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CampusUpdateCampusUpdate312 Freshmen Join Ranksof ESF StudentsESF welcomed a record freshman class of312 and 173 new transfer students for the2008-09 academic year.The freshman class includes studentsfrom 19 states and sets a record for ESFenrollment from out of state, with 21 percent of the class coming from outside NewYork. The class marks one of the highestpercentages of out-of-state students in the64-campus SUNY system.ESF received a record 1,545 applicationsfor the freshman class and accepted a recordlow 49 percent of those applicants. The College also received 643 applications fortransfer admission and accepted only 41percent of those applicants.The academic quality of the enteringclass has also approached record levels thisfall. Sixty-five percent of ESF’s enteringfreshmen were ranked in the top quartile oftheir high school class, and 25 percent wereranked in the top tenth. The average highschool GPA was just over 90. nESF Faculty, Staff Honored by ChancellorChristopher Nowak, Cheryl S. Doble and John TurbevilleThree ESF employees were honored by InterimChancellor John B. Clark for their service to the StateUniversity of New York.Associate Professor Cheryl S. Doble received theChancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service. Theaward recognizes the consistently superior service contributions of teaching faculty. Doble, a faculty memberin the Department of Landscape Architecture since 1993,specializes in community planning and design, citizenparticipation, and site planning and design graphics.She established the Center for Community DesignResearch (CCDR) within ESF’s Department of LandscapeArchitecture. The CCDR is an outreach program thatworks in partnership with communities and other4InsideESFacademic programs, to provide technical assistance,educational programs, and research projects that buildcommunity capacity to manage sustainable futures.Dr. Christopher Nowak, associate professor in theDepartment of Forest and Natural Resources Management, was honored with the Chancellor’s Award forExcellence in Teaching. This award honors those whoconsistently have demonstrated superb teaching at theundergraduate, graduate or professional level.Since joining the ESF community in 1998, Nowakhas provided a rigorous professional approach in theclassroom and field, facilitating a positive learningexperience for students and promoting intellectualdialogue. He regularly teaches both undergraduate andgraduate courses in forest science including forestecology and silviculture, Adirondack forest ecologyand dendrology, and forest vegetation management,as well as focused seminars in forest ecology.John Turbeville received the Chancellor’s Award forExcellence in Professional Service. The award recognizesconsistently superior professional achievement withinand beyond the position and those who serve as professional role models for a university system in the pursuitof excellence.Turbeville is coordinator of experiential learning andthe Academic Success Center and has been at ESF since2002. He was a driving force behind the establishmentof ESF’s new Academic Success Center that focuses ontutoring, academic guidance, and mentoring for undergraduate students. nPhoto top by Christopher McCarthy, LA ’11, photos bottom by Claire B. Dunn.ESF Professor Honoredfor Excellence inTeachingDr. Alexander Weir, ESFassociate professor in theDepartment of Environmental and Forest Biology,has been honored by aprofessional organizationfor excellence in teaching.Weir received theAlex Weir receives his award from Mary Berbee, chair ofMycological Society ofthe Mycological Society of America Distinctions Committee.America’s (MSA) William Photo courtesy of the Mycological Society of America H. Weston Jr. Award forExcellence in Teaching. The award is given annually to an outstanding teacher of mycology at the undergraduate and/or graduate levels.In one of the many supporting nomination letters, a formerstudent wrote, “(Weir) is not only passionate about mycology,he is dedicated to his students, he genuinely loves to teach, andhe creates a positively infectious atmosphere toward the studyof fungi and their relationships to ecosystem functioning.”The William H. Weston Jr. Award for Excellence in Teachingis named for the first president of the MSA, who was an inspirational teacher at Harvard University.Another ESF faculty member, Dr. Chun Wang, won the awardin 1990, making ESF one of only two colleges to have had morethan one faculty member so recognized in the past 20 years.Weir teaches mycology and diversity of plants. He is alsodirector of ESF’s Cranberry Lake Biological Station in theAdirondacks. nStudent ReceivesAcademic HonorDaniele Baker of Hollidaysburg, Pa., was honored with theSUNY Chancellor’s Award forStudent Excellence during anApril ceremony in Albany, N.Y.Baker received a Bachelor ofScience degree in environmentalbiology from ESF at its commencement ceremony in May.Baker was presented with heraward during a ceremony at the Empire State Convention Center,where she received a framed certificate and a medallion, which wasworn at commencement.Chancellor Award honorees excel both in academic achievementand in at least one of the following areas: leadership, athletics, community service, creative and performing arts, or career achievement.Baker was the student representative to the ESF Board ofTrustees, an orientation leader and mentor, and a member of theBaobob Society. She also worked on multiple research projects. nPhotos by Wendy P. OsborneNew Faces at ESFESF Names New Deanof Student Life andExperiential LearningDr. Cynthia Sedgwick has beenappointed dean of student life andexperiential learning at ESF.Sedgwick holds a Ph.D. in highereducation administration from theUniversity of Virginia as well as amaster of arts degree in human resources management fromGeorge Mason University and a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Hampton University.Sedgwick comes to ESF from SUNY Binghamton, where shewas associate dean for assessment and special programs in theDivision of Student Affairs. Previously, she served as associatedean for academic affairs and administration in the WatsonSchool of Engineering and Applied Science at Binghamton andas director of Career Services at the University of Connecticut.Sedgwick began her new position July 1.ESF Names New Directorof Information TechnologyYuming Tung was appointedESF’s new director of informationtechnology.Tung comes to ESF from Syracuse University, where he washead of Library Information Technology Services. Prior to joiningSU in 1999, he held positions asmanager of network and systems at LeMoyne College and as senior programmer/analyst at SUNY Upstate Medical University.Tung holds a master of science degree in computer systemsand information science and a master of library science in libraryand information science, both from Syracuse University, as wellas a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from ShanghaiCollege of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.Tung began his new position June 2.Governor Appoints New Trustees to ESF BoardGov. David Paterson appointed three new members to ESF’sboard of trustees.Matthew J. Marko, Vita DeMarchi, and Thomas C. Buckel Jr.have joined the volunteer 15-member board which providesdevelopment, support and oversight of the College.Marko, of Syracuse, is senior project manager with Denverbased CH2M Hill. DeMarchi, of Manlius, is president and chiefexecutive officer of Synapse Risk Management, LLC. Buckel, ofSyracuse, is a partner with Hancock & Estabrook, LLP.Jorge Barbosa, a senior environmental and forest biologymajor, will serve as the student representative to the board.Fall 2008 5

a“Life is full of ups and downs, and Ichallenge myself every day to acceptthe good of life and preserve andcherish it, but also the not-so-good,as a way to learn a lesson andmove on in the right direction.”Commencement 2008Life’s DetoursDon’t Deter Herby Claire B. DunnAfter Ana Maria Menezes’ country overruledher plans for a law career, ESF helped herfind another way to help the poor.As Ana Maria Menezes envisioned the life she was workingtoward, it included some specific scenes: Be a lawyer. Get aPh.D. from Duke or Berkeley. Work for the World Bank.Reality, however, did not play out that way. The educationalauthorities in her native Mozambique said, “No!” to a legalcareer and shunted her into science. The Fulbright scholarshipprogram said, “No!” to Duke and the University of California atBerkeley and directed her to a small school in Central NewYork, previously unheard-of by her. And days before she headedto Washington, D.C., to begin a consultancy with the WorldBank, her prospective employer said, “No!” and explained thatnepotism rules meant she could not be hired because she had arelative who worked there.But Menezes remained undeterred. She had learned to see abumpy journey in life as a way to search for a dream.In May, she crossed the stage at the Landmark Theatrein downtown Syracuse, Ph.D. in hand, on the next step of aprofessional journey that began in a poor country in southeastern Africa. Her desire to be a lawyer started there, whenshe was a 12-year-old student in a re-education camp whereshe and some schoolmates were sent because they were considered troublemakers.6InsideESFCommencement photos by John Faranact, photo top by Wendy P. OsborneHer current stop is Washington, D.C.,and a position with the United Nations’Food and Agricultural Organization,where she is searching for solutions to apotential global fish crisis.“I learned how to look at the past in apositive way and learned what couldAna Mariahave been done better,” she said a fewdays after receiving her doctorate inenvironmental and natural resources policy from ESF. “Life is full of upsand downs, and I challenge myself every day to accept the good of lifeand preserve and cherish it, but also the not-so-good, as a way to learn alesson and move on in the right direction.”At the request of the FAO, Menezes is doing work that grew out ofher doctoral dissertation: studying the connection between naturalresource policies and poverty-reduction strategies in developing countries. She will focus on artisanal fisheries.“People’s lives depend on artisanal fisheries. They have very littlechance to develop and to look for opportunities beyond their communities. All this is related to poverty,” she said. “In our country, less than 0.5percent of the artisanal fishers have a motorboat to go fishing. They goin a sailboat, or a small boat they power themselves. Some of them liveon less than 50 cents a day.”The questions, she said, are these: At what point are the national andlocal policies converging to reduce poverty? And are the policies beingimplemented properly?Menezes will also contribute to the FAO database, providing information about small-scale and commercial fisheries in Mozambique and otherAfrican nations, looking at factors that include employment, food fishproduction, fuel consumption and fish caught per ton of fuel. She willwork in collaboration with the World Bank’s PROFISH program, which aimsto promote effective fisheries strategies and policies both locally andglobally, and the WorldFish Center, which works internationally toresearch and improve small-scale fisheries and aquaculture.Menezes laughs now when she thinks about her initial reaction to theFulbright program’s interest in having her enroll at ESF. Fulbright officialscaught her off guard, contacting her after previously rejecting her application. Menezes wasn’t sure she wanted to do it. She was past her 40thbirthday and was reluctant to undertake the rigors of a Ph.D. program.“I said, ‘I’m not going to apply. I don’t want to do it.’ Then: ‘Well,when is the interview?’ They said, ‘Tomorrow.’”She went to the interview and insists it was the worst such meetingof her life.“I mixed English, Spanish, French, somePortuguese, you name it,” she said, leavingout only Italian, her fifth language.This time, the Fulbright program offeredher a scholarship. Menezes immediately sether sights on Duke or Berkeley. But the Fulbright program wanted her to come to ESF.A conversation with Dr. Richard Smardon,professor in ESF’s Department of Environmental Studies, convinced her ESF wasthe right choice. She intermingled herenvironmental policy studies with classesat the Maxwell School of Citizenshipand Public Affairs at neighboringMenezesSyracuse University.“Ana is unique, and I don’t think wehave seen many Ph.D. students like her,” Smardon said.“Ana has an inner sense of what is fair and what is not and will standup to anybody if she thinks someone has crossed the line. Some facultyand students alike have experienced this firsthand,” Smardon added.“She has a great sense of community and works tirelessly for the sake ofcommunity-building, whether it be cooking and arranging a social eventor mediating/initiating dialogue or developing new qualitative researchdesigns to access her research subjects back in Africa.”Growing up in Mozambique, emerging from childhood in the mid1970s, just as her country gained independence, Menezes dreamed ofbeing a lawyer. She had seen injustice firsthand at the re-educationcamp and she wanted to pursue a profession in which she could speakout for those whose voices are not heard.Her country had other ideas.“Unfortunately, when time to go to college came, the administratorsof educational services decided that I did not have the political fiber andpolitical vision they thought necessary to study law,” said Menezes. “Fortheir political prejudice, I was forced to enroll in the School of Agricultural Engineering.”Menezes found a niche helping communities by promoting ruraldevelopment and social justice.“It was not really my passion when I began my career. But I found Icould help represent these people by teaching them the best way to usetheir natural resources,” she said.Menezes researched the application of shrimp culture in Mozambiqueand led the nation’s Aquaculture Department. She pursued a master’sdegree at Auburn University, focusing on the effects of agricultural pesticides on marine life and intensive production systems for African tilapiaand catfish.She decided that teaching about resource management policy can bejust as beneficial to the underprivileged as a legal career.“I came to understand I could promote equity and economic andsocial justice by giving the power of what knowledge I have to ruralcommunities by teaching them their rights,the best practices of natural resource management and the power of collectiveaction,” she said. “I ended up in a fieldwhere I can have it all, where I still canpromote justice, continuously learn andteach such values. And not just be — butbecome something more.”Ana Maria Menezes participates in thecommencement weekend activities withESF faculty member Jack Manno andCollege President Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr.Photo by John FaranactFall 2008 7

AS THEYGROW,POLLUTIONSHRINKSStory and photos by Claire B. DunnFifty years of fuel leaks.Twenty-three thousand willows.Eight million dollars saved.“It doesn’t get any better than this,”says ESF’s Dr. Christopher Nowak.Nowak makes the statement as he weaves his way througha stand of graceful willows at the Army installation at Fort Drum,80 miles north of the ESF campus. It’s a blue-skied early summermorning, and the willows’ delicate leaves are backlit by a brilliantsun. The plants are healthy and growing fast, as willows areinclined to do.As they soak up the sun’s energy, they are also busy suckingcontaminants out of the ground, helping to clean up a 164,000gallon plume of fuel that has been spreading underneath theexpansive North Country military base since World War II.Nowak believes it’s the largest phytoremediation effort —the process of using plants to remediate contaminated soils andgroundwater — in North America.“The phytoremediation is actually the last step, the polishingof the system,” said Nowak, a professor in ESF’s Department ofForest and Natural Resources Management. “We’ve worked outhere for seven years.”The willows are part of an aggressive cleanup strategy toremediate groundwater contamination caused by fuel that leakedfrom the tank farm along Fort Drum’s “Gasoline Alley.” The military installation, home to the Army’s 10th Mountain Division —8InsideESFDonald J. Beevers, left, and ESF’s Dr. Christopher Nowak survey thewillows that are helping to clean up the groundwater at Fort Drum.Light Infantry, covers more than 107,000 acres. This year, thebase is marking its 100th year as a military training site.No one knows exactly when the leaks began — perhaps asearly as World War II — but they were discovered in 1988, whenthe petroleum, which had been spreading in an undergroundplume for many years, began to foul small creeks on the base.The plume has been flowing downhill under the Old SanitaryLandfill, which closed in the mid-1970s. It moved through thesandy soil left behind by the ancient Lake Iroquois, the forerunner of Lake Ontario, and showed up in groundwater thatsurfaced as creeks in low-lying areas. The creeks were turningrusty brown with precipitated iron and bacteria as the petroleumsurfaced in “seeps” that brought groundwater to the surface.Donald J. Beevers, the installation restoration project manager,who is employed with contractor Applied Services & InformationSystems at Fort Drum, said roughly 1 million has been spenton the remediation project. He estimated that constructing atreatment plant would have cost more than 8 million.The goal is to develop a phytoremediation model that can betailored for use at similar sites across the United States.“We want to transfer the technology,” Beevers said. “Thisisn’t the only Department of Defense landfill.”Said Nowak: “This is just one military base of many, and itwas clear that what we are doing here could be applied elsewhere. It’s tailored phytoremediation.”Nowak and his colleagues began with a small pilot plot,which expanded over the years to 2 acres. He has experimentedwith some 30 varieties of willow trees and shrubs to see whichones grow best.Fall 2008 9

As a silviculturist, Nowak’s specialty is the care and tending of treecommunities. Part of the challenge in this case was finding a way forthe willows to grow in the contaminated soil. He settled on plantingboxes, bottomless wooden frames filled with soil that containedenough nutrients for the young plants to establish themselves beforethe roots reached soil that was soggy with petroleum-laced water.It was a laborious task. His students lugged in enough soil to fillthe original 60 planting boxes. The expanded system has nearly 900planting boxes that were filled by contractors using a speciallydesigned machine to pump soil across the site.Now the landscape is dotted with monitoring wells and piezometersthat track the level of the water table.ESF is one of many partners in the project, which also involvesinstalling a new cap on the old landfill.Nowak said the willows are a cost-effective, environmentallyfriendly way to treat the contamination.You never knowwhen you’llstumble acrossa stumpie“Look, we’re getting sedges and cattail in here.They came for free and are contributing to thephytoremediation,” said Chris Nowak.“Photosynthesis drives the system. It’s a sun-driven system withtranspiration of water as the key,” he said. “Ecological engineeringprojects like this relinquish control to nature. Look, we’re gettingsedges and cattail in here. They came for free and are contributingto the phytoremediation.”There are also asters, goldenrod and several grasses thriving amongthe willows. Protected by fencing from foraging deer, the willows areleafy and densely planted. The biggest ones absorb five gallons ofwater per day. At the quarter-acre site of the pilot project 5,000 to10,000 gallons of water per day are pumped from the site by the willows. Without the willows, that water would flow into the creek.The willows do their work naturally. Uptake of water lowers thewater table and allows roots to grow. Root systems create a habitatthat invites the presence of bacteria and fungi that break downcontaminants; the plant uses some of th

Emory and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Monson, Mass. ‘We expect your support’ . Another ESF faculty member, Dr. Chun Wang, won the award in 1990, making