The Environmental Science Program welcomed its new Director, Dr. Stephen S. Mulkey, to the University of Idaho on August 4. He succeeds Dr. Maxine Dakins, who served as Interim Director for the past two years. Mulkey brings a wealth of administrative service, program development and research experience to UI.

Mulkey served as Associate Professor of Botany with tenure at the University of Florida (UF) from 1997-2008 and at the University of Missouri at St. Louis (UMSL) from 1993-1997. His administrative service included a position as Director of Research and Outreach/Extension for the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) at UF from January 2005 through June 2007. During this term he developed new interdisciplinary programs in land use and climate change, and led an effort to establish a land use institute for the state of Florida housed within SNRE at UF. These efforts resulted in new programs for faculty, graduate students and undergraduates with research interests in sustainability science. In 2007 Mulkey was appointed as Science Advisor to the Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida, a legislatively-created state commission, due to his state-wide activities related to sustainability.

In addition to his accomplishments at UF, Mulkey directed the International Center for Tropical Ecology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where his activities included curriculum development, fundraising for student fellowships, and design of a $1.5 million state-of-the-art tropical greenhouse. This program has trained many students from Latin America using funds generated from the World Ecology Medal (recipients include Jane Goodall, Richard Leaky, and Jacques Cousteau).

Mulkey’s commitment to interdisciplinary programming is evidenced by his leadership on several integrated working groups and projects. As founder and chair of both the People and Land Use Strategies (PLUS) Faculty Work Group and Climate Change Faculty Work Group at UF, he led interdisciplinary programs for research, outreach and faculty development in land use and climate change, with a focus on mitigation and adaptation. He also administered the SNRE intramural grants competition for new faculty and seed funding of interdisciplinary research with emphasis on sustainability and land use. The annual budget pool for this competition was assembled by contributions from several colleges and the Vice President for Research at UF. His efforts in the interdisciplinary field of sustainability included creation of the Sustainability Working Group and service on five campus-wide committees related to energy, greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and sustainability.

Mulkey earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Forestry, Fisheries, and Wildlife and a Master of Arts in Biology/Ecology from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and earned his doctoral degree in Biology/Ecology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Founded in 1993, the Environmental Science Program serves more than 130 undergraduates and 87 MS and PhD students. Over 90 faculty members from all 9 colleges at UI teach and advise students in this interdisciplinary program. Environmental Science also includes a distance education master’s program in Water Science and two certificate programs. Environmental Science provides oversight and support for the UI Sustainability Center and Sustainable Idaho Strategic Initiative. More information about the program is available at www.uidaho.edu/envs.

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