Geography graduate students Reginald Archer, Robyn Clark, Frank Davenport, Michael Marshall, and Felipe Murtinho are among 20 UCSB grads who have been awarded environmental science fellowships for 2008 by the Henry Luce Foundation. The Luce Environmental Science to Solutions Fellowship Program is designed “to educate Ph.D. students on the full scope of environmental issues, from the identification of important environmental problems to the implementation of solutions.” Fellows each receive $6000 over 2 years and may apply the award to “a broad range of activities to enhance their educational experience.”
According to the UCSB press release (http://www.ia.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?pkey=1696), “Luce Fellows will receive training in informatics at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) based at UCSB. They will also initiate or participate in a two-year Luce Environmental Working Group at NCEAS. They will receive training in communication of science to policy makers, media, non-governmental organizations, resource managers, and industry. The fellows will be encouraged to participate in the University of California’s Washington, D.C. or Sacramento programs. And they will refine proposed environmental solutions that emerged from the working group’s activities based on feedback from practitioners, including elected officials and other policy makers.”
H. Christopher Luce of the Henry Luce Foundation is quoted as saying: “As part of our nationwide endeavor to enhance environmental education, the Henry Luce Foundation is pleased to support UC Santa Barbara’s novel, interdisciplinary and hands-on approach to training our nation’s future leaders to tackle some of our world’s pressing environmental challenges.” Kudos to our five such future leaders – the Department of Geography is proud to have accounted for such a lion’s share of the Luce Fellowships.
(Right: Clare Boothe and Henry R. Luce in 1954. Henry, the publisher of Time, Life, and Fortune magazines, married Clare Booth, a playwright, social activist, Congresswoman, and diplomat, in 1935. The Luce Foundation was established in 1936 in honor of Henry’s parents who had been missionary educators in China. The foundation’s current assets are estimated at $700 million, mostly derived from stock left in Henry’s will after his death in 1967. Since its creation, the Luce Foundation has made more than $600 million in grants, with more than $350 million of these being approved in the past decade. Most of the Luce grants support interdisciplinary exploration of higher education, increased understanding between Asia and the United States, the study of religion and theology, scholarship in American art, opportunities for women in science and engineering, and environmental and public policy programs.
Editor’s note: Clare Boothe Luce was noted for her aphorisms, perhaps the most famous of which was “no good deed goes unpunished.”
