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News Archive

April 2010
2010 Compton Fellows Announced

Four F&ES students have been named Compton International Fellows for 2010-2011 by the Tropical Resources Institute.

The Compton Fellows are all first-year candidates for master’s degrees in environmental management at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. They are Geofrey Mwanjela (Tanzania), Ana Perea (Mexico), Giancarlo Raschio (Peru), and Pablo Reed (Ecuador).

Mwanjela is doing research on protected areas and their impact on the livelihoods of local communities in Tanzania. Perea is working on how best to engage local communities in Mexico in the conservation and restoration of natural resources, particularly as it applies to climate change. Raschio is planning a comparative study of climate-change mitigation and adaptation initiatives in Ghana and Peru. And Reed is researching whether indigenous community lands in Ecuador could benefit from Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, a program designed to use financial incentives to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases from deforestation and forest degradation.

“The Compton International Fellows program perfectly complements our efforts to provide multidisciplinary training and research opportunities to our students,” said F&ES Dean Peter Crane. “It also supports our mutual goal of building environmental leadership capacity in developing countries, especially in Central America and sub-Saharan Africa.”

F&ES has had more than 60 Compton Fellows from 28 different countries since 1995. Through its support, the Compton Foundation has enabled F&ES students from developing countries to conduct vital research  on the environment and sustainable development, with linkages to the fields of peace and security (conflict management) and population and reproductive health.

“The generously-funded Compton Fellowship program is a unique resource, which helps F&ES to attract students from developing countries, and supports them in conducting cutting edge research in and around their home countries,” said Professor Michael R. Dove, Director of the Tropical Resources Institute and the Margaret K. Musser Professor of Social Ecology. “These students also become part of an extensive network of past and present Compton Fellows working to address critical tropical resources and conservation issues around the world.”

Dreams From His Mother
TRI Director Michael Dove's editorial in the New York Times, August 10, 2009

PRESIDENT OBAMA’s late mother, Ann Dunham Soetoro, was famous for the good cheer and optimism that she preserved in the face of a complex and challenging world. Her personality went hand-in-hand with her career as an anthropologist in Indonesia and Pakistan, where she studied and worked with village craftsmen, slum-dwellers and countless others. I knew Dr. Soetoro as a friend and colleague for many years before her death from cancer in 1995. Though I only met her son once, briefly at her memorial service, I’ve watched him as he’s taken on the hardest job in the world, and often found myself wondering how her worldview might have shaped him... read full article