Fostering Collaboration: Welcoming the 2024 IonE Affiliates
The complex environmental challenges we face today require interdisciplinary collaboration – but what does collaboration require?
At the Institute on the Environment, part of our answer is providing skilled, empowered people the opportunity to build meaningful relationships.
This is why we support a network of affiliates: faculty, researchers, practitioners, professionals and other community members from within and outside of the University of Minnesota, who participate in a scholarly community and engage in outcomes-oriented sustainability work.
This year, we are excited to welcome 33 new affiliates, our largest cohort since 2018. This year’s class includes 18 Fellows, senior researchers and thought-leaders established in their career, having demonstrated excellence in one or more disciplines related to environment, climate, or sustainability; and 15 Associates, early-career scholars motivated to develop community-engaged, interdisciplinary, impact-oriented careers in environmental scholarship.
Our new affiliates come from the Duluth and Twin Cities campuses, as well as Extension, the Minnesota Center for Prion Research and Outreach (MNPRO), the Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (MW CASC), and the USDA Forest Service. They join more than 280 formally affiliated members of the IonE community.
“The IonE affiliates program is built on the notion of reciprocity – that the Institute supports the work, ambition, and activities of our affiliates and they, in turn, enrich the hundreds of other IonE community members through their participation and engagement. Together, we learn, increase our individual and collective impact, and reach beyond the bounds of our disciplines and the University,” says IonE Executive Director Jessica Hellmann.
As an interdisciplinary hub facilitating collaborations across the UMN system and beyond, IonE works to uplift and support this community through providing leadership and professional development offerings – along with those essential opportunities for connection and cross-pollination.
“I value this reciprocity as a scholar and member of the IonE community myself,” adds Hellmann. “As IonE director, I see interaction among and within the affiliates as the bedrock of what we are and how we serve the University and the world.”
IonE Fellows
David Abazs, Northeast Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships, University of Minnesota Extension
Sebastian Behrens, College of Science and Engineering, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering, and BioTechnology Institute (College of Biological Sciences), UMN Twin Cities
Geoffrey G. Bell, Labovitz School of Business and Economics, UMN Duluth
Yao-Yi Chiang, College of Science and Engineering, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, UMN Twin Cities
James W. Coleman, Law School, UMN Twin Cities
Andy Erickson, College of Science and Engineering, St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, UMN Twin Cities
Tanisha Fazal, College of Liberal Arts, Department of Political Science, UMN Twin Cities
Julie K. Hanus, Institute on the Environment, UMN Twin Cities
Satoshi Ishii, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, Department of Soil, Water and Climate, and BioTechnology Institute (College of Biological Sciences), UMN Twin Cities
Aseem Kaul, Carlson School of Management, UMN Twin Cities
William C.K. Pomerantz, College of Science and Engineering, Department of Chemistry, UMN Twin Cities
Emily G. Schilling, College of Biological Sciences, Itasca Biological Station and Laboratories, UMN Twin Cities
Claudia Schmidt-Dannert, College of Biological Sciences, BioTechnology Institute and Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics, UMN Twin Cities
Cody S. Sheik, Swenson College of Science and Engineering, Biology Department, and the Large Lakes Observatory, UMN Duluth
Gerald C. Shurson, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, Department of Animal Science, UMN Twin Cities
Malini Srivastava, College of Design, Department of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Interior Design, UMN Twin Cities
Weiguo Xie, Swenson College of Science and Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, UMN Duluth
Lin Xiu, Labovitz School of Business and Economics, Department of Management Studies, UMN Duluth
IonE Associates
Rene Boiteau, College of Science and Engineering, Department of Chemistry, UMN Twin Cities
Daniel J. Card, College of Liberal Arts, Department of Writing Studies, UMN Twin Cities
Rui Cheng, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, UMN Twin Cities
Hailong Cui, Carlson School of Management, Supply Chain & Operations Department, UMN Twin Cities
Holly Embke, Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey
Kyle X. Hill, School of Public Health, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, UMN Twin Cities
Stuart Lichtenberg, Minnesota Center for Prion Research and Outreach (MNPRO), UMN Twin Cities
Lisa Martin Rennicke, School of Nursing, UMN Twin Cities
Melissa A. Pastore, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Forest Inventory and Analysis, St. Paul
Kristin Riker-Coleman, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, Department of Geography and Philosophy, UMN Duluth
Guy W. Sander, Swenson College of Science and Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, UMN Duluth
Erica Timko Olson, School of Nursing, UMN Twin Cities
Jack Whiteley, Law School, UMN Twin Cities
Boya Xiong, College of Science and Engineering, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering, UMN Twin Cities
Kun Zhang, Swenson College of Science and Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, UMN Duluth
Nina Vang (she/her) is the Communications Program Coordinator at IonE. Her professional interests include accessibility in science communication and climate impacts on public health.
