Last week, Loyola University Chicago announced that Nancy Tuchman will become the founding director of its Institute of Urban Environmental Sustainability (IUES).  Tuchman is currently a Professor and Vice Provost at Loyola.  She also has a long relationship with the University of Michigan Biological Station.  

Current members of the UMBS Community know Tuchman for her research on invasive plant species and their impact on the northern Great Lakes coastal wetlands.  She has been using UMBS as a base for these studies since 2002.  She says the "ideas, camaraderie, inspiration and support" from the UMBS community were instrumental in her realizing the Loyola institute.

Tuchman she has been working getting the institute off the ground for nearly eight years.  It will offer curricula in food systems, water and ecotoxicology, public health, sustainable corporate management, and environmental policy.  "Universities carry the responsibility to provide all students, regardless of their major, with a clear understanding of the global environmental crisis and their role in affecting change."

Provided funding continues, Tuchman still plans to pursue her summer research at UMBS .  In particular, she is excited by recent exploration of using plants harvested in wetlands restoration as biofuel.  This, she says overlaps nicely with the new Institute's mission.