Index ranks Yale forestry program best in research
productivity
The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental
Studies has the best forestry program in the United States based on the
research productivity of its faculty, according to a recently released index.
The 2005 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, partly financed by the State
University of New York at Stony Brook and produced by Academic Analytics, a
for-profit company based in Pennsylvania, rates faculty members' scholarly
output at 7,294 doctoral programs around the country and provides data on
177,816 faculty members at 354 institutions. Based on data from 2005, the
report was released in January 2007.
The index ranks the top ten programs in 104
disciplines (Yale's immunobiology and neuroscience programs are also ranked
highest), and examines the number of book and journal articles published by
each program's faculty, as well as journal citations, awards, honors, and
grants received.
Chad Oliver ’70MFS, ’75PhD, Pinchot Professor of
Environmental Studies, is not surprised by the ranking. "Because of its
organization and tradition," he said, "the Yale School of Forestry &
Environmental Studies has always been an innovator in research, constantly
exploring new concepts rather than dominating targeted areas of expertise."
Global forests focus of executive education program
F&ES has started a new executive education
program concentrating on the condition and dynamics of global forests. The
program is aimed at providing executives in forestry and forest-related companies,
industry, and the financial community, as well as members of the media, with
the latest research in forest science and management, issues, and trends. The
courses are designed for professionals who don't have the time for a
graduate-degree program, but need the background to understand and meet the
challenges of conserving and managing the world's forests.
The program, offered this spring by the Global
Institute of Sustainable Forestry, consists of two week-long courses at Yale: "Executives
Learning About Forestry" and "Foresters Becoming Executives." They are taught
by senior F&ES faculty and cover a wide range of subjects, including
forestry and biotechnology, illegal logging, forest health and invasive exotic
pests, and the future of cities and their effect on forests.
New F&ES structure to redefine the green-building
concept
A new facility at the School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies will be a model of the school's dedication to sustainable
design. Named for the environmental philanthropist Richard Kroon ’64, the
building will provide office space for 75 faculty and staff, along with
classrooms, a 175-seat auditorium, and an environment center named for donors
Emily and Carl Knobloch ’51. Completion of the Kroon building is expected by 2009.
"It will be Yale's most green building, a symbol of
the school's ideals and values, and a powerful expression in beautiful form of
our relationship to the environment," said Gus Speth, dean of the Forestry
School. "It will be an inspirational and instructional model of sustainable
design."
The Kroon building will be a long, four-story
structure with a rounded roofline running east to west, which will provide
maximal southern exposure to increase solar heat gain in winter and natural
lighting year-round. The use of geothermal energy and energy-efficient
structural elements will eliminate the need for steam and chilled water for
heating and cooling. Photovoltaics on the roof will supply a portion of the
building's electricity requirements, complemented by alternative sources such
as wind. Rainwater runoff will collect in holding tanks and be filtered
naturally for use in flush toilets. The building will prominently feature
timber harvested from sustainably managed forests, including the 7,880-acre
Yale-Myers Forest in northeastern Connecticut.
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