Institute for a Sustainable Earth

Category: News Archive

Podcast: The modern grid: the intersection of energy and the environment

2025 ISE Summer Sustainability Graduate Fellows: Partnering Grad Research Assistants (Fellows) with Organizations on the Front Lines of Sustainability Challenges

Co-sponsored by GMU’s Graduate Division and the Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE), the 2025 Sustainability Summer Fellowships for Graduate Research Partnerships program provided financial support and professional development to doctoral students who worked with local to global partner organizations on applied research projects. This opportunity is designed to connect students with organizations making a positive impact on our world. Together, students and partner organizations identify and implement co-creative research and action priorities for the summer semester, allowing students to gain valuable experience and organizational access that they can also leverage in their dissertation work and beyond.

During their summer placements, the grad student research fellows simultaneously participated in a 6-part professional development series, enabling them to process their research placement experiences, build community, learn with and from each other, and gain valuable insights from an all-star group of guest speakers comprised of faculty and administrative leaders across GMU. Topics included research impact pathways, translational research, graduate fellowship and funding opportunities, research innovation and ethical considerations, and exploring different career pathways.

Congratulations to our Summer Grad Fellows for completing their placements and contributing to the advancement of sustainability science-in-action. Many thanks to the wonderful project/partner mentors, faculty advisors, guest speakers, and our funding and administrative partner (GMU’s Graduate Division) who made this program possible.

Summer Grad Research Fellow Projects, Partnerships, and Mentor/Advisory Teams

Note: Read descriptions of the projects online here.

Project: City of Fairfax Urban Forestry Program— Stewardship Mapping and Assessment (STEW-Map) Project

Grad Student Fellow: Neha Gour, PhD student in Communication; College of Humanities & Social Sciences

Partner: City of Fairfax Urban Forestry

Mentor: Anna Safford, Urban Forester

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Xiaoquan Zhao, Department of Communications, College of Humanities and Social Sciences

 

Project: Future Earth Australia Nature Positive Summit

Grad Student Fellow: Gideon Ameh, PhD student in Bioscience; College of Science/School of Systems Biology

Partner: Future Earth Australia Nature-Positive initiatives

Mentor:  Kate Nairn and Danielle Celermajer, Australian National Academy of Science

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Amira Roess, Department of Global and Community Health, College of Public Health

 

Project: Sustainable Lifestyles Handbook Project

Grad Student Fellow: Meng (Casey) Yuan, PhD Student in Earth Systems and Geoinformation Sciences; College of Science

Partner: Systems of Sustainable Consumption and Production Knowledge Action Network

Mentor:  Maurie Cohen, Professor and Chair, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Donglian Sun, Geography & Geoinformation Science Department, College of Science

 

Project: Global Mountain Biodiversity Thesaurus – Chinese Language Text Analysis

Grad Student Fellow: Yuan Yue, PhD student in Env Science & Public Policy; College of Science, Dept of Env Science & Public Policy

Partner: Future Earth, Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA)

Mentor:  Davnah Urbach, GMBA executive director and Mark Snethlage, University of Bern

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Christophe E. Clarke, Department of Communications, College of Humanities & Social Science

 

Project: Global Mountain Biodiversity Thesaurus – Spanish Language Text Analysis

Grad Student Fellow: Juliana Maria Villa, PhD student in Communication; College of Humanities & Social Sciences

Partner: Future Earth, Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA)

Mentor:  Davnah Urbach, GMBA executive director and Mark Snethlage, University of Bern

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Daniel Hanley, Biology Department, College of Science

 

Project: Chickahominy Tribe Community Partnership (continued project partnership)

Grad Student Fellow: Charles Sterling, PhD student in Env Science & Public Policy; College of Science, Dept of Env Science & Public Policy

Partner: ISE partnership with Chickahominy Indian Tribe

Mentor: Dana Adkins, Environmental Director

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Dann Sklarew, Environmental Science & Policy Department, College of Science

 

For more information about the ISE Summer program, contact ISE Associate Director Dr. Julianna Gwiszcz ([email protected]).

Network Catalyst Teams Convene Diverse Stakeholders from Across Virginia in Workshops on Emergency Preparedness and Extreme Heat

Network Catalyst Teams Convene Diverse Stakeholders from Across Virginia in Workshops on Emergency Preparedness and Extreme Heat

Through our Network Catalyst Grants Program, the ISE supports the development of transdisciplinary faculty-led teams in applied research aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals in order to accelerate transdisciplinary engagement on critical issues from an impact-driven, co-creative research perspective. Network Catalyst teams work with the Institute to forge new and sustained engagements, and/or evolve and activate existing partnerships with community-based organizations, NGOs, governments, the private sector, or other strategic partners working toward shared visions and actions. This summer, our 2024-2025 Network Catalyst Teams held workshops to bring together these different stakeholder groups around the themes of extreme heat and emergency preparedness.

 Network Catalyst Workshop on Emergency Preparedness

The ISE Network Catalyst Grant team on Emergency Preparedness co-organized a workshop on Resilient Communication and Sheltering during Emergency Evacuations at Virginia Beach City Hall on July 11, 2025. This workshop was co-organized by project members Dr. Hemant Purohit (Information Sciences & Technology, CEC), Dr. Qian Hu (Schar), and grad student researcher Yasas Wijesuriya (PhD program in Information Technology, CEC) from George Mason University, and Dr. Joshua Behr from Old Dominion University, in partnership with officials from the City of Virginia Beach’s Department of Emergency Management (VB-DEM) and Division of Information Technology (VB-IT). 

This collaborative initiative brought together researchers and practitioners and the workshop aimed to support the City’s Mitigation Action focused on developing a local hurricane evacuation framework and identifying communication networks for evacuation messaging.

It attracted a diverse group of leaders from over five agencies engaged in programs relevant to emergency evacuations, ranging from emergency communications to social services. Activities included a keynote address by the Director of VB-DEM, followed by two guided discussions on increasing voluntary evacuation propensities among at-risk populations. These discussions aimed to inform decision-making and enable tailored messaging during critical emergency events.

The project team is grateful to ISE to support this workshop and plans to continue this work with the Hampton Roads region broadly. It is being further supported in part by a new National Science Foundation grant from the Smart and Connected Communities program, led by Principal Investigator Dr. Purohit, in collaboration with VB-DEM and VB-IT.

Left: Dr. Hemant Purohit summarized the vision of the ongoing collaborative work with the city.

Middle: Dr. Qian Hu facilitated guided discussion on processes for communication during evacuations.

Right: Dr. Joshua Behr presented findings from the literature on evacuation challenges.

Network Catalyst Workshop on Extreme Heat

The ISE Network Catalyst Grant team on Extreme Heat led a workshop on August 21st, 2025 titled “Extreme Heat in Virginia: Catalyzing a Multi-Sector Research Agenda” organized by GMU’s Dr. Luis Ortiz (AOES, COS), Dr. Fengxiu Zhang (Schar), Dr. MB (Marybeth) Mitcham (Global & Community Health, SPH), and Dr. David Wong (GGS, COS) with the support of GMU grad student researcher Noah Blanco-Alcalá (Climate Science MS, AOES). Recognizing that action on adapting and mitigating extreme heat is an “all hands on deck” problem, the workshop hosted a diverse group of researchers, practitioners, as well as municipal, state, and federal staff to identify the unique challenges in addressing extreme heat in Virginia. Attendees included staff from Alexandria, Arlington, Prince William County, Fairfax County, Fairfax City, Virginia Department of Emergency Management, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, NOAA Climate Program Office, the American Red Cross, The Federation of American Scientists, and the Atlantic Council. Expertise from the invited group included energy and sustainability, health, emergency management, forestry, and nationwide and international advocacy. The objectives of the workshop included understanding existing practices in Virginia to tackle extreme heat at a range of spatial and temporal scales, identify key knowledge gaps that prevent action, and share current and future avenues for addressing those challenges, including new and existing partnership opportunities. 

 The team is currently exploring next steps, including a potential community of practice on extreme heat and a shared network of practitioners. In addition, the team is exploring funding mechanisms to fill identified knowledge gaps such as the NSF Infrastructure Systems and People and Translation-to-Practice programs. 

 The workshop was supported by the ISE Network Catalyst Grant and the Virginia Climate Center.Right: Dr. Ortiz shares the pre-workshop responses to highlight the intersecting concerns and interests of participants.

Left: Breakout groups discussed opportunities for partnerships and collaborative engagement around extreme heat in VA. This whiteboard captures just one of the breakout groups’ ideas.

For more information about the ISE Network Catalyst Grants program, contact ISE Associate Director Dr. Julianna Gwiszcz ([email protected]).

George Mason University researchers lead breakthrough study to find functional cure for HIV

Yuntao Wu, Professor, Molecular & Microbiology, School of Systems Biology, George Mason University. Photo by Evan Cantwell/George Mason University

Students learn how to create food security and multistory gardens

NSF rankings show Mason ahead of research funding goals

fall leaves on the Fairfax Campus. Photo by Evan Cantwell/George Mason University

A $6 million NSF grant will translate research into practice to help local communities become climate-resilient

New Mason Nanofabrication Facility will help drive innovation in the commonwealth

Shawn Wagoner, nanofabrication manager, Institute for Biohealth Innovation, gives a tour of the Nanofabrication facility on the Science and Technology Campus. Photo by Evan Cantwell/George Mason University

Mason scientists in I-SPY 2 trial discover first ever signatures of global resistance and response to prioritize breast cancer treatment selections, including in triple negative cases

Photo by: Ron Aira/Creative Services/George Mason University

Mason Foragers’ Forest groundbreaking and tour for campus and community on November 17