Emory University • Department of Environmental Sciences

05/12/2026

We had THE BEST day celebrating the ENVS class of 2026 on Friday! To the ENVS grads, enjoy this time together and thank you for spending some time with us this afternoon. Remember to keep in touch and come for Wednesday Waffles when you are in town.

05/06/2026

A most heartfelt congratulations to Sonya Doubledee C'26 and Madelyn Hill C'26 for being the ENVS Hickcox (Sonya) and ENVS Wegner (Madelyn) award recipients!

The Hickcox Award represents an ENVS graduating senior who displays significant leadership, presence and service within the ENVS department and Emory community.

The John Wegner Award is given annually in recognition of achievement by an ENVS student who has conducted applied research around themes of environmental conservation, campus sustainability or field ecology.

The list of accomplishments for both Sonya and Madelyn cannot be contained in an online post! We have linked the article below to read about these OUTSTANDING ENVS students. We are so honored that they have called ENVS home for the last four years!

HICKCOX AWARD The Hickcox Award represents an ENVS graduating senior who displays significant leadership, presence and service within the ENVS department and Emory community. The Hickcox Award is n…

04/17/2026

We had THE BEST afternoon celebrating Professor Lance Gunderson's retirement! Thanks to everyone who joined us to honor the founding chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences!

While we cannot officially re-name the department, we are unofficially calling ourselves the Gunderson Department of Environmental Sciences :)

02/17/2026

Woot, woot! We love our majors and are loving the Emory OUE Advising series for Love your Major month.

Come hang out with us on Wednesdays at noon - waffles and community await. MSC/5th floor/ENVS office suite. See you there!
Emory College of Arts and Sciences

02/17/2026

https://news.emory.edu/stories/2026/01/esc_sloan_grant_funds_15-01-2026/story.html

The Sloan Foundation awarded $1 million to Emory researchers Kristin Phillips and Jola Ajibade to dig into questions about the socioeconomic implications for the development of data centers in the U.S. South.

01/13/2026

“The first thing to move away from is the idea that wild food is dangerous,” Mucioki says. “Indigenous communities have eaten these for thousands of years. The more people have to learn about and engage with that landscape, the more they will be comfortable with the forest being part of their food system.”

Students in a new environmental sciences course explored local forests for evidence of Indigenous food systems. Working with community foragers and collaborating with another course, the class studied and sampled everything from pecans to the rare pawpaw.

01/13/2026

While COP30 wrapped up in November, the ENVS students who attended the conference is Belém, Brazil are still reflecting on their time representing Emory at the UNFCCC COP30 conference.

Shout out to ENVS'rs Carter Douglas-Brown and Belle Pobsuk.

Emory University students were among the almost 56,000 delegates who attended this year’s 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, UNCOP30, in Belém, Brazil.

12/18/2025

This past week, Professor Mucioki's fall 2025 special topics course, Food & Forests, was profiled in Emory Report!

"Tasting Georgia’s Indigenous history" is linked in our bio *and* in addition to the content being outstanding, the article has a link to a video so you can experience what the class was like for yourself.

“The first thing to move away from is the idea that wild food is dangerous,” Mucioki says. “Indigenous communities have eaten these for thousands of years. The more people have to learn about and engage with that landscape, the more they will be comfortable with the forest being part of their food system.”

Story by April Hunt

Students in a new environmental sciences course explored local forests for evidence of Indigenous food systems. Working with community foragers and collaborating with another course, the class studied and sampled everything from pecans to the rare pawpaw.

11/19/2025

Spotted in the wild! ENVS senior, Michelina Schach, harvesting the native persimmon in Georgia - Diospyros virginiana.

Mic was working on a full cup of persimmon and lamenting that she didn't have some forest friends to help her reach the fruit still left high up in the branches.

Foraging opportunities remain - be on the lookout!

11/07/2025

Congratulations to ENVS alumna, Ellie Fausett 22C, 23 PH, who launched the online app Vector Guard. Ellie competed in the RevenueCat Annual Shipaton, which is a global hackathon where developers rapidly build and launch innovative apps in 6 weeks.

Vector Guard turns public health data into protection, bridging the gap between research and real lives. The app transforms complex CDC surveillance data into an accessible, offline-first platform that helps users identify disease-carrying ticks and mosquitoes instantly.

Ellie and her team won 1st place in the Help Apps Make Money (HAMM) Award - recognizing the strongest monetization strategy. The award highlights Vector Guard's revenue model, where for every one subscription purchased, they will give 50 subscriptions to users in low income high risk areas.

Congrats to Ellie and Vector Guard!