratory addition

In addition to successful fund raising to fund the new building project, the Department is also working to improve funding of its programs. Gifts made to the Department in recent years have advanced our teaching and research missions in several ways. A very generous gift of $4 million made in 1996 by Paul Tudor Jones II, is being used to support Department research in Florida and on Virginia's Eastern Shore. More recently, we received $10 million from Mr. Jones for the building renovations, and he challenged the University to raise another $10 million for our programs! At the time that these gifts were given, each was the largest single gift in the College of Arts and Sciences Capital Campaign. Clearly, great things are happening in EnviSci and there is the potential for even greater things in the future. One of the goals of this portion of the webpage is to update the readers on these events, and the opportunities that they bring to further the Department's purpose-to advance understanding of the environment through interdisciplinary scientific research and education.

Jay Zieman
Chair, Environmental Sciences

Environmental Sciences Department 291 McCormick Rd Charlottesville, Virginia (434) 924-7761

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Maintained by wsc4j@virginia.edu and hee2b@virginia.edu.