University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability

09/02/2026

We’re excited to welcome three new faculty members this fall: Kristy Ferraro, Lauren Gillespie and Marcelo S. O. Goncalves.

Their research spans ecosystem science, AI and geospatial data, biodiversity, climate and environmental policy, and sustainable development, bringing new perspectives and expertise to U-M.

Welcome to SEAS, Kristy, Lauren and Marcelo! 🌎

Learn more about their expertise: https://myumi.ch/WDp61

08/31/2026

Welcome (and welcome back), Wolverines! ✏️📒

08/28/2026

New faces. New friends. New adventures. 🌲 Check out a few highlights from orientation at the BioStation. ✨

08/28/2026

Big congrats to our faculty and staff who are among the recipients of the University of Michigan’s Strategic Initiative Fund (SIF) grants!

From training the sustainability workforce and shaping Michigan’s energy future to advancing Great Lakes maritime innovation, strengthening public green spaces, and fostering community environmental dialogue. Together with partners across U-M, these teams are turning bold ideas into meaningful impact for Michigan and beyond.

University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) staff and faculty were awarded Strategic Initiative Fund grants for projects that can improve human health, strengthen communities and build a more sustainable world.

08/24/2026

Later this week, a new group of SEAS students will head north to the U-M Biological Station to experience Northern Michigan firsthand.

For more than a century, the Biostation has served as a living laboratory for U-M students, offering a place to learn, explore and connect with the natural world. This week, a new cohort gets to experience that magic for themselves. ✨

08/21/2026

The Amazon needs science that is not only about the region, but built in and for the region.

That’s the idea behind a new collaboration between the University of Michigan and the Federal University of Pará in Brazil. More than 50 researchers, professors and students recently gathered in Belém for a workshop focused on data analysis, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, ecological modeling and scenario building for the future of the Amazon.

“This collaboration will involve interchange between the two institutions involving education, research, outreach and communication to advance science and public policy for people and nature in the Amazon,” said Peter Reich, SEAS professor and director of the Institute for Global Change Biology.

Read more about the partnership and the researchers working to strengthen scientific capacity in the Amazon:

A workshop hosted by the University of Michigan and the Federal University of Pará in Brazil is preparing early career researchers to tackle some of the Amazon Rainforest's most pressing challenges.

08/19/2026

New research from U-M’s Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR) suggests that after decades of declining ice cover, the Great Lakes could see a temporary increase in average annual ice cover over the next decade or so.

But there’s an important caveat: more ice doesn’t mean climate change is reversing. Researchers say a potential rebound would be a temporary respite against a 125-year warming trend.

There's good news and bad news for folks who love a good coat of ice on the Great Lakes for the activities and businesses it supports.

08/13/2026

As Michigan experiences more frequent flooding, heavier rainfall, warmer winters and extreme heat, donor support is enabling U-M researchers, including SEAS Associate Professor Drew Gronewold, to study how these changes affect the Great Lakes, public health and local communities.

The forecast is severe: warmer winters, heavier rainfall. Here’s how U-M is leading the charge for a brighter future.

08/05/2026

A new U-M study found that one of the world's largest groups of birds evolved in rapid bursts, often during periods of major climate change.

Using an AI tool to analyze more than 15,000 museum bird skeletons across 2,000+ species, researchers uncovered evidence supporting a long-standing evolutionary theory while demonstrating the power of combining AI with natural history collections.

The findings also offer new clues about how species may respond to today's changing climate.

University of Michigan researchers have used an AI tool to demonstrate that birds in the group Passeriformes evolved in rapid evolutionary bursts and that these bursts frequently coincided with climate shifts throughout Earth's history.

08/03/2026

In the fight against coffee pests, known as coffee berry borers, ants are allies, but a new discovery by Jonathan “Jonno” Morris (MS '16, PhD '24) has revealed there may be a new feature to this protection.

Ecologists have known that large ants eat the berry borers, thus hindering the pests’ ability to colonize coffee plants, and that small ants can root the borers out of the homes they make for themselves in coffee fruits. Now, Morris has, for the first time, observed that small ant species can then use the habitats in the fruits to reproduce.

Ants are known allies in the fight against coffee pests known as coffee berry borers. Now, a discovery made by Jonathan "Jonno" Morris while he was a University of Michigan graduate student has revealed there may be a new dimension to this protection.