Achievement

The ABS IGERT core courses are core courses for all Trainees and Associates. ABS I, co-taught by a social scientist and ecologist has been taught 5 years to nearly 50 graduate students in 6 departments. ABS I achieves cross-disciplinary understanding of biodiversity, asking: What is biodiversity? How is it perceived, valued, measured, monitored, and protected? What are various strategies for protecting biodiversity while also meeting human needs? Students learn from case studies on the role of science for building effective conservation strategies. ABS II has been taught 3 times to nearly 40 students. It is built on the premise that scientific efforts to address ecological challenges are dependent on social and political institutions: democratic elections affect research budgets; global economic changes affect the capacities of sovereign nations to make environmental decisions; and socially constructed and politically inflected norms govern all aspects of our relationship with nature.